Raging, Ranting, Raving, and Rhapsodizing

My good friend Stephanie, who is also pregnant and due about a 6 weeks before me, invited me to do a mini triathlon with her.  I breathlessly accepted.  A co-worker of my dad's commented, "Most pregnant women get cravings... she's doing a triathlon?"  It's a 2 mile run, 5 mile bike, and 250 meter swim.  I've always wanted to do a triathlon... I grew up cycling, and I took up running a little over a year ago.  The only thing stopping me was swimming.  Dreaded swimming.

I was raised in Denver.  We don't have big lakes- at least not many that are warm enough or clean enough to swim in.  We don't have big rivers.  We definitely don't have an ocean.  The point is, Colorado kids don't really need to know how to swim any better than doing the doggie paddle at the local pool.  For most of us, swimming means splashing around in the shallows and jumping into/struggling awkwardly out of the deep end.

I was always jealous of my friends who lived in "planned developments" because they had sunny community pools that were accessed through a magical little card.  My parent's neighborhood isn't governed by an HOA and thus does not have a community pool, so if we wanted to swim, we had to go somewhere that cost actual money.  If you've ever met my dad you know that means that we didn't get to the pool much.

So, I could swim well enough to keep from drowning... but it's not pretty.  Ask me to swim from one end of a pool to the other, and ten minutes later you would have found me only half-way, clinging to the edge of the pool, coughing up water.

This is the same way I got into running.  After several pathetically failed attempts, I felt defeated... and needed vengeance.  Nothing motivates me so effectively as sweet, sweet retribution.  If you tell me I can't do something, I set off to do exactly that.

This triathlon has provided a perfect excuse for me to start training.  I agreed to do it around the middle of June, and the event is July 31st.  That means I've been training constantly to go from gurgling, choking, and gasping my way through half a lap to swimming ten laps.  With no breaks.  In about a month.  While pregnant.  I can totally do that.  What, you think I can't?  Because I am.

Now that I think about it, this swimming thing could have something to do with the fact that my body is shedding fat...