tryin'

Today's the big day - the mini-triathlon for the show, and to say I'm nervous would be a massive understatement. At a 9 mile bike, a 3 mile run/walk and a 1/4 mile swim, it's nothing crazy, but it's a pretty big deal for us. I have horrible allergies, so originally, I wasn't even able to participate, but about a week ago, I got the call to be able to do most of indoors, so here I am. Sure, I've missed out on 2 months of training sessions, and sure, I have bronchitis, but what the hey? I'm determined to try!

E & I headed out to Dick's last night to pick up a couple of things, and I picked myself up a little gift that I've been wanting for a little while.

For those of you not in the know, this is the infamous Polar fitness monitor, which tracks your heart rate, calories burned and exertion level using a chest strap around your rib cage and the watch, seen here. This one's pretty cool - not only does it allow you to link your monitor with your computer, but it also keeps a weekly diary of what you're up to, has an alarm in case your heart rate gets too high, is waterproof up to 30m and, let's face it, is PINK, which is obviously the important part! At $98.99, it's definitely more than I would normally spend, but I thought it a fitting way to spend the birthday money from my dad, a marathon runner. Thanks Dad!

I also picked up a little motivation - it's going to be hard doing this with E in another area, so some positive self-talk is definitely in order.

Here's my gear all laid out, minus water bottles, iPod, flip flops and some Cliff Kids ZBars for after the race. Yes, that is totally my inhaler - a must-have for this morning!

My mission is to finish the biking and swimming, and evaluate. I'm hoping to be able to do everything, but if all I could do is the bike and pool, at least I've tried, and 5 months ago, I wouldn't have even tried that. We're also doing our final weigh-in and measurements, so emotionally, it's a big day.

Wish me luck!