This weekend I ran in my third sprint triathlon.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and my first two thoughts were: “this is crazy” and “this is awesome.” Love a physical challenge! Here are a few lessons learned.

Lesson #1: we got out there too early. We stood on a windy beach with no shirts and temps in the high 50′s for 35 minutes. We were shaking before we got into the water.

Lesson #2: the ocean is not a pool. The waves were about six feet. Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t cancel the swim leg. Barely made it out to the buoy.

Lesson #3: the race is won or lost during training. We didn’t train for the swim segment. Hadn’t swum in a month. Long story short, we didn’t finish the swim. Disappointed, but beats drowning! Parker was shaking. Makes me even more proud of him for doing the swim last year!
I feel like I let us down because I didn’t train us as consistently and intensively as I needed to.

Lesson #4: keep on keeping on. We didn’t make it to the last buoy on the swim, but we weren’t about to quit. Really proud of Parker for digging deep and finishing the bike and run segments. It took the entire bike ride for him to warm up!

Lesson #5: finish strong. We actually bettered last year’s time on the run segment. We kicked it at the end even though we were off the official clock.

Lesson #6: there is always next year. The ocean got the better of us this year. And there is part of me that is tempted to do a lake triathlon next. But we aren’t going to give the ocean the last word.

Lesson #7: celebrate the effort. Our post race tradition is get get donuts from Fractured Prune. The digestive pleasure is worth the muscular pain. Those donuts heal all wounds.