Triathlons

Last Saturday my two sons, one daughter-in-law and I did the Salem Spring Triathlon, only it ended up being the Salem Winter Aquathon. Rain and snow in the mountains cancelled the bike portion. At 9:00 a.m. they asked for volunteers to leave the 45 degree weather and test the water to see if it was safe for the swim. The word came back that the water was warmer than the air, so we all suited up in wetsuits and anxiously awaited the start. This was my first triathlon since Spudman 2005 where I thought I was going to drown (really). On the swim in the Snake River, I had an anxiety attack brought on by murky water, thrashing swimmers around me and the tightness of a wetsuit. I remember rolling over on my back and looking up at the white puffy clouds in the sky and thinking, this is a good day to die. But I floated through the swim and survived. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I entered the Salem Pond on Saturday and put my face in the water. After getting used to the cold and swimming a bit, I quickly found that a full wetsuit is kind of fun! You can almost float vertically, something like a cork bobbing up and down. The wetsuit was still constricting and made breathing a little difficult to where I had to stop and catch my breath, but it was fun. The run.....well, the run and I have never been friends. It goes back to P.E. in junior high. If you screwed up, you ran laps. Running has always been associated with punishment to me. Anyway, we all finished and, as they say, a good time was had by all.