Gotta Keep Your Chin Up

Alright, so I have prolonged this post long enough.

Want to know why I did do the triathlon on Sunday?  Ok I will tell you.

WHY I DIDN'T RACE MY FIRST TRIATHLON ON SUNDAY, JUNE 12TH

1. I gave myself less than a month to train.  I know I most likely would have been fine, and would have finished but I am really sick of half-assing my races.  I also really hate, MEGALOATHE when people hear about running a marathon or a half marathon, and sign up a month before and think they can be ready.  It cheapens the months and months of training everyone else did.  I have too much respect for my triathlete counterparts to do that.  I am not naive to think that this would have been easy.  Training for a triathlon is hard work, it takes months of dedication and conditioning.  For me to just to show up, after a few weeks of mediocre training would have been an insult to those valiant souls who spent countless hours sweating on a bike, on the trail and in a pool/lake. 
2. I could not find a bike.  Silly excuse, but it turned out to be a pretty big obstacle for me.  I have never had a bicycle of my own since I was like seven years old.  At the age of seven, I fell of my brother's bicycle and left it on the sidewalk in front of my home to get a band aid.  Ten minutes later it was stolen.  I never had a bike since, I borrowed people's to get from here to there.  When, I lived in Honduras in 2005, I rode a bike for the first time in years but since my stay there I hadn't really been on a bike.  Being as busy as I am, I had a very small window of opportunity to track down a decent bike to ride during the race.  I found myself the Thursday before, frantically asking people and visiting bike shops for rentals.  Frankly, the bike shops were pretty snobby to me seeing as I had no idea what size I needed, I hadn't been on a bike since 2005 and I was asking to rent a 3k bike.  The rental would have been nearly $100 and honestly, my clumsy behind does not need to responsible for three thousand dollars of bicycle. 
3. I was scared.  Usually fear is something that I can handle, I get a little nervous about every race-not so much anymore-but there's always a twinge.  This though, this was something new.  This was something I knew NOTHING about.  I didn't even know how it would work. I have only seen pictures of triathlons.  I had so many strange questions, and doubts. It was overwhelming for me to show up completely under trained and not knowing what to expect.
4. I had no Open Water swimming experience.  NONE.  I had heard sooo many stories about people having anxiety attacks  in OW, and I could just feel that happening to me with all my already built up anxiety.
5. I am a chicken.

So that is why I bloggged and blogged about my pending triathlon, and why it did not happen.  Feel free to berate me, I think I deserve it.



Disappointment Dog



Why is it that EVERY TIME I go to type the word "triathlon" I always type "triathlong"?! Annoying, but probably something subliminal.