I Made It!

Well, I made it! This past Sunday, I competed in a triathlon relay. I did the swimming part of the race which was 1/3 of a mile. The swim was out in the open ocean with waves and swells 4 feet high! The course was a rectangular shape. I had to swim straight out to a buoy, turn left and swim a ways, then turn left again and come back to shore. The first part was very difficult. I felt like I was on a swimming treadmill not going anywhere. I felt at a loss as I kept swimming, swallowing water, and not going very far. The waves were so big that I couldn't even see the bright orange buoy that I needed to get to. I said to myself at one point, "I can't do this. I can't do this." Then, I looked behind me and saw that I actually was making progress. I looked forward and finally saw that the buoy was not far away and said, "I can do all things through Christ.." After I rounded that first marker, it seemed to go very fast. It took me 17 minutes, most of which was the first part, I think! There were 9 other racers who had to be pulled out of the water. And, one guy started out and turned around and came back. So, I was proud of myself that as a novice ocean/open water swimmer, I finished! It was more about survival than actual swimming skill for me. I then ran up the beach about 100 yards and tagged the cyclist on our team. She then took off on a 15 mile ride and our runner finished with a 3 mile run. There were about 9 relay teams (5 0r 6 that were coed like ours) and we came in 2nd place for the coed teams with a total time of 1 hr. and 30 min. We didn't get any awards, but we didn't care about that. Many of our church family was at the finish line to cheer us on! It was great fun! I was a nervous wreck most of that week before worried about the ocean swim, but I made it! Our team was named "Spirit Wings". We wore our matching t-shirts and enjoyed racing together! The Holy Spirit carried us on His wings!
Now, my next feat is the Lakeside triathlon coming up on Aug. 4th. This will be the whole deal--1 mile swim, 15 mile bike, 4 mile run. Even if I come in last, I really don't care! I just want to finish. My trainer always says, "finishing is winning". This will be a good first experience...a warm up, if you will. I am hoping to enter another 'official' race for Sept. 20th. It's a great physically and mental challenge that I have enjoyed! Something I never thought I would do in a million years. But, now, I think I want to keep going and push myself even more. So....we'll see what happens...... :)