BYU Splash n' Dash

on tuesday, march 25th i was walking around campus and saw advertisements for the Splash n' Dash, a triathalon sponsored by BYU...scott and i had been talking about the triathons and races we were going to do all summer, so i thought, hey i'm in pretty good shape and this could be a good way to practice so why not? i signed up for the standard level: 1/2 mile (16 1/2 laps) swim and 5k (3.1 mile) run...saturday rolled around, i woke up about 9:45 a.m., made a big bowl of oatmeal ate the rest of my wheat french bread...i sort of lazed around all morning, read my scriptures, and got ready to go...i got to the RB for my heat at 12:30 p.m. i swam a warm up lap and talked to the girl i shared a lane with..i was a little nervous just because i hadn't ever done anything like that before, but i knew i could finish...we started and i did not pace myself well at first...by the second lap i was breathing hard and knew my adrenaline had gotten ahead of me and i needed to slow down if i wanted to last 14 more laps...i paced myself and felt like the swim went really well (except that alicia, who was kind enough to count laps for me, had to pull me out of the pool cause my arms were so sore), anyway my final time for the swim was 16:34.30...pretty decent for an untrained swimmer....i threw on clothes over my suit and started running...the clock does not stop so there is no break between events...the first mile was sheer hell...i didn't give myself enough time to breathe, and was panting all the way down canyon road...i came to the uphill and thought i might die...probably .7 miles uphill and the whole time my brain was thinking "what have i been doing wrong in my life that would make God take me off the earth right now? what do i need to fix?" yet somehow my legs kept moving...i got to the top of the hill and thought i could recover on the short down slope...instead i got a crazy bad side ache on the left...i tried thinking about other things, i tried running with my arm above my head, but nothing worked...i think that the pain of a side ache is magnified at least twelve times when you're running after swimming 1/2 mile at least 2 minutes faster than you normally do...i couldn't take it anymore so i started walking...i had walked about 30 or 40 yards when this guy came running up behind me, passed me, then turned his head and motioned for me to start running again...he was yelling something but i had my head phones in so i just kept thinking "no, go ahead, just leave me here to die"...he kept waving and slowed down his pace so i reluctantly started jogging and caught up to him...to give you an idea of what kind of guy he was, we were right in front of the creamery on 9th and a woman had dropped her grocery bags, so he stopped, picked them up, and started running again...anyway, he started asking me questions and talking to me to keep me distracted and keep me from walking...i found out he had never done a biathalon, his name is bryan, and he hadn't really swam since he was 12 which is why he had such a hard time with the swimming...we ran together for about a minute and he asked if i could push a little harder, i responded "if i push any harder you'll be carrying me across the finish line" (okay i wasn't that witty, but give me a break, i was in pain)...he said "okay, i'm going to pick up my pace a bit, but you just gotta keep running" i said okay, thanked him and he took off...i was waiting for him to get out of sight so i could start walking again...then i saw him go out to the road, pick up a sign directing the runners where to go and put it back in place then continue running...after i saw that i thought, "this guy just slowed his pace and sacrificed his time to get me running again. the least i could do for him is finish this race running"...so i kept running....it was even more hellish than the first mile...i could feel my breakfast coming up and even threw up a bit in my mouth...every exhale was forced but i kept my mind distracted..i thought about all of these people that have been helping me lately and seeing how this particular experience could relate to life...i came to the road between the brick oven and the tennis courts and thought "i am so done with this race" and sprinted to the finish line...there was bryan, cheering me across...
from this experience i learned 3 things, but i'll let you figure out how it applies to life...
peace+love