Irongirl Triathlon anyone?

Hi everyone! I went to cheer on several of my friends as they participated in the Irongirl Triathlon in Columbia last summer. There were all sizes, shapes and fitness levels represented there. I weighed 245 at the time and I saw at least half a dozen women who were my size or bigger competing.  It was amazing to watch and inspired me to tears. My friends (one in particular) all encouraged me to enter this year's event. At first, I wasn't going to, but then I thought....I have a year to get ready. I can certainly get ready to do this in a year, right? Needless to say, once they heard me say that, they didn't let up....so last week, I registered. AHHH!  There are about ten of us in our group. We meet monthly with a personal trainer/dietician who leads a brief discussion about some aspect of fitness/nutrition, etc. She has done lots of tri's and is perfect to lead us through this. Several of the women did the event last year, and some of us are new to the sport. It is exciting and scary. I think 8 months should be plenty of time to get ready. The swim is 1100 meters (about 1/2 mile), the bike is just over 17 miles and the run is 5K (about three miles) in that order. Anyone else interested? We'd love to have you join our group!

When is it?  The reason I ask is that I am a good swimmer.  A lousy runner, but a great swimmer, and usually swimming is the hardest part for most people.

It is August 24th, 2008. Most women in my group (we, too are all ages and sizes) say that the swim was (or will be) the hardest part for them. I'm a pretty good swimmer, lousy runner, too! I definitely need to build up my swimming endurance, but I did 15 laps in 35 minutes today! However, the longest I've been able to run at one stretch is 4 1/2 minutes so far. The good thing is they don't care whether you walk or run or both. You just have to be finished with the course in 4 hours. (I think). Think about it!

I forgot....here's the website if you want to check it out. http://www.tricolumbia.org/IronGirl/

mmmmm this may be what I am looking for, let me sleep on it and I will let you know. Hugs Kristen