waltondammerung

Devil Dawg

I finally participated in the first comptetitive athletic event of my life on Saturday-- the Devil Dog Duathlon. I'm going to indulge in some blatant bragging, cause I'm pretty proud of myself. Sure, I finished 432nd out of around 465. Sure, I was completely trounced by a significant number of people in their 60s, but I accomplished what I set out to do--finish the race without resorting to walking and without utterly embarrassing myself. I mean, I haven't even owned a bike for two years. It wasn't that long ago when I couldn't even run a mile at a time, and I did over 6 miles with a long bike ride in between. I had attempted to train for an event like this last year, but I completely overestimated my abilities and washed out pretty quickly. This year, I've been pretty deliberate about my training and determined to learn some self discipline, if nothing else. I think I've at least become a little more disciplined-- I did the race in spite of coming down with a nasty bout of the flu three weeks before the big day. I was so nervous the night before the race that I could hardly sleep, mostly because of the prospect of participating in the same event as lots of people who are much, much, much better shape than I am who would probably think I'm an idiot for trying. Now I know there wasn't anything to worry about. Everyone was very supportive, and some very nice peoepl yelled encouragement to me throughout the race. The whole thing was such a great experience. I'm excited to move on toward my goal of participating in a triathlon in July, confident that I can improve a lot on my running and bike times now that I know what I'm getting into (and that I should take two puffs from my inhaler before I start the race, not just one), and happy to know that, even though I'm still a beginning swimmer, most athletes have been where I am at some point and will be supportive of me for just participating. I'm also excited that I may finally be making headway on my long-term goal--establishing a habit of fitness in my life that I hope to be able to maintain well into middle age or longer.

I will stop blabbing before I start sounding like a coach after the Super Bowl. Sports are exciting, but there isn't a whole lot to say about them other than that. :) Here are some photos.