Mission Accomplished

Can I just say this pictures captures perfectly how I felt the morning of our triathlon.
I definitely didn't sleep much the night before, and that didn't exactly calm my nerves.
There is something about participating in an event like a triathlon for the first time that is so unnerving. I felt like I didn't really know what was going on, and like everyone was staring at me the whole time! The triathlon we participated in was really pretty small, and low key, but I still felt totally uptight and nervous. It was really fun to have my parents in town, and to have them there to support us...but at the same time I felt really uncomfortable and self conscious that they were there snapping all kinds of pictures as we were getting ready to begin!

Do I look nervous or what!

Gotta love the matching "Team Kunz" red shorts!

I went in to the race feeling really confident about my swimming. We only had to swim half a mile, and in my training I had gotten comfortable swimming a mile, so I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Word of warning....Swimming in an open body of water like Lake Champlain is NOTHING like swimming in a pool. I won't go in to all the details....but the swimming killed me. It wasn't that it was super hard or anything, I just couldn't get into any sort of a rhythm cause the waves kept crashing over my head. I was convinced the rescue boat was going to come ask me if I needed to be rescued!


Unfortunately the swimming kind of shook me up, and I basically psyched myself out from that point on.

I felt as bad as I looked!

I finished the race, and I guess that was my only goal. I'm not sure I'll ever do another triathlon. I'm pretty good about working out on my own, without having a race to be training for. I found that I just felt a constant pressure to be training, and if I missed days, I just felt really guilty.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel that bad when it was all done. I just wanted to drink A LOT of water!

I do have to note...Ben was so supportive and sweet. He stuck by my side the entire time....even when most everyone passed me! I'm sure he could have done awesome, and completed the race with a great time, but he just stuck with me, and helped me fight through it! It really meant so much to me. I probably would have just thrown in the towel after the swim if he hadn't been there waiting by my bike cheering me on. So basically....he rocks!

(Note the difference in facial expressions between Ben and I!)

Here is Ben with his Doctor from his Family Med rotation. Dr. Hobbs is actually the organizer of the South Hero TRY-athlon!

I'm happy to say that when all was said and done, we had smiles on our faces, and two VERY BIG free t-shirts to take home!