Naval Special Warfare Superfrog Triathlon

This past weekend I competed in a half ironman. My parents came out from Utah to support me and we stayed at Loew's Coronado Bay Resort right across from the starting line of the race. Bentley was throwing up the night before and would not got to sleep that night. I would've been tired but had way to much adreneline and nerves rushing through my body to realize how tired I was.

I had to break up my nerves somehow so I whipped out some awesome water wings and a floatie.

The course is considered one of the toughest long distance triathlons around. It was intimidating seeing how many men and how few women were there. Only 45 of the 300 athletes were women. I've never felt more empowered in my life as I did standing at the start of the race surrounded by such strong women, it was the biggest high.

The swim was intense. The course was fully equipped with tons of lifeguards and several times I came close to waving my hands in the air for them to pull me out of the water. The waves were 4-6 ft high and the current was strong. I had a hard time getting out past the waves. As soon as I surfaced after diving under one wave I'd come up only long enough to take a quick breath and get a mouth full of water to choke on as I dove under the next. I took so many kicks to the face and did my own fair share of hitting and kicking. Oooops. I surprised myself finishing the swim in 46 minutes.

After the swim I took off for a 56 mile bike ride. There was a strong 10 mph head wind for half the course on HWY 75 but the scenery was gorgeous.

Last was the 13.1 mile run, 10 of which were in soft sand. I was so not prepared to run in sand but kept my mind occupied by looking for sand dollars. I collected a few along the way (I know how big of a dork I am). Thinking about crossing the finish line and seeing my hubby and girls kept me going.

I didn't get emotional after the race. All I could think was that I was so happy that was over. It wasn't until yesterday that I got teary eyed. I am absolutely amazed by myself and can't believe I pushed myself through that. I wanted to quit at least every 10 minutes and kept finding excuses as to why I should: I'm bored, I'm gonna drown, I just had a baby..... but I am so glad that I didn't, I had way to many 5 am mornings and 4 hour workouts to give up on myself when the day had finally come for all my hard work to pay off. My official time was 6hrs 24min 57sec. Not to bad for my very first triathlon but I have lots of room for improvement for the next half ironman.

Pain is temporary but 70.3 miles is forever.