Thursday, June 12, 2008

My First Triathlon!


I did it! I completed my first triathlon in 1:51 minutes. Although I didn't have any set expectations of my time I was happy with the result. My friend Leilani and I got the exact same time and this is her 7th Danskin! My swim took longer than in training, I had been swimming in 19 minutes and the race took 23. The bike was 44 minutes and I had been averaging about 50 minutes in training, yay! The run sucked--it was difficult and I was very fatigued at that point. We had been up since 4:00am, too. The women who I did it with are ROCKSTARS! The women in the picture with me are the Lightfoot Ladies, honoring Ms. Lightfoot who died of Cancer--Alli's mom's friend. This was Alli's 10th YEAR in a row to do the Danskin! This would have been Leilani's 9th year but she couldn't do it the 2 years she was pregnant--so year 7 it was. Barbara didn't know how to swim but got lessons for the Danskin and did it 4 years ago for the first time, she's done it every year since and rocks the house. An average swim takes anywhere from 20-15 minutes and Barb's first year was 55 minutes, now she is around 40 minutes and that girl has GUTS! Barb is inspirational to people she doesn't even know--Leilani told the story of Barb in the dance class she teaches and a person came up to her after class and said she felt like she was speaking to her--that she wants to do a triathlon and Barb's story really hit home! People have asked me if I am going to do it again and the answer is HECK YES! It was challenging but now I feel a since of accomplishment and empowerment. Finn was so proud to see Mommy run across the finish line! I had so many friends and family supporting me, thank you sooooo much!


2 comments:

david santos said...

Excellent!

MW said...

Way to go, Joelle!!!
Glad to hear all went well.
Congrats!