Mission Accomplished

Well, well well. It's been approximately three years since I declared on Instagram that I wanted to become a triathlete and I am super thrilled to say, the mission is complete.

Over the last three years, the entire world experienced the challenges of a pandemic. On top of that, I lived through a devastating miscarriage spring 2021 but found myself on the other side of that pain stronger than I've ever been. I trained for and completed a 50k and a half marathon fall 2021 and found out winter 2021 I was expecting again. #myGODisfaithful This time, the story ended happily and we welcomed our 3rd son into our family. I write all this to say, the journey had a lot of detours and stops but my commitment remained the same and the job eventually got done.

We welcomed our son July of 2022. Duriing the early days of postpartum I rested and allowed my body to heal. Soon enough I was able to start walking again and enjoyed getting miles in both outside and inside on my treadmill. I even found an awesome woman on instagram, #treadchic that encouraged me along the way with some AMAZING treadmill workouts. My walks became longer and turned into running. I returned to the pool to assess my swimming and let's just say, all was lost. lol Well, mostly all was lost. It took a couple of weeks to get into a swim rhythm, but after a while, I was able to swim the length of the pool. I was improving so much, I decided to sign up for an early spring Tri event.

April 1, 2023 is the day I officially became a triathlete after finishing the Smithfield Sprint Tri hosted by Kinetic Multisport. My event consisted of a 300 meter pool swim, 10 mile bike ride and a 5k run. I was cheesing the entire time on the bike and the run because I was so happy I was actually doing "it". It was even raining on part of the bike ride, but it didn't matter. I looked at the rain as a gift to keep me cool during the bike and run and continued to take in the visual beauty all around me. I finished with a hunger for more tri events.

Me and my older two sons. We don't know how to take a normal picture :-)

Couldn't forget to take a picture with our newest addition. He was about 8.5 months old in this picture.

Random picture of me before the race. This tri suit is everything!!! I felt to strong and fab in it. #trespinas

No matter what my finish time was, I was going to be happy/proud of myself.

First finisher medal made out of wood. I like it.

Afterwards, my hubs took me on a concert and dinner date. I felt so special.

A few tips I wanted to share for newbie triathletes based on my experience during my first time triing:

1. It was raining during my event and my shoe kept slipping off of my bike pedals so if you have a foot strap, use it.

2. Invest in a race belt (for your race bib) to save time in transition. It took me a while to get on my race bib because I kept dropping the pins-so don't be like me. Make it easier for yourself and just get a race belt.

3. Think about your post race nutrition (especially if you're traveling out of town) and plan accordingly. i.e bring your own food if you need to. I follow a plant based diet and the post race food offered to athletes was a pulled pork sandwich so that was a no go for me. I did have a #tailwind recovery pack and that was helpful, but again, I wish I would have planned better

4. HAVE FUN!!!!!! Enjoy the journey.

Until next time, my friends. Move your body and have fun doing it.