On November 8th, my husband, a friend, and I competed in the HITS Lake Havasu City sprint triathlon. This was my second sprint triathlon, but it had been over 2 years since the last one. I wasn’t sure how I would do since my training wasn’t as intense as I would have liked and it was in a new location I had never been to. This was also the first time that I have ever worn a wet suit, let alone raced 750m in 68 degree water.

The race went far better than I had expected. As soon as I got in the water and got used to the temperature, it felt like any other open water race. The men took off first and the women started about 3 minutes behind. From years of swimming mid-distance races, I wasn’t intimidated by the 750m swim. No hesitation. I just put my head down, started going, and before I knew it the swim was over. My swim split was in the top 5 of all women in the event. All I could think was “I still got it!”

The biking portion was difficult, but not nearly as difficult as the previous sprint triathlon I had competed in. This time I had my new road bike (opposed to my heavy hybrid) and the race was only 12 miles (instead of 17 miles). I held it together pretty well, but definitely felt the need to amp up my training moving forward. I could see people flying by me and realized I probably didn’t have the best biking form as well. Much to learn, but a great starting point.

The run is always the hardest part for me. I have never been a runner. I typically tell people when they ask about my running, “I run backwards.” At least that was always my excuse back in my swimming days when they made us cross-train with long runs. However, despite my anti-running attitude I managed to maintain a 12 min/mile pace and walked a bit here and there. I’ve decided if I’m going to try and do any longer distances, I need to work on my running form and endurance the most of anything.

I consider this race the beginning of something new and my new-found goals: To run a marathon, complete an Ironman, and continue to pursue my dream and goal of skydiving from the edge of space. Let the training begin!