My First Triathalon!

I did an indoor triathalon this weekend. You swim for 10 minutes, bike for 30 minutes and then run for 20 minutes. Then they measure your total distance to decide the winner. I'm not very competetive at all, so I could care less about winning. I just wanted to finish, which I did, and I was so happy about!
Robert and the kids came to cheer me on. Stanton was very excited about it! He woke up that morning and made me a "Go Mom" sign all on his own, and Robert said he watched me the whole time and just quietly kept repeating "Go Momma Go!" It was very helpful to look over an see him cheering! (Noelle and Winston got bored very quickly. Noelle turned her sign into a hat. )
The first part was the swim.
I could tell when I got there though that I was a little out of my league when I showed up, and everyone else was in their fancy speedo swimsuit with their goggles and caps, with their fancy gym bags, and I showed up in my swimsuit that has a skirt attached holding my clothes in my hand, tripping over my tennis shoes and sports bra that I kept dropping on the floor.
This is me swimming. I'm the one towards the back with no goggles and the white cap (that they so graciously gave me so I would fit in.) I've been told it looks like I'm drowning when I swim because I never put my face in the water, and I turn my head back and forth every time I move my arms.
I've learned now that my unconventional freestyle swimming is fine when I just need to get across the pool every now and then, but when I am swimming laps, turning my head back and forth twenty times per lap makes me very, very dizzy. I thought I was going to faint.
The same thing happened to me the one time I practiced swimming, but I thought it was just because I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I just layed down across the benches in the locker room, dripping wet, with people changing all around me (awkward), just to keep from falling over. This time I had to go straight to the bike. (I foolishly never practiced doing all three things in a row.)
So I moved on to the spin bike. I was sure that at any moment I would need to be revived with smelling salts, so I just pedaled very, slowly, like 8 miles per hour slow. Everyone else was pedaling like Lance Armstrong speed and flinging sweat all over the place, and I was just trying to get undizzy.
I had told Robert he could take the kids home after the swimming portion because its hard to watch 3 kids inside of a gym, so I thought he had left, and I was feeling bummed (and my bum also hurt from the bike seat.) So I just kept riding and wondering why they were calculating the 30 minutes in dog years cause it was taking forever, and I just kept saying little prayers to myself that I wouldn't pass out so I could finish.
Then Robert and Stanton peeked through the door with huge smiles and thumbs up, and I just stated crying. People probably thought I was a total kook, but I couldn't help it. I was so happy to see them! After that it seemed like everything was fine! I didn't go any faster, but I also didn't focus on how miserable was anymore. I just said the presidents to myself forwards and backwards a few times, and then the prophets forwards and backwards a few times and then the alphabet forwards and backwards (that's what I do when I'm bored somewhere) and then it was over.
By the time I got to the treadmill, I got a little second wind, as they say, and I felt great! I didn't have any problem running, and I was actually starting to enjoy myself, and I almost ran 2 miles!
One of the poor sweat flinging Tour-de-France ladies a couple treadmills down from me threw up all over the place as soon as she finished (Robert accidentally got it on video when he was filming me.)
So, for me, slow and steady did not win the race, but slow and steady also did not barf! That's the exercise motto I go by now!
I know it was not exactly a real triathalon and some people exercise that hard in an everyday workout, but I don't ever, and I was really proud of myself for finishing. Plus, Robert was super proud of me too, and it even benefited Epilepsy!
And hey, I didn't get last place either. I actually beat 3 people on the swim and 2 people on the run, but I finished dead last on the bike. I got 18th place overall (out of 19) for the ladies.
And I got a shirt too!