Run like a girl!

I was a tomboy most of my life but I never was interested in being girly until I started doing triathlons. Isn't that weird? Triathlon plays havoc with the genders. Men shave their legs, and girls engage in unladylike behavior in order to to pee. Or so I've heard.
Right now, I'm alternating between mulling over a very hard race this weekend, feeling pissy about not having gotten my new bike yet, and wishing I'd taken the time to get flowers painted on my toenails.

Myles found this cartoon, but I convinced him that if a man used it, he might get angry comments from the ladies in the audience.

Anyway this cartoon reminds me how I felt one year ago at the 2006 Buffman and Squeaky Oly Triathlon , which took me four hours.

FOUR. HOURS.

The bike is 3 different canyon climbs (see below), and then finishes with a 10K in the hot west Texas sun.

I was dead last, my legs were trashed, and I was nearly crying, I was so tired. It was my first season, I didn't have much of a base. And, I was alone.

So very, very alone.

Then Shanna Armstrong came out to run with me. She had to jump up and down in place to go as slow as I was, and she chattered constantly. I could barely grunt in reply, but I was happy for the distraction, and grateful to have someone running alongside me.

They took down the transition while I will still out there, but not the finish line, 'cause Mike and Marti Greer don't take down their finish lines over in Buffalo Springs until everybody's had the chance to cross it. They announced me as the winner of the Athenas (I was the only Athena) while I was out on the course, and when I came across the finish line I walked straight across the mat and down the boat ramp and sat down in the water in a pained daze and refused to move and people brought me a cold beer and my first place prize. I'd never been so tired, or felt so slow.

And so, of course, I'm gonna do it again.

This Sunday at the Squeaky Buffman I'll give it my best shot.

My goal is simple: beat last year's time, (4 hours, 7 minutes), running like a girl.




...