5. Emily's awesome 'biathlon'
After 10 hours sleep last night I can finally drum up the energy to tell you how AWESOME (word used for Max's amusement) my 'biathlon' was!
I was dragged into doing it by my friend Kristin. I was supposed to only do the cycle, with my other friend, Sylvie, doing the run and someone else the swim. But after no one volunteered to do the swim, I consented to do it providing we agreed in advance that the time was NOT important and we were just doing it for fun! I'm not the fastest swimmer, I can't even do front crawl! But Kristin assured me it was only about 200m - easy stuff!
Three days before the big day I found out the swim was half a mile. Bit of a shock. Four times the distance I thought, and in open water, which I'd never done before! (I did rush straight to the pool to check I could actually swim that far without drowning - I could, just.)
Far and away the worst part of the day was getting up at 4.45am (Max exaggerating again with the 4.30 ;-) ). I felt sick and dizzy and tired and scared and resentful and... it didn't help that I had already gone through all these emotions in my disturbed sleep throughout the night!
However the atmosphere at the race start was fantastic. In true American style we'd had to practise our mantras ("I am an excellent swimmer/cyclist/runner") and words of encouragement ("You go girlfriend!") in preparation for the race! They also blasted out a recording of the 'Star-spangled banner', everyone standing gazing misty eyed at the flag at the water's edge. We Brits were smirking cynically - miserable ba*tards!
But tackiness aside, it was quite an awe-inspiring race. It is an all-women event, to raise money for breast cancer. These two factors combined make it a lot less competitive and a lot more supportive than a regular triathlon. The athletes are made up of a wide variety of women of vastly differing abilities - cancer survivors, those who have lost people to cancer, pro athletes and women who are just inspired to challenge themselves by taking part. Kristin assured me from the beginning that I wouldn't feel out of place, but it wasn't until I arrived on the day that I saw what she meant! There were some enormous ladies squeezed into wetsuits standing next to ripped, flat-chested pro triathletes in expensive tri-suits. I immediately felt pretty slim and pretty fit!
Most of my early-morning worries faded just imagining what an enormous challenge this event might be for some of the other participants. Some women had only just learned to swim in order to take part, some were so obese that running must have been practically impossible and some were even missing limbs. I realised I didn't need to worry about my lack of training as the race obviously wasn't about speed and high-performance. The 'winners' of this race were the ones who completed it when they didn't think they could, not those who completed it in the fastest time.
That said, I was pretty chuffed with my and Sylvie's results! We came 1st in the 'friends relay' section and our overall position was in the top half. We really didn't 'train' or participate competitively - the results were a bonus! Now I realise that if I'd just increased my swim time by 2 minutes and my cycle by 5 then our position would have been quite a lot higher!! Obviously, my competitive streak is now ignited and next year I'll be doing it by myself and pushing the fatties out of the way!
We've just worked out that if you want to leave a comment you can either check the 'anonymous' box - make sure you leave your name within the comment - or check 'other' and then just put your name (ie emilywalling) in the 'name' box (you don't need to put a web page). We want comments!!!
I was dragged into doing it by my friend Kristin. I was supposed to only do the cycle, with my other friend, Sylvie, doing the run and someone else the swim. But after no one volunteered to do the swim, I consented to do it providing we agreed in advance that the time was NOT important and we were just doing it for fun! I'm not the fastest swimmer, I can't even do front crawl! But Kristin assured me it was only about 200m - easy stuff!
Three days before the big day I found out the swim was half a mile. Bit of a shock. Four times the distance I thought, and in open water, which I'd never done before! (I did rush straight to the pool to check I could actually swim that far without drowning - I could, just.)
Far and away the worst part of the day was getting up at 4.45am (Max exaggerating again with the 4.30 ;-) ). I felt sick and dizzy and tired and scared and resentful and... it didn't help that I had already gone through all these emotions in my disturbed sleep throughout the night!
However the atmosphere at the race start was fantastic. In true American style we'd had to practise our mantras ("I am an excellent swimmer/cyclist/runner") and words of encouragement ("You go girlfriend!") in preparation for the race! They also blasted out a recording of the 'Star-spangled banner', everyone standing gazing misty eyed at the flag at the water's edge. We Brits were smirking cynically - miserable ba*tards!
But tackiness aside, it was quite an awe-inspiring race. It is an all-women event, to raise money for breast cancer. These two factors combined make it a lot less competitive and a lot more supportive than a regular triathlon. The athletes are made up of a wide variety of women of vastly differing abilities - cancer survivors, those who have lost people to cancer, pro athletes and women who are just inspired to challenge themselves by taking part. Kristin assured me from the beginning that I wouldn't feel out of place, but it wasn't until I arrived on the day that I saw what she meant! There were some enormous ladies squeezed into wetsuits standing next to ripped, flat-chested pro triathletes in expensive tri-suits. I immediately felt pretty slim and pretty fit!
Most of my early-morning worries faded just imagining what an enormous challenge this event might be for some of the other participants. Some women had only just learned to swim in order to take part, some were so obese that running must have been practically impossible and some were even missing limbs. I realised I didn't need to worry about my lack of training as the race obviously wasn't about speed and high-performance. The 'winners' of this race were the ones who completed it when they didn't think they could, not those who completed it in the fastest time.
That said, I was pretty chuffed with my and Sylvie's results! We came 1st in the 'friends relay' section and our overall position was in the top half. We really didn't 'train' or participate competitively - the results were a bonus! Now I realise that if I'd just increased my swim time by 2 minutes and my cycle by 5 then our position would have been quite a lot higher!! Obviously, my competitive streak is now ignited and next year I'll be doing it by myself and pushing the fatties out of the way!
We've just worked out that if you want to leave a comment you can either check the 'anonymous' box - make sure you leave your name within the comment - or check 'other' and then just put your name (ie emilywalling) in the 'name' box (you don't need to put a web page). We want comments!!!
posted by Team Tyrie at 1:10 PM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
testing testing
Great work Em. Getting out and into it is awesome.
Post a Comment
<< Home