Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Rusty Wings

I announced earlier today that I would not be participating in the Olympic distance tri for Pittsburgh this August. Originally, it was the last weekend in July but because of a concert it was moved to the first week of August. This race would have been .90 miles swimming, 25miles biking and 6.1 miles running. I have been training since January and one of my last needed items came in the mail last week.
 
Sunday, I got to go out for my first open water swim. I was nervous but I did okay. I went with a friend from CrossFit and she led me through pointers and the most wonderful tips. (Now, I started swimming when I was 3 or 4 and swam on a team until I was 12. When I was in 7th grade I had to chose between swimming and soccer. I chose soccer.) I knew this swim would do one of two things--show me I'm ready for August or show me I'm not ready for August. As we got ready to start swimming, Lynn let me know that the length was .10 of a mile and on my first day out it would be great if I could swim at least a length without stopping. I couldn't. I would get about half way and need to catch my breath. She showed me ways to glide through the water so that I wouldn't tire myself out but I still had to stop. I was fortunate that I was in an area that me feet could touch the bottom and there weren't creatures. 

We talked about me asking to change it to a sprint tri but after thinking about it, I decided that I would at least tri to get my money back or defer it.  If that didn't work than I would try to switch to Saturday and so the sprint. If none of those worked...well, I would have practice, practice, practiced and swam my little heart out. I know I could have finished but not in the time that I wanted. So, Friends of the Riverfront were nice enough to let me defer to next year. I know that doesn't happen often.  I'm not going to lie, I almost cried with sadness when I got the email saying that it was okay to be defered. I had my heart set on this but I have to listen to my body first. 

After thinking about it though, 5 years ago I couldn't run a half mile and less than two months ago I ran over 26 miles. It will take a little more time but next year I'll cross that finish line. 

Swim on friends... 

1 comment:

  1. Great attitude to have Melissa. Just keep swimming!!! (p.s. obviously behind in my blog reading).

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