I will write more later (after my parents' visit, my daughter's dance concert, the article I have to write and the report that's due... all the real life things that I've tried to balance all these weeks and months...) but the bullet version is: I finished. It was really, really hard - way harder than I thought. I was wondering, by the way - what's harder, giving birth or running a triathlon? They have a lot in common in my case: nearly a year to prepare... 2 hours of "pushing" (2:07, in the case of the triathlon, 3rd from last)... and a great feeling in the end!
One other thought to all this: I didn't give enough attention to the mental side of this. The hardest part was the open-water swim - the minutes I spent clinging to the side of each boat along the route while I overcame panic attacks definitely added to my total time (and took a lot out of me - parts of me I was definitely missing on the run!) More later, but you get the idea!
Added: from the online race results :
420 HANSELL JENNY SHARON CT 42F F40-44 [total time] 2:07:54 [swim place and time} 430 30:04 [bike place and time} 415 0:52:43 [total after bike} 1:22:47 [run place and time] 410 0:45:07 There were 422 finishers (out of 560 entrants - I'm not sure how there could be only 6 or 8 listed as DNF!) I and one other woman who swam boat to boat with me were dead last in the swim. I was a bit surprised that I didn't place a bit higher in the bike as I was churning along pretty good! But pleasantly surprised that I did as well in the run as I did, considering how utterly whipped I was by then (and how HOT and HUMID it was!)
12 comments:
Note the words"overcame the panic attacks"...you did it Jenny, you finished!!! What an achievement; now you go and do all your fab Mum/Daughter/Writer stuff and revel in the glory of being a WINNER!!!!! You worked so hard for this and for such a great cause...there's no stopping you now!
{{HUGS}}
Rx
p.s. if there's a choice I may have to go for giving birth...at least there's a lot of laying down...LOL
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE A LEGEND!!
Good for you, Jenny! What an accomplishment!
Wow!!!!! Well done Jenny, what a great achievement..I think Id definitely opt for giving birth if I had to chose
Great job triathlete! Yay for you!
More details and pics please (as soon as you are rested)!
Wow, Jenny, congratulations! You did it! What a great feeling it must be!
GREAT JOB! You finished!!! WooooHooooo!!!!!
Brilliant! You started, you finished, you DID IT!! And was this how you looked at the end? I hope so, because it's fantastic, Looking so rightfully pleased. Forget tripathlon,just running the cross-countries in inter-school competitions, no way did I ever feel like grinning. Throwing up, yes. So I know just what you have had to put into this. Around 2 pm yesterday afternoon our time, I was trying to imagine how you were doing. You must be super-fit if this is your wind-down agenda!
Congratulations! Did your daughter get to see you do this? Will you do another? I wish I'd gotten into athletics while my daughter was still young. They say it's so good for a girls' self esteem to do these, and I know some of the events here have "children's triathlons" after the adult event.
Congratulations, Jenny! Great job! Linda
*backflips* *backflips*
AWESOME! Congratulations! You must feel like a GO-zillion bucks!
The inevitable question: when's your next race? :D
Jenny, many congrats to you! You are an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing all the stuff you went through because it really helps us triathlon first-timers to feel like we're not alone. You rock. Hawk
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