First the swim. My wave is at 8:20.

It’s been a cooler spring this year and the water temp was 67 degrees. Quite chilly. I have to spend a few minutes getting used to the temp to calm the hyperventilation.

This is the pic taken when my wave started. Yes, I am in this picture, toward the back. My wave was the 40+ women. You have to swim around 3 orange buoys (the 1st one is not in this picture).

The swim wasn’t bad until you start getting out in the river and the current picks up–it really throws you off when swimming away from and back to the beach.

(Again this year, not the best quality pics. I have to do something about my cameraman.)

I loathe to post this picture as I don’t have that “triathlon” body (yet), but I will tell you this. There were plenty of people my size and bigger. And women bigger than me who finished the swim well before me. (But I beat several of them on the run-ha!)

So I run out of the swim (gasping like a guppy) and into ….

T1 or transition 1, where the bikes are parked. You dry off (maybe), throw on shoes, a shirt (maybe), glasses (in my case), and run out with the bike and hop on the road. This area is a big deal to get in and out of quickly. Really, really good athletes with great gear do it in 20 -30 seconds. Me–not so much.  That’s me in the red circle fumbling with shoes after fumbling with my blue and black jacket.

On to the bike ride, 2 and 1/4 trips around the Rock about 12 miles. Anyone whose ridden here knows how pleasant and easy it is to bike around the island.

Reg wasn’t as quick with the camera on the bike. This is the best we got.

After you finish the bike, you go into another transition area, rack your bike, and run out for the 3.1 (5k) run. I really don’t think I did bad at all on the run. I wasn’t running at the pace of the several high school kids who passed me (yea, yea, rub it in), but I was running when others were walking. That’s me in the pink/orange actually passing someone!

OK so 2 hours and 20 minutes after the start of the race, I power across the finish line. Again, miscommunication with the camera crew has left me without THAT picture. But here I am in the parking lot after all is done and I’ve had a piece of pizza and more electrolytes.  Still standing upright (actually I feel good) and smiling.

Now to home to spend the rest of the day grazing, sleeping and talking on the phone to well-wishers.

My point is, if there is one, be selective about your reader subscriptions. Don’t be afraid to add, but don’t be afraid to delete to keep a manageable list. I install the Google Reader Watcher add-on if using Firefox/Flock/etc. It’s cool, it let me know how many unread feed posts I have to read. A little nagging doesn’t hurt, at least that’s what I tell my family when I’m not finished.

But what’s up with looking at your Trends in Google Reader? It’s an option on the left side of the bar. I don’t care how many times I starred something. Is there really a reason for this…other than Google secretely tracking all these stats for everyone and aggregating them for their own research?

Except dance!

School started Tuesday, they settled in their classes, and I have 6 UNINTERRUPTED hours I can put in quality work in my online businesses. YEA BOY!

So I took a little break from my started a serious diligent schedule to write this and do my dance.

Now back to work.

P.S. Just becuase I am working from home does not make me automatically available for anything! And if you call before 2, don’t expect an answer. Cheers!

I finished my first triathlon, on August 10, the day before my 40th birthday. YEEEAAA!!!!!

Here I am about an hour later. Still smiling even!

I have a friend who writes a triathlon blog ask me to write an account of my first tri. If you want gory details they are below.

Where are the other pictures you ask? Well, let’s just say Reggie is very lucky that we have kids and that they need to have a father. I’ll actually have pictures for the next one I do.

Big Girls Tri
I started training last June. And I was slow. Let me rephrase: S-L-O-W: a slow swimmer, a slow runner, a slow bicyclist. OK time to evaluate–let me make my goal to just finish the whole triathlon–at any speed. I decided to concentrate on 2 things: good technique and more endurance. It took a while but I got into a good rhythm of training 5 to 6 days a week (swim 2x, run 3x, bike 1x, strength 2x). I read books, participated on websites, and solicited coaching from high school coaches and YMCA instructors.

By the time summer rolled around, I could really see improvement in my speed and stamina. Not great jumps, but definite improvement. So I register for a tri that occurs the day before my 40th birthday in August and am determined to be ready.

Race Day
First challenge: getting the family up to leave at 4:30am to drive 2 hours to the race site. Strategy: have the kids go to bed in their clothes, pack a picnic breakfast. Strategy is successful.

We get to the race site and I check in. I had to register in the “Athena” category–women over 165 lb. Yea, thanks–please call attention to weightiness. Whatever. This just lets me know, there are more than a few of us big girls who are starting out and we all start somewhere.

I set up my transition spot and concentrate on not getting nervous. Strategy: do not compare self with the more muscled bodies, the fancier bikes, the expensive wet suits. Strategy is dubious. I catch myself thinking about scouring eBay tonight for a better bike.

Finally after pacing and chatting with family, my wave, all Sprint females, starts. Amazingly I am not nervous at all. Strategy: do at least 1 open water swim. I did 4 and I totally know what to expect and how to deal with it. And I start in the back, so I don’t get kicked. The swim it’s still a bit of work for me. By the time I get to the 1st buoy I’m thinking, boy this took a long time, please don’t let me get embarrassed by getting towed to shore. Strategy: keep stroking and stop sighting so often, go 10 strokes. Before I know it I’m close to the beach.

Out of the water and into transition. Strategy–take my time in the trans area and have a gel bar (as advised by one of my coaches). I didn’t like that strategy–I’m already slow. I got the bike down and started going.

The bike ride was killer–there were several, like a million, rolling hills. Was this someone’s idea of funny? Note to self: train on hills, duh. At the top of each hill, I have slowed to a crawl. But I’m determined not to get off, ever. And someone is always cheering me on–as they pass me. I chomp an energy bar and keep going pedaling.

The Slow and The Furious
By the time I get back to transition and dismount, I feel my thigh muscles twitching and think “I absolutely, positively do NOT want to run”. Strategy: think about how many people I told I was going to do this and how I am going to feel if I have to say I didn’t finish. I change into running shoes (taking way too long), swig some water and run out the chute.

OK ‘run’ might be an exaggeration. Shuffle was more like it. It takes me nearly a mile before I can feel my muscles transition from pedaling hills to running, but then I actually feel a mini-surge of power and can actually pick up my feet. Note to self: my first serious triath investment, high-quality sport bra, is so worth it for the ‘robust’ woman.

Just as with bike ride, several people–who are on the return leg of the run–cheer me on as they pass. And so do several people who are passing me in my direction. Do I let the 60 year old running past me dishearten me? Yes! But I keep running and think maybe if I keep this up, maybe I too can run at a brisk pace by the time I hit 60. To be completely forthright, I did take 2 walking breaks which I kept to 60 seconds. Not good for my time, but wonders for my energy and mental state.

Of course, as you start nearing the finish line, there is no stopping. Too many people can see you, but who are cheering you on, even for the back-of-the-packers like me. Finally I cross, thrilled that I actually did this thing! Thrilled that I can finally stop now! Not thrilled, but grateful that my super supportive husband makes me continue to walk and does not let me sit down. This was quite an accomplishment–but I think I have it out of my system now, thank you very much. I spend the remainder of yesterday alternately eating and napping.

I write this the morning after and I don’t feel too bad at all.  My shoulders are a little stiff, but I feel good. It was a good experience and I fulfilled my goal. I rock!

Then I check my times on the Website. Yea, I am slow, with a capital S. I finished in 2 h 05 m. I am 190th of 192 people. And 191 and 192 didn’t finish the race! OK, I know–not the point. The point was to finish and I did and am so proud and my family and friends are too. And I lost 15 pounds since last year and 1 dress size and I feel great. So I am an all-around winner.

But I really think I could get my swim time down with more work on my stroke. And I can certainly shorten my transition time a lot. I wonder if there’s another tri in my area, maybe in about a month….

PS: I put my husband in charge of pictures–I had enough other stuff to think about. He picked up a camera he hadn’t really worked with. Long story short: I have NO pictures of my big day except one my daughter took with my phone. I am DISTRAUGHT. If he weren’t so VERY supportive and so very sorry, he would have been sleeping on the couch for a long time. Note to self: test the camera along with all the other equipment.