...yes, this is something very different.
Triathlon details
Type: Sprint
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego, CA
Swim: 1/4 mile
Bike: 10 miles
Run: 3.2 miles
Now, you all might be wondering: why is she writing about a triathlon? What does this have to do with hiking and trails and mountains and all this? And the answer is: nothing...
So why am I writing about it anyway? Because I want to show you that you can do whatever you set your mind to.
People that know me, know that I hate running. Yet I keep signing up for different 5K and 10K races. I am not actually sure why. Maybe I am trying to prove something to myself. Maybe deep down I want to like running. Maybe this is my inner self telling me that this is the person I want to be... so when my friend Emmi contacted me last year and asked if I wanted to do a Sprint Triathlon, I naturally said yes.
However, my journey towards the event wasn't that simple. At the time, I hadn't known Emmi very well. I had met her a couple of times and really liked her, but then she got busy as she got married (Congratulations, my friend!). So I didn't see her for a while. Even after we had signed up for the event and were texting about training together it just never seemed to work out.
In my head it was clear: I will never train for this on my own! And if I am not training for this, then I shouldn't do this. So I decided to go visit a friend instead and booked a flight for the weekend of the triathlon. I just had to figure out how to tell Emmi about it (because she had already started training some and was VERY excited and I didn't want to break her heart).
As I waited to tell her, we ended up meeting up for training. And we met up again and again (mostly for swimming), but it was actually fun. Now that I had someone to do it with me doubt started creeping in. Did I make the wrong decision? Should I actually do the race? I decided to speak with the friend I was going to visit and funny enough, it turned out she had done the event a few years ago herself. So after she gave me some tips, we decided to move our visit so I could actually attend the triathlon.
But dang, now there was not much time to train left and it got scary! How would I be able to do this race? I had only been swimming a few times, no bike rides or runs yet... well... I decided to make the best of it. I added some running and biking into the last couple of weeks I had left and thought: well, in the worst case I have to walk in the race. What bad can happen?!
I was scared, extremely unprepared (at least I had practiced some open ocean swims beforehand) and had so many doubts about all the things I had done wrong in the last weeks. However, I did it. I will be honest: the swim was kinda weird. Seaweed was growing up almost all the way to the surface, I couldn't see well through my smeared goggles, I can't swim straight for my life and soon the wave of swimmers behind me started catching up. I kept swimming though and eventually made it back to shore. Biking was much easier. In fact, it was a lot of fun (I forgot how much I like biking). I finished my bike ride much faster than I had anticipated. But then... the run. My calves were tight and the legs felt heavy. There was a bit of walking involved as well. But after the first lap I knew there wasn't much left and I was so close to finishing. So I ignored the pain as much as I could and somehow managed to finish.
As soon as I was through the finish line all the pain was forgotten. In fact I felt great! I love that I did this and I don't care that I was not prepared. In fact, now I can use my results (which were actually much better than I had hoped) for the next one (yes, I already signed up) to see the progress I can make when I actually train!
Again, why am I telling you this? Sometimes we are not prepared. And sometimes things can be scary. But think about the worst that can happen. In most cases the worst outcome is still not a bad outcome. So why not risk something more often and go for the scary. If we always wait until we are prepared, we might never do it.
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