O.K. Now I'm really nervous. I'm 13 days away from Iron Nut. And I've ALWAYS WANTED TO DO A TRI-ATHLON! But I got a pretty dang good taste of what to expect today. And it wasn't pretty.
First, say it with me now: Shar is a freaking nut! Shar is woman, hear her roar. And I can't keep up. But that's besides the point. At church this morning Shar said, "Let's go do the full tri today." I stuttered a bit as I said "O.K., suuuuu-urrr-e." The whole thing Shar? Bike, swim and run like the whole way? Yup. I cleared my throat, rolled my eyes and said O.K.! It was a superior idea after all. Next week we need to taper down and we really need to push it this week.
Off we went. First up was the bike ride. We rode and rode and talked about what pace we should keep and dodged small kids on tandem bikes. We made it to our turning point, took a swig of what little water was left in Shar's water bottle and headed back. The up-hill back. Yuck. Of course it's yuck, but when you're with Shar it's !#%$%@#! YuCk! We were in high gear all the way back, I was chasing Shar as best I could. It was hot. My legs burned, my hard breathing came and went, and my legs burned some more. The last 4 miles, Shar suggested we do Indian Runs on our bikes. One of us would sprint ahead and after we got 20 yards or so ahead, the other one would sprint and catch up and get in front. And so on and so on. For.The.Next.FOUR.miles. And so we did. Until I couldn't catch up with her anymore. Luckily, we were almost done by that point. With a quarter of a mile to go, Shar commands me to race to the finish. With the teensy bit of energy I had left in me, I raced. I thought for sure that before I got to the finish my legs were going to catch on fire literally or my heart was going to explode.
We did it. Shew. 17 miles. Next up with no rest in between was the run.... Y'all. That was worse. I didn't even have enough energy to speak, or mumble, during the run. I just followed Shar. Step by step. We both wanted to walk but Shar said no way. It was really hot. I did not load up on enough fluids for this excursion I suddenly realized. The run was going to be rough. My nose was running. I couldn't breathe through my mouth for the phloem that was choking me. Gross, right? Three different times on the 3-mile run I thought I was going to yack. I kept thinking how I haven't thrown up from exercising since I was 8 when I was swimming the 100 yd Individual Medley in the city swim meet. Oh yeah I did. Came in 2nd. Touch the wall at the finish and yacked into the gutter. Nice.
We finished the run and walked another mile. I still couldn't speak. We got in the car to head to the pool and made a pit stop for water and Gatorade. I chugged nearly all mine before we made it out of the store. We checked in at the pool only to find out the pool was closing. That very minute. Exhausted but disappointed, we headed back to the car. We were both sooo tired but we really did want to finish our "full tri" out. Unfortunately, it just wasn't in the stars today. But we did have an amazing workout and got more than a taste of what this tri is going to feel like. It's going to hurt. It's going to be very hard. It's going to be challenging, physically and mentally. I could not have finished the run today without Shar. I'm not sure I could have much more than started the run without her. This tri will take a lot of sweat. Hopefully, there won't be any blood or tears. But there might be some of both.
I'm hanging in there. Thirteen days to go!
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