How it all began

I have several friends who run in various events, and I've always been jealous. It gives them a goal, an actual reason to work out, and an instant membership card to the Society of Crazy Athletes. You know who I'm talking about - the ones that go home early so that they can run at 8am in February, while you proceed to close the bar down and loose your credit card...

Now, I have various issues with my genetic heritage, but my knees particularly suck (hi mom!). I can run 4 miles on the street or on a treadmill, and spend the rest of the week hobbling around with a knee brace and a bottle of Aleve. Maybe all runners go through this at first, but I highly doubt it (they can't all be that crazy). So it was bizarre when my friend and colleague announced that she was doing a team triathlon - who knew such a thing existed? With training I could passably do the bike or swim segment, and it turned out that the original swimmer was more than happy not to swim a mile through balmy Lake Michigan, so here I am.

This is my very very first competitive event like this, at least since probably high school. I'm not sure how to train for it, I need to somehow find and buy a wetsuit, I think I might want a watch with a heart rate monitor, and someday I'll have to put it all together and actually swim in an ice-flecked e-coli harboring body of open water, strapped into an EKG monitor and 5mm of pliable rubber suit. I'm sure I won't feel like a dork.