My sister’s first triathlon….

On Saturday, I went with my daughter, my parents, and brother-in-law to watch and cheer on my sister in her first triathlon.  It was held in South Delta, BC at the Ladner Leisure Centre.  Over the past few months I have been hearing a lot about how she was doing with her training.  She talked about her latest swimming time, cycling (which I mentioned in one of my previous blogs), and her running (which she doesn’t really like). It was so exciting hearing about how she was doing because I knew she has wanted to do a triathlon for a very long time and I know how hard she had trained for this event.

The night before the event my daughter stayed up late to make a huge sign for us to hold up while cheering on her aunt. The day had finally arrived! We got there in time to wish her luck and give her a huge hug and kiss. There were lots of people there to cheer on their loved one.  The atmosphere was incredible!   As we were waiting for her to start, we were all peering though the glass wall while she waited for her turn to get into the pool.  “There she is,” yelled my daughter.  Watching her swim, I had a tear in my eye – okay a few tears.  I could feel my heart fill up, I was so proud of her!  We were all so excited we could hardly contain ourselves.

We ran outside and around the building, waiting for her to finish the swimming part.  She ran outside into the cold.  The weather was not what the weather man had said it would be.  He had predicted sun but it was freezing!  Later she told me her body was so numb she couldn’t feel anything – which I guess was a good thing – because she had to run quite far to get to her bike.  Once she got there, on went her gear.

We were standing close by, yelling and cheering her on, waving our sign and our balloons. I think we were the noisiest ones there! Wow! The thought going through my mind was, “this is incredible!” I had never watched a triathlon before so this was very exciting for me.  We stood by cheering everyone on their bikes as they went by.

Then my sister went from biking to running. I ran with her for a block to see how she was doing.  She said she felt like she was going to die.  Nevertheless, she held her own, and as she crossed the finished line we were all there to cheer her across. I felt SO proud of her!   She did a fabulous job and was very happy with her time of 1:37:53 as she was hoping to do it in just under 2:00. She was beaming all day and had every right to.  Later that day I got an email from her saying that she wants to do it again.

“Who’s in?” she said.

“I am!” I said.

I will do the running part in her next event as I’m not a swimmer or biker.  I am so looking forward to it!