The Hernández Family: Square Lake Triathlon

Yay - I did it! My triathlon was yesterday and I had so much fun. Yes of course it was difficult and it definitely pushed me physically, but it was such a great experience. The location was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I keep joking that I felt like I should have given an acceptance speech when I was done because I am indebted to so many people for helping me train and letting me use their gear. So here goes:

Thanks to Becca who first inspired the idea that I could actually train for and complete a triathlon. I'm glad we got to do our own triathlon (that she organized with a few other friends) together last weekend, but I definitely missed her yesterday. Thanks to her husband Nathan who cheered us on through 2 lake swims and let me borrow his goggles before I finally bought my own. Thanks to Nathan and Becca for letting me use their water backpack and again to Becca for coming to cheer me on yesterday as I made it to the finish line. Another huge thanks goes to Stacy who let me borrow her amazing bike. It was a fluke that I even knew that she had a bike and she was so willing to let me use it to train with and then for the actual triathlon. Thanks to Sara for the lake swims and letting me use her swim cap that helped keep my sensitive ears toasty warm and dry - and also for the tip of spitting in my goggles so they don't fog! Thanks to Kara for letting me borrow her spandex pants last minute. They definitely helped! A huge thanks to Tina and Monica who watched our kids yesterday so Zeke could come and give me his full support. Tina had to wake up super early which we really appreciate. And of course, thanks to Zeke for all of his encouragement and flexibility to make sure I got all of my training in and being my biggest fan during the entire race! It was nice to hear him cheering for me at the end when I was so exhausted. I could not have done it without him. And thanks to all of my other friends and family that have been so supportive. I can't wait for another triathlon next summer!

Now to tell more about the actual race. It was held at Square Lake which is near Stillwater which is near the St. Croix river. It is an absolutely beautiful area. Doing a triathlon in September, I was kind of worried about the temperature of the water, but I didn't want to have to rent a wetsuit for just one race. Even though the air temperatures have gotten considerable cooler, the water was absolutely gorgeous. I was absolutely freezing waiting to get in the water, but once I was in it was perfect. It is a very clean lake with no motorboats allowed. The hardest part was of course finding space to actually swim when almost 100 other people got in at the same time. After the swim we had to run up almost 40 stairs (crazy!!!) to get to the transition area to begin the bike. The bike was beautiful and pretty hilly. Not much else to say about that part. By the run, I was feeling surprisingly good. Usually the transition from biking to running is pretty hard, almost like trying to walk after being on a trampoline. I started out pretty strong until I hit hill after hill after hill. The run was ALL hills! In the description, they described a run around the lake so I was thinking nice and flat with pretty views of the lake. Wow was I wrong! So my run was a bit slower than I would have liked but I at least kept running the entire time. Many people I saw started just walking up the hills but my goal was to at least keep running the entire time. And to top it all off, the finish line was up a hill! Zeke took a video of my finish and I don't know how easily you can tell, but how awful to put a hill at the finish line! Either way, it was such a great feeling to finish and like I said, I can't wait for another one next summer!

Now that you've made it through this much blabbering, here are the stats and the pictures. The triathlon consisted of a 1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike and 5 mile run. My final time was 2 hrs and 27 min (that includes my transition times). I was hoping for closer to 2 hours, but like I said, the run with all of its hills really slowed me down.