step two.......aka: another post for another day

a few days ago I mentioned having already made strides towards my single solitary goal for 2014 of completing a triathlon.

in 2013, I completed a total of 5 half marathons. wow! crazy considering I was pushing it walking 2 miles at a time this time last year. I am not at the speed I would like to be at yet but improved my half pace from 16 minutes to a 13:18 pace at the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco........even with all those awesome hills! I guess you could call that the first step towards completing a triathlon? first of three steps?

well........along comes January 4, 2014. and well, step number 2 is completed! (though I guess telling you that is like reading the last page of a book, isn't it?!?!?!)

but, along with a bunch of friends (another gift from the merry months of 2013) at TBF, we had some adventures Saturday morning!! see my beautiful friends?? see our beautiful day glow name stickers that say we are allowed in the transition area.....how cool!!!!

as hubby wasn't participating, he wasn't allowed into the transition area. (neener neener neener!) course, then he got roped into volunteering. his job was to make sure a bunch of us didn't crash into each other! (another spoiler: he was successful!) but I am getting off point now.......

anyway, my Saturday excursion into the unseasonably warm weather involved a 4 mile run broken in half by a 6.5 mile bike ride. the running I wasn't much worried about. even with the lessened focus on training in the past few weeks (like 8 of them)......I knew I could survive that. heck, I could walk if I needed to. the biking and transition between the two parts was the big question. afterall.....my beautiful bike, now christened (with multiple mimosas) Broderick, has less than 100 miles on it. I am still get confused shifting.......and oh my gosh trying to get a drink while riding is a scary scary thing......and this is all without the fact that I am in the middle of a race with a bunch of other riders around me who may or may not be more proficient than me.

I still have lots to learn.......I can't tell you how I did for the running versus the biking parts because while I have managed to figure out how to drink while riding without killing myself or anyone else........I am still working on learning my Garmin!

but I did it! see! proof!!! (a friend took this photo........while yelling at me to drink more!) and, I did it all in what I figured was the least possible amount of time I thought it could possibly take me........1 hour and 30 minutes! dang! for me that was awesome!

anyway, now I have completed a duathlon: running and biking! (yeah me!) 2 down, 1 to go........though I am not sure how in the world I am going to add swimming to the mix. good thing I have 51 weeks left of the year to figure it out!