You're Running a What?!

I've always been intrigued by the idea of a triathlon, particularly so after this weekend in Kiawah 3.5 years ago.

I can handle my own with swimming, can fairly easily tackle the running portion, and I love to bike around everywhere, so I've thought about it. The idea got as far as actually going and trying on one piece bathing suits and joining the local Y so that I could practice the swimming. But it's the whole thing where you have to do the swimming first and then the other stuff. If swimming was last? I probably would have joined the triathlon train years ago.

But then I was introduced to the idea of the Winter Challenge, a triathlon race held in February that doesn't involve swimming. It switches out swimming with kayaking. Now, I can't kayak to save my life and didn't feel like investing in one to learn how during the cold winter months. The winter challenge was almost a no-go for me until I saw that they had a duathlon portion: a trail run + a trail ride.

Done and done.

The duathlon looks something like this:

- 2.25 trail run

- 10 mile bike ride along trails

- 4.75 trail run

The race is one month from tomorrow and I can't wait! Haven I taken my new mountain bike out on an actual trail yet? Well, no. Patrick and I have mostly been sticking to the paved areas around town and in our neighborhood. It's been so cold around here lately and we haven't had the time to make the trek out to Harbison State Forest yet. But, with forecast highs in the upper 60s this weekend and no Sunday plans, you can bet that we'll be hitting the trails very soon.

Do I have any goals for this race? Not really. My only goal is to complete it!

Plus, I'm pretty excited that I'm getting a lot of use out of my new bike. We've been tackling some crazy hills around our neighborhood {the downside of living super close to a river} and exploring areas of Columbia that we usually don't or haven't explored before. I can't wait to get back down to Kiawah on my Townie cruiser though... my legs aren't going to know what to do with a completely flat terrain.

Are y'all training for any fun races this year?