Couch-to-Triathlon

Hello!

Welcome to the Dorie's Stories {devotional} Blog!

It was over ten years ago this month that I completed my one (and only!) triathlon.

I recently realized that I never had gotten a cool sticker for my car that has a little stick person that is swimming, biking, and running on it so that others could see that I was a very fit and active person at one point. I still intend to buy one of those stickers. I'm hoping the term "triathlete" isn't time-sensitive!

My devotional story for this blog post is about my "couch-to-triathlon" experience, an excerpt from my book, Hope Looks Good on You! A Comedian's Joy-inducing Daily Devotional for Women. . . .

Chapter 16: Couch-to-Triathlon

I wasn’t a runner. It’s as if I heard the lifeguard’s “no-running” whistle at a public pool that one time and then just applied it to my whole life.

I was once asked by my doctor if I was active; and I proceeded to tell him how much my husband runs as if that counted by osmosis.

I just don’t like it. My body didn’t seem built for it. My body was built for lunches and naps and comfy snuggling.

Then, one night my husband and I were watching a TV channel that only had shows about triathlons.

Our TV had about four channels in our language at the time and the other three must have been on a commercial break for me to watch the triathlon channel.

We watched these incredible people with disabilities finishing these races complete with swimming, biking, and running portions. It was inspiring, but even in that moment I said out loud, “I could never do that.”

As the words fell from my lips, something didn’t feel right. Why did I just discount myself like that?

I began researching triathlons in my area...mostly to try to find the shortest one possible while still getting credit for doing one. I found one about three months out and signed up. I paid the fee and posted it on social media. Now I had to do it.

Thus began what I called: my “couch-to-triathlon” triathlon.

I trained for three months over a summer, grateful that a new friend offered some free swim coaching lessons and to be my pool buddy several early mornings every week.

You think you know how to swim until you swim across an olympic-sized pool. The pool was always frigid, but by the time I swam back and forth a few times, I was grateful for it since I didn’t know you could sweat while swimming.

The running was not my favorite. It was a record hot, Texas summer and even at 5 a.m., it would sometimes hit one hundred degrees.

I had to borrow a bike. It was an expensive bike, but it was a broken bike. I didn’t realize I needed all the gears to work. I still trained on it, got chased by dogs on it, and flew off of it.

My husband thought I was a beast for riding it home bleeding from the fall, but I didn’t have another ride home.

The day of the triathlon was upon me. I got into the lake with my number written on my leg. I looked around and thought, “I should go up to the front of the pack...why isn’t everyone wanting to be up front?”