Happy Birthday Triathlete!

It's taken me awhile to write this race report. It was the same course as the first Tri for Fun. I did it in 1:19, which shaved 4 minutes off my last time. Respectable. My friends and family were there to cheer me on and it was the first time my parents had seen me race so that was special. And it was on my birthday. A present to myself; doing a triathlon on my 36th birthday. So there's the report.

Except it's not. You see there is this guy. The bike god. He was there too. In fact we had a little friendly competition going on, and I felt confident I was going to beat him. I just knew it. Well as things like that go - he beat me. By four minutes. A decent enough amount of time so I can't blame the weather or the sun being in my eyes, or anything else. He's just that good. Well, he's a bike god. What did you expect? Anyway, it's not that he beat me, even though that stung for a bit, that made it hard to write this report. It's the realization that I'm getting older, and knowing there are people out there who are faster than me. And despite all my hard training this is probably as good as it gets. I think I just hit my limitations. And it makes me regret all the wasted years I spent hanging out as fatgirl. What might I have accomplished if I had only known back when I was younger and fatter that there was an athlete inside trying to get out? I might have done something great. Why did I ever settle for watching other people live their lives? Why did I wait until I was 33 to finally find mine? I'm 36 years old. Over the course of a few years I've lost 80 pounds, become a runner, a swimmer and a biker. I've done three triathlons now, and I'm going to run a half marathon in October. Those are my victories to be proud of, and I'm savoring each one of them. "Look what I've accomplished" I can say. But it's bittersweet when I think back and wonder "what might I have done?"