0 The things I promise myself

I will only race the Mt. Tabor Circuit Race if it's not raining, I said. I will only ride out to Hagg Lake and do the open water swim if the weather is warm, I said.

I lie to myself.

I did it all anyway, in the rain. What else was I supposed to do? It is predicted to rain until the end of time around here. I have poison oak (a small price to pay for a weekend in the sun) and I am on steroids- a lot of them. The steroids make me crazy. The rain makes me depressed. I had no other choice.

The Mt. Tabor race, aka The Murderhorn, consists of 6 laps up and over the volcano. It is not a large volcano- total elevation gain on each lap is only 136.6 feet- but it gets pretty painful sometime around lap 3, at least if you're me and training has been minimal to nonexistent. I was beyond grateful to only race 6 laps- the senior men did THIRTY. I think I would have died of a heart attack before I could get to lap 10.

I kind of like to climb, being a small person and all, and I kind of like to descend now that I have a super rad race bike, so I have to secretly admit...I like Mt. Tabor. It hurts and I feel like I am surely going to gasp my last breath the whole entire time but, dare I say it? I enjoy it. Even in the rain. Lots and lots of stupid rain.

Then I went home and read a book while Hazel took a 2-hour nap. Bliss.

I had the same rule for my Sunday activities as I did for Saturday- no rain. I didn't follow it. I set off at 6:45am to ride the 37 miles to Hagg Lake with Michelle and THANK GOD she came along. Because, yeah, you guessed it, it rained. Riding with her made it so much more bearable and fun.

I barely made it to Hagg Lake in time to register, throw on my wetsuit and jump in to the freezing cold water before the 2000m swim started.

The whole event was horrific. There is a reason the swim is the first event in a triathlon- maybe because it is not advised to jump in to cold water when your heart rate is still sitting at 150bpm after a bike ride. I couldn't get my heart rate down to a manageable level and I panicked. I have always been a slow swimmer, but this was ridiculous. It took me a good 5 minutes floating on my back just to calm down enough to flip back over. Even then, my heart rate absolutely refused to go down. It was an awful catch-22- I couldn't speed up enough to warm up (my hands and feet felt like they were going to fall off) and I could never go slow enough to get my heart rate down.

Worst open water swim EVER.

Afterwards, a very worried Barkernews quickly escorted an almost hypothermic me to a heated vehicle where I had to stop shivering long enough just to put on dry clothes. My time was terrible, but I SO did not care. I just wanted to go home, be warm, and have a normal heart rate.

I made Barkernews ride home in the pouring rain and then I went home and laid on the couch for two whole hours. Hazel took a wicked long nap. I didn't feel the need to move, so I didn't.

Then I went to Happy Hour with Barkernews and Hazel because it was still raining and at some point in the deluge, what else are you going to do?

Next time, I will listen to myself and avoid open water swim when the temperature outside is below 75 degrees and I have just ridden 37 hard miles. For real.