KC Women's Triathlon

It's true, my sister and I did a sprint triathlon (500M swim, 10 mile bike,5K run)on Saturday. We did it more than anything just to have done one and to get time with each other during the training too. But time training together or alone ended up being sparse. Yes, Carrie, you can laugh.

I am not all that competitive, in sports at least... trying to prove my point may be a different story. So the idea of competing hard to beat training times or even beat my sister just seems like a waste of energy. I like to think sometimes I may be a little hard core and really care about winning, but then I remember my high school tennis career where my best friend and I begged our coach to let us play down a seed so we could have more fun and realize...nope, not hard core.

There were a lot of interesting dynamics happening during the morning because it was an ALL women's race. Girls rule, boys drool, no boys allowed.... 350 women of all ages and sizes. I laughed out loud with the girl next to me (she was about my age) when a woman twice our size and 3x our age passed us running. (laugh again Carrie)

It was so interesting to see an event like and just observe WOMEN. As you walked around everyone talked about their families, kids, why they were doing the race, who they were doing it with, etc. All the rookies were constantly encouraged by the vets. Over and over and over and over wherever you walked you would year, "you can so do this.... you'll be great!" Lots of talking, lots of estrogen, lots of thighs and lots of cellulite....it truly was a beautiful thing. No one appeared to be comparing themselves or self conscious. The women who you thought would totally rock it, you passed and the first one out of the water in 6 minutes no one would've guessed based on what she looked like!

One of my favorite parts was on the run some kids had side walk chalked for their mom. They wrote... "GO MOM!! Dad's still asleep!"

The last triathlon I watched there were tons of mom's carting kids around in the heat to cheer on dad. Now, it was dad carting the kids around to cheer on mom. And twice I saw a mom step out of line before the race to help dad with a screaming kid. There were dads exhausted before the race started with the kid screaming for mom, and other sympathizing dads giving the "I feel you dude" nod and chuckle.

There was the dad there to watch his 30 year old daughter. She had just gotten married in October. Her husband wasn't there because he couldn't miss his fantasy football draft. Seriously....really? I'm all about guys doing guy stuff and having guy time, and I can't even argue the potential benefit of some of the fun/bonding around fantasy football. I even think all men need a little "man space" in their home. Who knows, maybe his wife didn't care if he was there. Maybe she had fantasy football picks too. I don't know the whole story. I just can't help but wonder what dad thinks of his son-in-law now. Regardless of some schlepper husbands, it was cool to see all the husbands and dads pulling for their girls.

It was VERY obvious that the dynamics are totally different co-ed. I've done some bike rides and you just want to remind some of the men that they're not going pro and they still have to take out the trash when they get home. In this race, if someone hit you during the swim (which they did!) You'd hear a loud "sorry!" Swimming in brown lake water in hoards of people is very interesting and basically nullified all the stroke mechanics and training. Oh well!

On the bike, I realized at one point that I'd totally forgotten I was in a race. I was watching the scenery, thinking about some stuff I'd read earlier, thinking about my new job, a friend I recently got to see, etc. Then, I heard "on your left" as a cyclist passed me and I came back to reality.... Oh yeah! I'm in a triathlon right now! That made me laugh... like I said, I'm hard core.

Then on the run, I was pacing with a girl about my age and another who could've been our mom. They had just met. We all introduced ourselves and hung for a bit. Another confirmation that this was a women's race! I could've used a little entertainment on the run... maybe a guy with a mustache would've helped.

But in the end, it all reminded me of why for generations throughout so many different cultures, women have always gone to the well for water...together.