My new reason to exercise...

Most of you probably know by now that I am very involved in training for Triathlons. If not, here is the scoop, this is my third season training and I absolutely love it. It all started by a friend mentioning that she was training for a race and I told her I always wanted to do something like that. She asked "What is stopping you?" I think I just stared at her, because I really didn't have a reason. I loved swimming in high school, had a bike I could train on and had a pair of running shoes to put on my feet. So really there was no reason for why I wasn't doing it. So I said "why not?"

The summer of 2007, Brian was on a patrol and the boys and I were heading to Ohio by ourselves. Luck would have it, that my brother-in-law, Jeff, was going to be there at the same time and was participating in the Cleveland Triathlon. Now, I was hoping to start on a smaller scale, but what better way to start that to have someone be there to walk me through everything. It took a matter of minutes to talk myself into it. I had Jeff to help me prepare for the race and I had the Guises there to watch the boys and my sister, Angela, was willing to dust off her bike and allow me to use it while I was in Ohio.

Well, that was just the beginning. I did the Cleveland Triathlon in August and then completed the Tri Turtle Tri (back in Washington) in September. The following summer, we headed back to Ohio, instead of the Cleveland Triathlon, I participated in the Lorain Triathlon where I placed third in my age group. That was a MAJOR BOOST to my ego and confidence. (still not sure how I accomplished that, but who cares?) I again completed the Tri Turtle Tri at the end of the summer.

So now, my third year into triathlons, I was ready to commit myself to continuing this on a regular basis. Over the last two years and four triathlons, I have been riding a Mountain Bike. If you know anything about bikes, they are HEAVY compared to road bikes. I was probably putting ten times as much effort into biking as the other bikers. Well, that has all changed. I finally decided on a bike and bought it today. According to my other brother-in-law, Andy, I could possibly take 10 minutes off my time. That would just be nice to get off my bike that much faster.

I am so excited, I can't wait to get out and actually ride it, as Brandon said this afternoon, while I was riding up and down the hill on our street, "Mom, that bike is SO COOL!!!" I couldn't agree more!!!