Are You Living It?

What a concept and a challenge, try a triathlon!  It all started two summers ago, sitting on the porch with a friend.  He thought we should train for a local sprint triathlon in the fall.  My response was “you’re crazy, you don’t run and I don’t swim”.  So off we blindly went, not quite sure but setting training schedules for all three sports.  I was able to shed some light on running techniques, pacing and trails while Joe was the swimming “expert” and very persistent on getting in the lake twice a week.  Biking took care of itself.

As I was very intimidated by large bodies of water, we swam near buoys in lengths of 1/8 mile legs and slowly progressed to 1/2 mile.  We ran three days per week, doing long slow runs, hills and intervals.  Biking was easy as we’d head out to the flats for an hour after work.

The anticipated race day finally comes!  Trepidation, intimidation mixed with exhilaration sum up our feelings as we start setting up on transitions areas.  Next comes separation anxiety as they announced the men would be starting 5 minutes before the women……but we had trained together the whole summer….I can’t do this by myself!

Off goes the gun and from there it was pure fun and challenge.  We both finished with huge smiles on our faces, addicted to this crazy thing they call triathlons.

Cyndi Schieber