The sexiest I have ever been

After today, I think all the important pre-triathlon checklist items have been completed.

Today I tried out my Hanukkah gift from my Dad - my very own wetsuit! For you gentiles, Hanukkah is in December, so it's been hanging out in my closet for awhile. With an open water swim scheduled at 2pm, around 10:00 this morning I thought maybe I should unwrap it and make sure it fits. Eric was a tad surprised when he looked up from the laptop to find me standing next to him huffing and puffing, attempting to put on a wetsuit.

I was able to get it on and off independently, so I'm one step closer to Half Ironman success.

When I was about to leave for the swim, bike, run that the triathlon club was hosting, the temperature hadn't even reached 60 yet. The water temperature in Baltimore is 58 degrees. Perfect for jumping in a lake to do some swimming!

I can't jump in freezing water without my training buddy.

The instructions were that we had to wade in to the first buoy together before we began swimming. I was freaking out a little bit about how cold the water was going to be, but I tried to remind myself that no matter what happened, I didn't have to carry a telephone pole later.

The wetsuit was magical - my feet were freezing, but my legs weren't cold at all. Everything the wetsuit covered was nice and warm. Of course, when we started swimming, I thought my face was going to turn to ice and fall off like a stalactite. The wetsuit restricted my motion a bit, so I had to get used to that, but I was so buoyant that swimming felt so much easier.

We swam around the two buoys for a little while and then the guy in charge told everyone to swim to shore and get out. I was pretty shocked when I glanced at my watch and it had only been 15 minutes. In addition to feeling like I couldn't catch my breath due to the cold, the current was an unwelcome surprise. I forgot that fighting waves and sighting is a lot harder than laps at the YMCA. 

Once again, I got the wetsuit off (a little more challenging when it was actually wet), busted the bike out, and we did a 14.9 mile ride. My quads were burning from last weekend, but other than that it was a great ride. After the ride, we completed an easy 5K around the park (average pace 9:22). 

I have no idea why my face looks like that.

Now, I just need to do it all again in two weeks. With a ton of additional distance in each sport. 

I was starving when I was done, and Lily and her grandmother were nice enough to bring me some arepas, which are Colombian corn cakes. She told me to heat it up on the stove and put some butter on it, so I decided to combine the two and cook them in a load of butter. Delicious.

I'm noticing a theme here of me jumping into bodies of really cold water on the weekends. I think I need to come up with some other (more normal) recreational activities.