Belles Build Rome: Did you tri? Why yes, yes I did!

Today was an epic day for me. I completed my first triathlon!! I participated in the Y Freedom Triathlon in Pearland, Texas. It was a sprint length (300 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride, 3 mile run) It rained for most of it but that was better than the heat we've been experiencing lately.

The swim part was at the Y in Pearland. They had us line up on each side of the pool- one side odd number, other side even numbers. Since it's a six lane pool, they had the odd numbers swim down and back in three lanes and even numbers swim down and back in the other three lanes. Each lane was two way so while you're swimming there's other swimmers in your lane coming in the opposite direction. While I was waiting to begin my swim (it took a whole half hour before I began) I noticed some traffic jams in the pool and it was getting crowded in some parts so that started making me nervous. As I stepped down into the pool and waited for them to tell me to start, I took a deep breath and remembered all the time and effort I had put into training for triathlons and I told myself, "Just breathe, Meaghan. You got this!" I did pretty good for the swim part. The only problem I had was sometimes when I'd turn my head to take a breath, some water would splash into my mouth because of the other swimmers but I got through it. I must say, I was relieved when that 300 meters was up and then I thought to myself, "Oh boy, I still have a bike and run left to do." Lol :)

The bike portion went well for the most part. I felt pretty confident with the biking and those long bike rides I had taken recently really paid off. About halfway through, it started raining. It wouldn't have been so bad had I not been on a bike. The raindrops felt like little needles poking me all over. That hurts! Lol. But I just kept my head down some to keep the rain out of my face and I managed. Luckily, the rain started clearing out about the time I finished the bike ride. I mainly just went full speed the whole time and not long before I came back to the transition site I shifted gears to make things a little easier for me so I could conserve some for my run that I had next.


I've got my happy face on because I'm only a few feet from the finish line :)

The run part was definitely the toughest for me. Main reasons were because my legs were fatigued from the swim and bike plus because of the rain, my shoes were soaked and it made my legs feel like I had an extra ten pounds on each of them. Though it was hard, I pushed through it. I started coming up to an intersection and I could hear a volunteer yelling at participants, "The finish line is right down that hill!" That was enough motivation for me. So I turned things up a few notches and gave it everything I had. Before I knew it, I had crossed the finish line :)


Boy was I glad to see this!!

Two of my dear friends battled the rain and wind today and came out to support me. Through each transition, I could hear them cheering me on. I laughed everytime I heard Ashley yelling, "Come on, Mississippi!" It means so much to have people there to motivate you. No matter how hard you train or how prepared you are, races are still tough so I feel so blessed to have friends who came out to show some triathlon love for me today! Just before I crossed the finish line, I saw Ashley and Pam. Pam had the biggest smile on her face and I could tell Ashley was about to cry. Sure enough, when I first met up with them after I had finished, both Ashley and I had to fight back tears. Lol.


Pam, Me, and Ashley

As I'm writing this and reflecting back on what I accomplished today, I have to fight back the tears of joy and gratitude. Even though I train and work my bum off to prepare for these races, it's the people around me who help motivate me and keep me going. Every word of encouragement helps to boost me even more and allows me to go above and beyond my goals. Most importantly, I'm grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed me with my health and helped me to find the determination inside of me that I needed to even make that initial step by stepping out of my comfort zone into the unknown by saying, "I'm going to do a triathlon." He gave me the strength and courage I needed to accomplish this goal.