So, Saturday was the triathlon. I could say it went well, but that would be a lie. I pretty much spent my whole summer learning to swim the front crawl so I could do the back stroke for the swim! I don't know if there is really a good reason for what happened, but here is my version of it anyway. We, my friend Jeanne and myself, stood in line to swim the 400 meters in the 9-10 minute section. As we stood there a fellow competitor asked the life guard if the pool was chlorine. WHAT!!! I have been learning in salt/ UV filtered pools all summer. Okay, I tell myself no big deal. WELL, apparently it was a big deal. I jumped into the pool when my turn came and I made it about 10-15 feet before I couldn't breath out my nose at all. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I pulled off to the side, let some swimmers pass and tried again, still, No air. Even worse, it felt like I was taking water in. At this point I have made it about 50 meters. I do the next two lengthens with my head out of the water. I can't believe what is happening, not to mention this kind of swimming is killing me. At 150 meters a girl close to me flips on her back and I say to myself, I can do that. 13+ minutes later I hit the last wall and climbed out of the pool. I am never amazed at how life teaches me these little lessons. I never even considered that I wouldn't be able to do the swim, I just figured I would be slow or it would be hard.
The rest of the triathlon went as I thought it would. The bike was a challenge. It had a big hill that we had to go up twice. I am clearly a social rider and this was not a social ride. When I finally hit the run I was so happy to be doing something I knew I could do! My total time was 1hour 21 minutes. Will I do another one? Probably, but right now a 1/2 marathon looks pretty nice.
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4 comments:
Way to keep going! Did you ever figure out why you couldn't breathe? I have to admit, I never want to do the things you do! You make them sound so hard! (But you do them anyway, so you're amazing!)
So were you having a reaction to the chlorine? Good for you doing so well.
You rock. We are so proud of you for enduring to the end.
YEAH!!! You did it!!! The chlorine fumes sits on the top of the water..people with breathing problems struggle in pools. On top of that the chlorine makes the water "heavier." It is like you are swimming with a vest on if you have been used to a salt/filtered pool.
AMAZING LAURIE!!!!
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