Small Feats

In high school I wasn't much of an athlete. I think my game high in basketball was 4 points in junior high. With my lack of depth perception volleyball was done. I gave up on track, let alone even attempting cross country. Run three miles? Was Mr. Reagan out of his mind? These little legs didn't want to do that. So I stuck to cheerleading and dance. Much more enjoyable. But in the years immediately following high school, I decided I'd dabble in running. I started with one-mile jaunts, because that's about all I could do at one time. We had a little gang of girls that ran the "med school loop" around Creighton's campus a couple times a week. Then these 5K's started popping up all over the place. Five "K"? What's a K? I don't use the metric system, how am I supposed to know what a 5K is? Welcome to 'murica! But I quickly found out. I ran several 5K's over the course of college, and I really enjoyed them. Three mile runs really weren't that bad, especially when you had a buddy to run them with. Turns out Mr. Reagan was right... I really could have run cross country. Sorry I'm 8 years too late.

Anyway, each summer in the last few years I've been one-upping myself.
In the summer of 2008, I ran a 5K.
In the summer of 2009, I ran a 10K.
In the summer of 2010, I ran a half marathon.

And this summer I'm going to complete a triathlon. Granted, it's a sprint triathlon, but I'm gonna do it nonetheless. And it's the Omaha Women's Tri, so there are no big sweaty boys to intimidate me. Only big sweaty girls.

What does a Sprint triathlon consist of? It's a 750 meter swim (half mile), 20K bike (12.4 miles), and 5K run (3.1 miles). I think I can do it. Without dying.

A couple months ago a few friends and I decided we'd give the Omaha Women's Triathlon a try. Actually, Kate really wanted to try it and I thought it would be a good challenge. We've been trying to recruit friends to do it since then, and most of them just look at us like we asked them in French. Turns out, I don't even know how to do that.

So we've been doing this 20-week training program to get us going. I can do the running and the biking with no problem, but the swimming has been quite a challenge for me. Don't get me wrong, I was a little fish growing up--spending endless summer days at the pool. But swimming laps is something entirely different. I'm on the fifth week of the training program, and today I finally (FINALLY!) can swim 75 meters without stopping. That's a down-back-down, in my language. (I had to ask Kate several times how far a lap was.) And I did it twice! I know that's not a huge accomplishment to many people, but considering my 25 meter max a month ago, I'd say that's not too bad. Now I just have to multiply it by 10 and I'm good!

I might need some water wings.