triathlon meme

From Nancy:
1. Describe a memory from your first triathlon ever

At the end of the run, as I turned into the YMCA driveway, there was a policeman blocking traffic. He cheered me on and said 99% of American people couldn't do it. It was mindboggling to me to have people cheering for me.

2. Describe a memory from your most recent triathlon

I was doing the an international distance race but there was also a sprint, and this time all the slow people did the sprint. There were three of us at the end for most of the run, and then the other woman suddenly put on speed and left two of us behind. The other person was a man who caught up with me with about half a mile to go and suggested we run together. I loved that thought, so neither of us had to be last. But then he got a ferocious cramp and when he told me to go on without him I did. He was a novice and so had started later than me, so actually in the final results I was last.

3. What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you in a tri?

I'm not coming up with a public embarrassment. But my first year of competing I wouldn't consider doing a local race with a pool swim because I didn't know how to do flip turns. The next year I did the race, and it turned out that only the first 100 or so people did flip turns under the lane lines, almost no one else did (and I didn't either, even though I had been practicing them).

4. What's the most thrilling thing that's happened to you in a tri?

Thrilling may not be the right word, but what comes to mind as the strongest experience is finishing a race that ended with a swim (the race was 375 yard swim, 2 mile run, 20 k bike, 2 mile run, 375 yard swim) swimming the whole last leg using one arm only because I had wiped out on my bike and injured my shoulder. I finished!

5. What is something you discovered about yourself by doing triathlons?

I don't have to be good at something to enjoy it (very different from the ideas I was brought up with). And I like racing, which I never would have expected.

6. What is The Big Goal that you're working towards?

Finishing an ironman. I'm planning on a half ironman this year, and if I can schedule it one of the new 3/4 ironman races next year. And then??