I DID A TRIATHLON

This post is kinda long, I go into some detail but I don't feel bad because

I DID A TRIATHLON!!

I swam… I biked… I ran…. I FINISHED!!!

I did my first triathlon on August 21, 2010. The whole Mendenhall family crossed the finish line. I admit I was the last one in the family to cross, BUT I was not the last person in the race to cross, which made me feel good. My goal was to finish and I did!

It was hard, it was really hard, but I finished with a smile on my face, well once I crossed the finish line. J I seriously am so proud of myself and my family. It’s such an accomplishment and to say that I did it with my entire family is pretty amazing.

My family is honestly what kept me going!

I talked to Megan almost every day in panic over this stupid triathlon, but she always calmed me down and told me that she would be right there with me.

Even though she ended up kicking my trash she still was a great support.

I flew into Idaho on Wednesday night, and the rest of my family came up on Thursday.

Thursday morning my mom and I went and did part of the triathlon running trail. I did ok except for my lungs were on fire. MAJOR ALTITUDE CHANGE from what I was used to training in. The fam did a practice swim in Rigby Lake. I had a panic moment and thought I was done the water temperature in Idaho is a little different then Texas, but good ol’ Mikey helped me focus on the swim and not how cold the water is. He was awesome.

Thursday night me, my sisters, and mom went to go pick megs up from the airport. This is what Megs came down the stairs to:

Two missionaries came home that night too, so there were a lot of people there. I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack of embarrassment

The days were packed with such fun things like Jessica’s baby shower, Bear world, but most of the time my stomach was in knots. All I wanted was for race day to be here. When it arrived I felt more nervous, but when the start sound went off I dove into the water not thinking twice.

SWIM

Rainbow Lake, I had to swim around a lake.

We had our blue swim caps and goggles on and started swimming when the horn went off. My sister Michelle kept yelling to make sure I was ok, and kept telling me where to go because I couldn’t see the markers in the water. I think we talked for the majority of the swim, it helped pass the time. Ha ha probably wore us out more, but it still was fun. We caught up to my dad and we all just kept an eye on each other. At the end they had volunteers there to help get you out of your wetsuit, well they strip ya down, and mine got stuck on my foot, but they just kept pulling and pulling I seriously was bouncing up and down on the mat, telling them to let me just pull it off but they were persistent and got it off. My brother in Law Joe was dying of laughter.

BIKE

Training, I was very strong on my bike, but Rexburg Hills got the best of me, and that’s where I struggled the most and lost the majority of my time. I gave myself pep talks “Yes out loud” and sang along with my music. It helped. I was by myself for the majority of the bike so I thought I was the last one.

RUN

The running trail was intense. I do admit that when I started my run, Michelle and Megan passed me running to the finish line. They were a good half hour a head of me. It made me a little sick knowing I still had all my run left and they were about to cross the finish line, but I kept going.

To cross the finish line you have to go through our high school gates and run around the track to cross. I saw my family all cheering and I started to cry. It was very emotional knowing that I was almost done.

My sister Brooke grabbed my hand and told me to keep running no matter what. My sisters all joined me for the last little bit and they crossed the finish line with me.

I have an amazing family. My Mom and Dad are amazing for running in the race, and plus planning for our entertainment and keeping us fed. I honestly don’t know how they do it.

THEY ARE INCREDIBLE! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THEM!!!

I am very proud of myself for doing something that I never thought in a million years I would do. Now I am hooked. I can’t wait for next year to do it all over again.

Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend!