There's a family of fairly serious triathletes here in Manitoba that has a license plate which reads: WE TRI. As a woman who chose "Adventure" as her word-of-the-year last year and who likes puns, I really dig that.
This summer, we're tri-ing, too. That's nothing new for Rainer and Tias, our intrepid multi-sport men.
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But we women of the family have been more hesitant to throw ourselves headlong into the water, as it were.
No longer.
Sandra did her first triathlon in Morden at the end of our camping trip.
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And the gauntlet is thrown. For there was a deal. A taunt. A motivation. "Sandra," I foolishly said, "If you race in Morden, I'll do Riding Mountain." And she did.
The kids are in MiniU this week and Rainer and I headed out to give it a whirl. A practice try for the Try-A-Tri. Seems a bit crazy since the point of the Try-a-Tri is to...well, you get the picture. What is a Try-A-Tri? It's a little, wee, baby triathlon to get you over your fear of the wetsuit...or the water...or the bike...or the run. It's manageable because it's wee. Just 300m Swim / 15k Bike / 2.5k Run.
Today I donned a wetsuit for the first time. Crazy fun. Today I did an open water swim in a cold lake. And I hate cold water. But...Crazy fun. The wetsuit keeps you warm and you slide through the water all buoyant and slick. Splashing around in a cold lake at the beach isn't my definition of fun, but this had a purpose. This was quiet and adventurous. After that we did a bike ride and a long run. A fabulous, tiring day. An adventure. A workout. A date.
So I'm committed to this attempt. I'll Tri. I may even like it enough to contemplate doing a few sprint distances next year. I never thought I'd be sampling this sport so soon. I thought I'd give it a whirl in a few years but secretly thought I'd hate it. (The cold water thing.)
But in the end, after all, how can I resist the opportunity to look this fiercely cool?
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woo-hoo!!!!! What a gorgeous active family.
ReplyDeleteLove it. When did Sandra become an adult? Oy. It's been too long. Aaron and I never quite made it beyond the Try-a-Tri but loved the challenge of that! Have fun you guys. Great to do it as a family.
ReplyDeleteVery nice to see those shots of Morden! Glad you hear that you had a good experience in this beautiful community.
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