Racing: My Second Love

Coming out of the water at the Southern Hills Triathlon 2012

I love racing. I first discovered my love of racing when I joined my high school swim team. I loved standing on the blocks sizing up my competition, waiting for the gun to go off, diving in, taking a quick peak to see where everyone else was compared to me. After I quite swimming I really missed those times. Some point during college I discovered triathlons. It wasn't until the year after I finished by undergrad that I got balls to finally sign up for one.

Finally finishing the Southern Hills Triathlon

After moths of searching I finally found a triathlon close to where we were living in South Dakota, the Southern Hills Triathlon. It took me another month to get the guts to sign up. When I signed up I vowed that I would do some real training. Haha, yup I thought I would magically change get my butt off the couch and do some running and biking. The swimming part was easy, I have always been drawn to water. Training for the bike leg was something I thought I didn't need to do. Apparently I thought my mountain bike and I were invincible. Running, oh running how I uh love you. I have always wanted to be a runner, but knew absolutely nothing about it. So all this to say I swan a bunch, biked none, and ran maybe twice. The time for the race finally came and it just so happened to coincide with our move to Colorado. So we packed up everything we owned and drove to our friends lake house where the race was. The next day we got up took the boat across the lake and I raced in my very first triathlon. The result was mountain bikes are not good at going fast, I suck at running, rock at swimming, and fell in love with the sport.

Fast forward to this summer, a year later, and I am living in the home of triathlons. If I wanted to I could probably do a triathlon every weekend during the summer and have to drive less than 5 miles. This summer I have done two weekly race series. I started with the Dash N Dine a Tuesday night 5k followed by yummy food. I competed in the last 3 and got to race with some of the best runners out there, think 15 minute 5K. The next series was the Stroke and Stride, an aquathon. Every Thursday I have been swimming a 750  in the Boulder Reservoir and then running a 5k. I have been struggling with this race every week, until tonight. I finally had a good swim and run.

For the first time ever I ran the entire 5k. No walking for me. Say what. Yup I finally got my brain to shut up and let me run the whole time. I felt an amazing high the whole run. I have finally gotten that excitement from swimming back. I can't wait to attack the Southern Hills Triathlon for a second time in a few weeks.