And You're Going To Do A Triathlon?

The month of May feels like it was eons ago. Graduating and all, road tripping with Fumie, climbing with friends in Joe's Valley and moving up to Sunrise.

The month of May also brought out the best of my adventurous impulsive nature. I have wanted to do a triathlon for over a year now. Nelly and I tried. Unsuccessfully, however. We never even registered. So this time, with or without support I was going to do it. Apparently with or without training or preparation as well.

The month of June found me working on the farm 40+ hours a week. Cross training is what I was calling it.

The month of June is one of the busiest on the farm, but I some how managed to find time to train. With the help of Avana and Kate, we managed to run a couple times a week in preparation.

The first time I ran with Kate, I hadn't run in months, shoot, maybe a year. And after clearly being fatigued by our 1 mile run, she says, "And you're going to do a triathlon?!" Haaaaa... Yeahh. I thought. What have I gotten myself into?

This wasn't the first rude awakening. The next came when Patrick and I decided to ride the mountain bike section in Lory State Park. I was wiped out! The idea of swimming 1/2 mile before and running a 8k after seemed not just ungodly, but purely demonic. What type of psychos do these things to their bodies?! After a couple breathes, I thought, it's gunna be ok, I have THREE months to train.

My journal tells the story well of how the next three months passed. There ISN'T a single entry for the month of June. The month of July. Or the month of August. Granted most of my free time has gone to other things.. cough cough.. blogging... I think the lack of journal entries is largely do to the nature of summer on a farm.

Before I knew it, Sunrise was preparing for Victor and Helana's wedding, August 28th. The triathlon was the 29th. Where did August go? I still hadn't gone on a single run comparable to 5 miles and I have NEVER swam 1/2 mile in my life.

I was a bit of a Debbie Downer all day at work on Friday. Filled with nerves and anxiety. I just want to finish, I thought to myself. Just to see if I can do it.

Saturday was the wedding. I was pumping my tires and lubing my chain moments before slipping into my dress, pinning my hair and trying to remember how to put mascara on.

Here is my favorite pic from the wedding. These stunning folks were the best cheer leaders I could ask for. It really meant the world to have them there.


After a beautiful wedding and an evening of dancing, Patrick and I left Sunrise early Sunday morning. To our delight, on the way to Lory State Park we were blessed with a good omen. A beautiful elk stood powerful and mighty. He peacefully grazed in our meadows, wishing us luck and endurance.

Patrick and I swam, biked and ran our hearts out with overflowing excitement and zeal. I was shooting to finish within the time frame of the event, 4:30 hours. Not going for the gold as Micha was telling me, just shooting to finish. I said, sure, I don't care about setting my standards low on this one, I just want to cross the finish line.




It was to my great excitement and surprise, that I actually won, 1st place in my age group. 20-24 year old women. Ok, Ok. I will confess, there were only 2 in my category, BUT, to me greater surprise, out of ALL the women first timers, I placed 2nd! Two hours and thirty six minutes. 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile mountain bike ride, 5 mile trail run.

All that farming cross training finally paid off.

Thanks again to Kate, Alisha, Avana and Dave for coming out. It meant a lot to have my farm family out there.