The last time I wanted to do a triathlon (IronGirl in May), I had close to panic attacks just thinking about it. So when thoughts of Acworth Women’s Sprint triathlon rolled up, I firmly pushed it away. I did not want to feel overwhelmed and lose fun.

But I had a brand new bike and was biking a bit to cross train. There were friends who were doing open water swims for their longer distances, who were awesome enough to “baby” me through my first few open water experiences. Summer break made my non-training schedule go like clockwork. And before I knew it, I was doing all 3 sports in what might be considered some sort of training mode for a sprint triathlon.

I still hesitated. Doing 3 sports individually is a lot different than putting it all together on race day. And I have enough weakness in each of the sports that I knew I had only prepped up to 80% for the race. I don’t mean prepping to win (haha!), but preparing to the best so I can do my best in the race. (Of late, I’ve realized that showing up to a race is not what gives me satisfaction. Nor is it doing great in a race, although I will take that anyday. But the training, the discipline,  the excitement and frustrations all makes up for a great experience for me. A race is a learning curve for me and just showing up to race plots me on a graph without the support of the curve.)

But – I have trained. Even though it wasn’t following any training plan, I did my swimming and biking 2 times a week and running 3 times along with 2 times crossfit. Summer break helped me have a great 2 months of training.

And … I want to take it on as a challenge. I was once accused of being afraid. Even though I should not let that get to me, it rankles. It hurt me hard enough that I decided to take this triathlon on.

This sprint is supposed to be a great one for first time racers. Especially since it is a women-only race. The biggest thing it has going for it – the water temperatures are warm during this time of the year(my biggest concern is with cold water)!

So here’s to me giving this another shot!