Spudman Memoir

I made it through the Spudman triathlon this weekend. I felt great about my swim, terrible about my bike, and when I say "my bike" I mean the bike I was riding because I worked my butt off and the machine just wasn't working for me. The run was a battle because I cramped up a lot between 1.5 miles and 4 miles, but I was able to finish the last 2 miles steady so I was happy about that. The sad part of the race was finishing to find out a 60 year old businessman named Donald Morehouse died in Wave 6 of the swim. (I was in Wave 5). The 7th wave of swimmers did not swim out of respect for his family. I am curious to find out what caused him to go under because he wasn't far from the start--not even past the end of the boat docks from what I understand. I LOVE the swim, and although I feel terrible about his death it doesn't scare me to swim in the river. The local triathletes have a couple swims scheduled this week, one on Friday for those swimmers who were in the 7th wave and didn't get to swim in the Spudman. I think that's a good thing.

It was interesting that my dad told me that he thought doing the Spudman was a waste of time, at least, he said, doing only a portion of it was a waste of time and he wished I would spend my time doing something like golfing. "It just takes too much time to be really good at it." Interesting thoughts...my response to my dad should have been this quote: "There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few that will capture your heart. Pursue those."

I have had a lot of things capture my heart, and there's no doubt I have to prioritize because I can't do everything. But without a doubt, swimming in the Spudman is one of those things that is just exhilerating to me and has captured my heart to the extent I plan to do it every year as long as I can get in to the race. I love the challenge of completing the entire race, but it's also fun to be on a team so I can focus on my favorite part. Anyway, what my dad said made me step back and look at why I'm spending precious time on this yearly endeavor, and I have no regrets. And next year, when I take more time to train than I did this year, I won't have regrets because I think I'm a better mom when I take the time to train.

On another note, I need to start saving for a good road bike!