There’s a family of fairly serious triathletes here in Manitoba that has a license plate which reads: WE TRI. As a woman who chose “Adventure” as her word-of-the-year last year and who likes puns, I really dig that.
This summer, we’re tri-ing, too. That’s nothing new for Rainer and Tias, our intrepid multi-sport men.
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1. On your marks…, 2. Dashing to T1, 3. Woosh!, 4. Fly
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
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But we women of the family have been more hesitant to throw ourselves headlong into the water, as it were.
No longer.
Sandra did her first triathlon in Morden at the end of our camping trip.
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1. Beautiful, 2. She cracks me up, 3. T2, 4. One lap down…
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
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And the gauntlet is thrown. For there was a deal. A taunt. A motivation. “Sandra,” I foolishly said, “If you race in Morden, I’ll do Riding Mountain.” And she did.
The kids are in MiniU this week and Rainer and I headed out to give it a whirl. A practice try for the Try-A-Tri. Seems a bit crazy since the point of the Try-a-Tri is to…well, you get the picture. What is a Try-A-Tri? It’s a little, wee, baby triathlon to get you over your fear of the wetsuit…or the water…or the bike…or the run. It’s manageable because it’s wee. Just 300m Swim / 15k Bike / 2.5k Run.
Today I donned a wetsuit for the first time. Crazy fun. Today I did an open water swim in a cold lake. And I hate cold water. But…Crazy fun. The wetsuit keeps you warm and you slide through the water all buoyant and slick. Splashing around in a cold lake at the beach isn’t my definition of fun, but this had a purpose. This was quiet and adventurous. After that we did a bike ride and a long run. A fabulous, tiring day. An adventure. A workout. A date.
Yep, a date. Hours alone with Rainer, nothing to do but talk and be near each other. Sweating. Totally sexy.
So I’m committed to this attempt. I’ll Tri. I may even like it enough to contemplate doing a few sprint distances next year. I never thought I’d be sampling this sport so soon. I thought I’d give it a whirl in a few years but secretly thought I’d hate it. (The cold water thing.)
But in the end, after all, how can I resist the opportunity to look this fiercely cool?
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Handmade Homeschool 
Good for you! I wish you all the best. I roamed the web looking at “adventure” tris – canoeing or kayaking instead of the swimming part – last night and thinking that’s something I could tri. Perhaps your post has come at just the right time to give me that extra boost to turn tri into do.
Oh my gosh, that last photo is awesome. Good for you, by the way. Honestly, I feel exhausted – even nauseous – just thinking about all your exhertion 😉
Oops! I mean “exertion” (had to look in the dictionary much to my son’s delight 🙂 )
Fantastic pictures. And congratulations on beating the water ‘fear’.
You like puns? I’ll share my favorite with you.
Along the coast of California there was a bird sanctuary with many endangered species including a rare species of tern. One day, at a beach upwind of the sanctuary, a local sheriff’s department was destroying their confiscated drug inventory by burning it.
As they were tending the fire, a jeep from the bird sanctuary came tearing up and the driver demanded that they stop burning the drugs.
“It’s a windy day,” he said, “and the drugs are affecting the birds!”
“That’s not possible,” said the sheriff, and he went with the naturalist to the beach to investigate. When he got there, it was obvious that it was true – not a single tern was left unstoned.
That’s spectacular! Well done, all of you!
(Also, glad to hear MiniU is still going on – I remember dreaming over the brochures when I was school-aged…) 🙂
I am so very impressed! What a neat thing to embrace as a family.
I love your “custom fit” header.
Oh, and I wanted to add how awesome that last picture is!
Congratulations! I hope to try a tri… one day. I’ve got my sights set on the marathon for now. Like you, cold lake water does not appeal to me. But when mine are older, I can imagine a deal of the sort that roped you in eventually dragging me to the lakes as well…
Excellent!! What inspiration!