I am Iron Girl! Mastering the Swim

Sunday I finished one of my most difficult athletic events EVER. It was harder than 6 games of soccer in a row. It was harder than my half marathon. It was hard. But I can officially say I am an Iron Girl.

Yesterday, I competed with over 1000 women in the Atlanta Iron Girl sprint triathlon. We swam 1/3 mile (600 meters), biked 19 miles, and run 5K. For my fist triathlon, it was pretty dramatic.It took place at the beautiful Lake Lanier Islands Resort. It was so nice, we’ll most definitely have to go back for a non-event weekend.

My age group (18-24) was the last wave to begin. We were all given color-coded swim caps for our age group, so we looked like a rainbow all lined up by the water. The event started at 7am, but my wave didn’t go till 7:40, so I had almost an hour to work myself up on the shore. By the time my group go into the water, I was visibly shaking. At first I thought it was because the wind and water were cold, but as I was adjusting my goggle, I realized it was because I was so flipping nervous.

The swim didn’t go as planned. I couldn’t get my groove early on and my breathing was thrown off by all the people swimming around me causing waves and kicking water in my face. My goggled started fogging up/filling with water, so I ended up swimming the whole race with my head above water. Also, when I tried getting in the groove of swimming like I do in the YMCA pool, the combo of waves/murky water freaked me out.

I got to the halfway point where there were boats and kayaks to help people who needed a break. You could hold on to one of them as long as you didn’t move forward. As I was heading back to the swim finish, I kept hearing whistling and yelling. Finally a boat, yes a boat, wooshed past me. It was pretty hard swimming in the wake of that. However, I soon realized the screaming was a women freaking the heck out. She was flailing around shouting, “I can’t breathe. Please help me! I can’t breathe.”

What a scary way to start your first triathlon! A man in the boat kept trying to throw a buoy out to her, but she missed it every time, and even went under a few times. I wondered if I should try to swim over to her to help her get the buoy. It scared the bejesus out of me. They ended up pulling her into the boat. I hope she ended up ok. It sure did startle me to hear someone screaming, so afraid of drowning. Whew.

Water is scary, you guys. Be safe! Tomorrow–the crazy bike! Spoiler: There was blood!

Thursday

Today…

Five Minutes till Bomb Time

Have you ever seen the old, old version on War of the Worlds? Not the Tom Cruise one, but the one from 1953! While the weird robot aliens are attacking, the army is preparing to attack, and a guy comes over the intercom at an army base and says, “Five minutes till bomb time!” My mom and I crack up every time we hear it because… Did they really say “bomb time” back then? Ha ha ha!

Anyway, the point of this post is that I’m only FIVE whole days away from my triathlon! Can you believe it? I feel really underprepared, same as with my half marathon last year. It’s too late to turn back now. (Well, it was actually too late the minute I signed up because it’s non-refundable.) I hope I have a good experience and want to do more tris.

I got the race packet, and there is SO MUCH information. The transition area opens at 4:30am on Sunday, but my wave doesn’t start until 7:40. Yikes. It’s going to be a loooooooong morning. I think a humongous nap will be in order Sunday afternoon. I may just never wake up.

The part I’m most nervous about (besides forgetting something at the transitions) is the bike. I run all the time and have been swimming a good amount, but haven’t trained as well for the bike. You think I would have been all over that since it’s almost 20 miles… the longest leg of the race, but apparently I just wasn’t up to it. That, and heading to Nebraska for the weekend really threw off my training plan. The hours at my new job are still really long, so training in the evenings is hard. And getting up super-early to swim or run is also pretty difficult.

Tonight I’m heading to swim the tri length (maybe more?) and then blow off some steam at one of my favorite classes–boxing!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Graduation and Nebraska

This weekend was a whirlwind of a trip. My mom and I left Atlanta for Nebraska on Friday morning. It was my first ride on MARTA, the Atlanta public transportation train. It was a bumpy and smelly ride, but not too bad overall. After a moderately bumpy flight from Atlanta to Omaha, we met Patrick–the graduate!–at the airport. From there, we stopped into the hotel to check in and put our stuff down for a minute.

Mom and Patch

From there we headed to Cheddar’s for lunch with Patrick’s dad as our waiter! It was a great surprise, and the food was pretty good, too. I had the edamame appetizer with a side of steamed broccoli for lunch. Delicious. That night we met one of mom’s lifelong friends, Connie. She and my mom grew up together, lived across the street form each other, and went to school together until my mom moved away!

Mom and Connie

Saturday was graduation day. Mom and I had breakfast and then headed to Target to pick up warmer clothes because it was a little chillier in Omaha than in Tennessee or Atlanta. After that, mom, Patrick, and I headed out to drive around the city. My mom showed us all the houses she grew up in, and the houses we lived in when we all lived here. It was really cool to reminisce and see where my mom grew up.

For lunch, I stopped by Whole Foods and grabbed a delicious salad, a yogurt, and a Green machine smoothie. After all I ate the day before, I needed a cleansing meal! From there we headed to Patrick’s graduation. It was held at the church that also runs his school.

The ceremony was lovely. Patrick was the only graduating senior, so he got all the attention! He sang a song and gave a speech, both of which were great. I probably cried more than mom did. Afterward, there was a little reception with lots of tasty food. And I ate WAY too many sweets, as is typical for me.

That night we walked around Omaha’s market district with Patrick and his dad. It’s a pretty cool city, but WAY smaller than Atlanta. It was really weird for me. I don’t know why. The city is nice, though. The streets are clean, the landscaping nice, and there’s just so much land. Everything’s so spread out.

At the Antique Shop

On Sunday, we got up early for a family breakfast at the hotel for Mothers Day. After that we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Atlanta. It felt like an eternity, but we finally made it home. It was a great weekend. I hope everyone else’s was spent with people they love.