and the winner is....

ME!!!

Yup, that's right, not only did I survive the mini-tri, but I rocked it out, and at 1 hour and 14 minutes, finished first! Okay, so it ended up being a biathlon in my case, but still - after I crossed the finish line and they announced my time, I walked up to my trainer and was all, "so, where's everyone else?". She looked at me, and seemed confused, and said "everyone who?" I looked at her, and said "you know, the ones who are finished already." This was the moment when it hit me. Or when she mentioned, "uh, Carly? there IS no one else. you're the only one done."

Dude!

Okay, so I'm all over the place, but it was awesome.

Starting from the beginning:

E and I were up, ready (pb&j in tummies) and headed out by 7, with us being at the meeting place at exactly 7:30 am. We were weighed in (50 lbs, thankyouverymuch!), marked and measured, and then grouped up to hear the course. The trainers decided to do a 1.8 mile walk/run instead of a 3, with 9 miles biking and 1/4 mile swim, which somehow meant swimming or water jogging. We all got ready, and headed out to the pool.

Amanda & I, before go-time

Except for me, who headed indoors on my awesome stationary bike they brought over from the gym. Yup, I was that girl. It took me a few to adjust the seat, got on and "headed off". I've never been more thankful for my iPod, by the way, since it kept me pumped the entire time. About 3 minutes in, my trainer decided that instead of walking the 1.8 miles, I should just do an extra 6 on the bike, for a total of 15 miles. 2 days ago, I doubted being able to do 9 miles, and all of a sudden, it was practically double?!?!?! I decided to do what I could do, try my best, and hang on. Around mile 5, my energy level took a bit of a hit, so I decided to take some lemon-lime gu
- such a strange texture, it was like a Vaseline-maple syrup lovechild! It was kinda gross to be honest, but did the trick! Mile 9 was a tough one, and I ended up needing to use my inhaler. Then, the rest was kind of a blur. 6 miles later, I was done, hopped off the bike, and went out to the pool. I started swimming, but my heart rate went nuts, so I switched to water jogging, which was surprisingly still pretty challenging! The minute I was done, my goal was to dry off as much as possible, which I realized pretty quickly was easier said than done. Sopping wet, I threw on my clothes and my kicks, and headed for the finish line.

Being done was fantastic - I did what I set out to do, and even though I couldn't do it the way everyone else did, I did it my way, and succeeded. If you can't be proud of that, what can you be proud of??? I felt so much support, from fellow bloggers and readers to family and friends to the strangers at the tri, that there was no way I'd come out as anything other than a winner! The best part? The chocolate chip Cliff Kids ZBar that was waiting for me at the end, as was this.



In all seriousness, I don't know what was better: seeing my time, or realizing that I'd burned over 800 freaking calories doing it.

A week ago, I didn't know if I could bike the 9 miles - I figured if I could, it'd take 1 hour and a half to 2, I'd be in last place and I'd be too exhausted for anything else. It felt nice to put myself in my place, and prove to the most important person of all that I can and did do it.