The Early Days

A few times in the past few weeks I've heard athletes say "I could never be an elite." So in the spirit of that, I decided to share some of my first forays into the sport. Enjoy :)

My first open water swim start, just as terrifying as my first Ironman swim start.

I prepared a little better for my next endeavors into the water

I mastered 3 wheels pretty quickly

And decided to move onto the big leagues, safety first though...safety first

My first real race was a local 5K and my brother and I started in the very front. I

 was around 10 years old, thought I was invincible and that I would win the race!

It was more like this:

And my clothing of choice was that years race shirt (what a newbie!) that went down to my knees, and a pair of swishy pants

I come from a family of 5 kids, and all of us are competitive. My dad used to tell us that whoever was first in the local 5K got a happy meal from McDonalds. Kind of an interesting reward for a healthy activity. My older sister actually tried to sabotage us by telling us eating Halloween candy right before the race would make us faster! Poor Nate ended up getting oxygen right after the race that year. I used to wear this cotton superman t shirt for every running race. I remembering thinking it was hilarious at the time.

I ran on my high school cross country and track teams

And this was my idea of post workout/race recovery

This was my idea of winter cross training.

I did my first triathlon on a road bike I borrowed from my younger brother. Getting into the water I was somewhat concerned that they had to shorten the swim because of treacherous current conditions. I held my head above the water for the entire swim, put bike shorts on over my swim suit and then changed into run shorts for the run...it was a sprint... I mean transitions have never been my strong suit...

Didn't get a picture of my first triathlon...but I imagine I looked something like this

Studying abroad in Bermuda I did several triathlons

I thought swimming in bike shorts was perfectly reasonable

I insisted on wearing a bike jersey that I attempted to pull on over my wet swim suit

Aero bars? What are aero bars?

Who runs in a bike jersey?!

Fortunately for the next one I realized I didn't need the bike jersey...

This was the race that I got lost on the swim though and then couldn't remember what my bike looked like coming into transition

Then I got rid of the bike shorts, I finally realized that much padding wasn't required for a sprint tri. Still no aero bars though, and I thought replacing running shoes every year or so was perfectly reasonable.

For the first several years I raced triathlons, I swam with a nose clip (you can see it here on my swim strap), because I never learned how to put my face in the water and blow bubbles. I have since realized that toddlers usually master this by age 3

Training for my first 70.3 I almost totaled a car...with my face...

I made some pretty creative smoothies, including blended cheeseburger

I was so excited when I was finally allowed to bike again that I jumped on the trainer with bare feet

I finally got a pair of aero bars for my first 70.3 the following year, and look, an actual tri kit!!!

I had no idea that people actually ate stuff during the race and got by on a little gatorade...I bonked in pretty epic fashion on the run

My first Ironman, I didn't even look at the weather before the race. I assumed, its Florida, it will be hot! It was 32 deg getting out of the water, I had to buy XL arm sleeves the day before the race (they were all that was left) and wear the bike jersey I had brought to train with. I still didn't own a tri bike and thought everyone raced on road bikes with clip on aero bars.

But I finished, honored one of my best friends, made a ton of new friends in the process and had a lot of fun

I finally got a tri bike the next year. I was amazed at how much easier it was to run off the bike, still no aero helmet though.

Since then, I've gotten an aero helmet, found excellent race kits and shoes (thank you Zoot) so I don't have to change for each event, taken in actual calories during races, and learned some of the lingo. 

I still mess things up pretty frequently,

and I still feel like this sometimes when I'm going up against the big girls