Good morning!! I woke up to a delicious bowl of Gingerbread Oatmeal – YUM!
My Gingerbread Oatmeal contained:
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 sliced banana
- Dash of ground cloves
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of ginger
- 1 teaspoon of molasses
- Toppings: brown sugar and hazelnuts
So delicious!
It truly tasted like gingerbread cookies!
I’ll be making actual gingerbread cookies an hour of so. I set out the butter to let it reach room temperature.
Caitlin Doesn’t "Do" Triathlons
You guys know I LOVE TO RACE! Racing is my favorite part of running. I’m always sharing these mostly happy and successful race recaps with you. But today, I wanted to tell you about a race I failed at.
On New Year’s Eve 2008, I made two resolutions:
- Run a half marathon (which I did back in October)
- Compete in a triathlon
This past June, I compete in my first–and probably my last–triathlon. I entered a Sprint Triathlon event called My First Tri, which is a 0.25 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, and 2.75 mile run.
I trained for about 6 weeks, sometimes doing two-a-days when I would both run and swim or swim and bike. I never, ever swam in open water during my training. I always swam in the gym pool. A lot of people recommended I swim in open water before the race, but I didn’t really see HOW I could swim in open water (as I am afraid of alligators, a serious problem in Florida).
On race day, I felt anxious but excited. I was sure I could handle the physical rigors of the tri–after all, I except it all to be over in about an hour and a half, which is no big deal for me, cardio-wise.
BOY, WAS I MISTAKEN! The open water swim is what did me in.
The swim involved going out 0.13 of a mile, turning around a bu0y, and swimming back. The trouble with tri’s is that everyone is jostling for position in the water. I looked down and all I could see was muddy water (with gators, probably!!); not a clear, clean bottom of a lovely gym pool. Within five minutes of the swim, I had a full blown panic attack, flagged a lifeguard on a kayak, and quit the race.
YES — I QUIT A RACE.
After hanging onto the lifeguard’s kayak for about five minutes, I decided to swim back to shore. Ironically, Future Husband and my Dad saw me coming out of the water and it looked like I was in the lead (I was too far out to see when I quit). They were screaming at me to "RUN, RUN" to the transition area, but I just crawled out of the water with a disappointed look on my face and told him I had been DQ-ed (disqualified).
Future Husband and my Dad taught me an important lesson that day. Future Husband grabbed my transmitter off my leg and handed it to a race official, and then my Dad pushed me towards the transition area. Even though I had quit, I was still going to finish!
I hopped on my bike and quickly finished the 12.5-mile bike.
And then I transitioned into the run and pounded out 2.75 miles in good time.
I was really mad at myself by the time I finished. I had let my mental fears take over my body. I KNEW that I was strong enough for the swim. It was disappointing, but Future Husband and my Dad were both supportive and didn’t make fun of me for quitting (which was really nice of them!).
It took me a few weeks to get over the disappointment of DQ-ing a race. Now, I refer to the triathlon experience as my dualthon (which is a run + bike) experience, because that’s pretty much what it ended up being (I just got wet first, haha).
So, that’s the story of my first (and probably last) triathlon! I am signed up for a dualthon when Meghann does her first tri in March, and I’m excited for that race.
In honor of this race’s memory, I DO have plans to do a mini-triathlon tonight at the gym. 🙂
Have you ever quit a race? What happened?
Gingerbread cookies? Umm… can I have some 🙂
Are you going to be home around 3:00? I need some girl chat time…. and maybe some cookies….