We started the swim and halfway through I thought I was going to die! We felt like we were drowning and we felt like we were NEVER going to reach the wall, it was a terrible experience to say the least. I got out of the water first and I felt pretty good because I was ahead of Brady and we are super competitive so I wanted to keep this lead on him as long as I possibly could. Brady got out of the water and had to sit down at T1 for a few minutes while he got his shoes and socks on and he had to make sure he wasn't going to pass out because he was not feeling so hot, but eventually he got the strength to get up and go on the bike.
I was riding the course thinking that I was going good when all of a sudden Brady comes flying by, man did I feel like crap haha. Well he was not the first to pass me and he was definitely not the last but I finally finished the bike course. The bike was finally over and it was time to run, looking back all we had to do was run a 5k but man in the moment it felt like we were running forever! I was so tired already I could barely move my feet and I wondered if I would finish this stupid race but I made it through. It was a rough experience for our first ever triathlon but it was enjoyable at the same time.
So after all this you are probably thinking why the heck would we want to do triathlons? We sucked so bad in our first one and the other sprint we did a few months after didn't go much better either. We literally had no idea what we were doing, our training plan wasn't very good but all in all we had a good time doing it! Fast forward to now, we realized that triathlons were a blast and we really enjoy them. Last summer we caught the bug and started to train again, we upgraded our equipment, did some research, seeked out some help, and decided we were going to do this the right way! Here are the 5 reasons we love to tri!
Number 1. Getting in shape and losing weight
This was our number one reason for getting into triathlons. Like I said before we were the definition of fatties, right after we got married we became extremely lazy. I played tennis my whole life and had coaches telling me what to do to workout and I never had to worry about not working out so I didn't really have to worry about gaining weight. After I finished tennis this all changed and it became very easy to be lazy and eat junk food. Brady got in good shape before we got married but then he started school full time, working part time and being a full time husband and he didn't make time to workout. Then we got introduced to this wonderfully evil thing called "Wing Wednesday" from Pizza Hut. I'm serious like every Wednesday we would order wings, pizza and root beer. Ya needless to say we needed to find something to motivate us to lose weight and to keep it off. We knew triathlons would do that for us, just by the nature of training we would lose the weight and with our competitiveness training for a race keeps our minds in the game.
Number 2. Competition
Now we are NOT elite triathletes and I will not pretend that we will be upgrading to a pro card anytime soon, but you do not need to be a pro to feel the competition of a race flowing through your
veins. If you have a training partner it is even better because you don't only feel the push of competition on race day but during every single training session. I love being able to push myself to my limits on race day and seeing other people ahead of you or feeling other people breathe right behind you to give you this huge jolt of engery and power to do more then you can imagine. For me this is one of my favorite things about racing I love the atmosphere and I LOVE the feel of competition!
Number 3. Mixing it Up
The great thing about training for a triathlon versus a regular running race is the diversity during training. I love that every day is a different discipline and I love that I am not just doing the same workouts over and over again. Another thing that makes it even better is having a coach, because then you really don't have to think about the workouts that you are doing you just have to do them haha. Which is especially great when you are waking up early in the morning to work out. Last year before we were training for triathlons we were training for just running races and we got soon bored! Switching it up with running, biking and swimming is way better!
Number 4. You get to wear spandex... everywhere!
I may not be like other people but I love spandex! I love that it fits like a glove and that I can workout in it or lay around in it and be totally comfy. If you are going to be racing be ready to be comfortable in spandex. Enough said!
Number 5. Triathlons are just plain awesome!
Um... need I say more? There is a reason people say that you will get addicted if you start doing triathlons and let me tell you I am a complete addict! I love the feeling of racing, I love the thrill of signing up for a race, I just love triathlon! We talk about this all the time but we became apart of the BamFam this year and I would not change that decision for anything! It has been a great choice because we finally have the feel of community and that just drives us to be better and try to do more. After we did Bam Camp last week it just totally boosted my will to train and to do better, and more. There are some amazing athletes and coaches and every single one of them pushes us to be better and work harder, we can't wait to see what progress we make this year!
Triathlons are awesome! We obviously have fallen in love with it, we aren't saying that everybody needs to jump in head first, buy the bikes and all the gear and sign up for a hundred races. Just give one a try and we promise you'll love it, if you have a bike you are good! Just sign up for a local sprint race and see if you like it.... but we can almost guarantee you'll love it!
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