Saturday I had to do a long run. Being in Betterton meant that I was not able to run with my training group. I've always had a very difficult time running alone. Knowing that I was scheduled to run 7-9 miles ALONE was weighing on my mind the whole trip down. I mapped out a run that was just over 8 miles. Because of the busy day we had on Saturday, I got up at 6 and headed out.
It was a sticky, humid morning and several areas had quite a bit of fog. I did well until I got into the town of Still Pond. I had planned a break for water and taking in some fuel. I couldn't seem to get myself back together. I struggled mentally and physically for the next mile or so. I gave in an walked for quite a bit. There was even a point where I considered calling someone to come pick me up.
I'm not sure what changed, but at some point I started running again and didn't stop. The rest of the run felt good. I noticed that my breathing was good...I was in the zone! What a great feeling to get through a mental challenge on my own!
I've recently been talking with some friends about doing a triathlon. Any of my long time readers know that this is not the first time I've toyed with the idea of a tri. So when I was talking with my neighbor Maureen Saturday evening, I asked her if she would swim with me Sunday morning. She is part of a group that regularly swims from the public beach to the cottages...a swim that she has been told is a mile.
Sunday morning I was questioning this decision, but I put on my bathing suit and went to meet Maureen. She handed me a swim cap and off we went. I was very tentative at the start...I didn't even put my head in the water because I was worried about where I was going. But about halfway through I relaxed and tried to enjoy the swim.
It was physically challenging. I could only do one stroke for a little bit before I switched to a different stroke because I was tired. I could tell that Maureen was swimming at my slow pace but she was encouraging me the entire way. Here's a photo of us at one point in our swim...I'm the one attempting to do a crawl stroke while Maureen is doing an energy-saving breaststroke. I couldn't seem to get the breaststroke to work for me so I mostly did the crawl or the backstroke. I think I would be laughed off the course if I did a backstroke in an actual race!
So I've realized that if I am going to do a triathlon, I have a long way to go! But my first "open water swim" is under my belt and I feel good about that. Now to conquer my fear of the bike...
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