I Tri'd And Made A New Friend – Swimming In A Sea of Estrogen

As part of my effort to become more fit, I have joined Anytime Fitness in LaGrande, in addition to starting other activities on my own. Part of my membership involved meeting with a trainer (Summer), and she suggested I enter the ‘I Tri’d Triathlon’ in Baker City as a jumping off point. It was a short course, so I thought it sounded like a good idea. I may have been rethinking the whole “good idea” opinion halfway through the race. 🙂

The triathlon was last Saturday. I completed the swimming and bike portions of the race, but wasn’t able to do the run. I unexpectedly had a tooth extracted the Thursday before, and by the time I was done with the bike ride, my mouth was done and over with. At first I was pretty disappointed I didn’t finish, but after thinking about it I am thrilled that I was able to do it at all. I have been exercising regularly for just under a month.

In each wave. participants shared swimming lanes. I got to share lanes with Mary. She is a sweet little girl (I think she’s about 10-11), and I am so glad I met her.

Another thing I have done to help in my fitness endeavor was to join an exercise “support” group, called Team S.W.E.E.T. (Sexy/Smiling/Smart Women (who) Exercise Everyday Together). They are a group of women in Northeastern Oregon who support, cheer, exercise, and champion one another’s health, fitness, and exercise efforts. It is one of the best decisions I made. Not only do I get support from them, I got tons of suggestions and help for how to work through the transitions of the race (the points between swim to bike and bike to run). My experience would have been a total fail if not for the help of these ladies.

So back to Mary. Yeah, she’s a rock-star! Not only did she kick my butt swimming, she blew me away in the bike, as well! She is, quite frankly, awesome! Maybe I should mention that both her parents are Triathletes (her dad just qualified for the Kona Ironman, and he mom is attempting to go, as well).

Mary’s friend was not participating, so I gave her my camera and she took pictures for me during the race.