It’s Official.

I did it.  I faxed in my registration for the Danskin Triathlon in July.

EEEEKKKKS.  I think I want to throw up.

Come July 13th, I will be killing myself swimming .75 k, biking 20 k and running 5 k.

Dear God please don’t let it be as hot as it was in 2005 or as windy as it was in 2006.  If I had to pick though, I’d rather have hot than windy.  But neither is better.  A perfect temperature day would be great.  kthxbai.

My goal for this year is to beat my best time which was from 2005.  My final time was 1 hour 51 minutes and 17 seconds which broke down to 16 minutes and 54 seconds for the swim, 47 minutes and 52 seconds for the biking and 39 minutes and 6 seconds for running.

My time from 2006 was awful in comparison but I was battling some serious back problems.  My final time was 1 hour 58 minutes and 40 seconds.

Can you sense the enthusiasm dripping from my words? 

In all reality though, this event is just a phenomenal experience after all the pain.  Maybe one year I’ll get it right and just go watch instead of participate 

The official charity of the Danskin Triathlon is the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Cancer research, of any kind, is near and dear to my heart — my mother in law is a two time breast cancer survivor (she is a FIGHTER!) and my grandfather died of cancer.

After the elite athletes kickoff the triathlon these are the people that will crossing the finish line before I even start to swim,  the next group of women to go are the cancer survivors.  And that, is truly amazing to watch.  These women have struggled through some of the toughest moments of their lives and here they are, doing the same triathlon that I’m kicking myself about signing up for! 

The first year I did it, there was a team named Team Kathleen and it was so emotional to watch this group of women.  One of the woman was using arm crutches and she was surrounded by women that were doing the 5k run (well walk for them) portion with her, as a team.  It brought tears to my eyes.  It was so emotional. 

Watching all these Survivors really puts things into perspective.  It gives you courage and motivation when you most need it — before the start of your heat.  And it gets you through it.  If they can survive cancer, you can surely get through 2 hours of pure hell swimming, biking and running, right?

And this year, I’ll need all the help I can get so I’ll be feeding off the energy of the morning once again and hopefully won’t go into an asthma attack after it’s over, like I did 2 years ago.  Ummm, yeah.  True story.