I Made It Out Alive!

Today I participated in my very first triathlon with some of my sisters. We did it in relay teams, and I was responsible for my team's half-mile swim.

I'm not, shall we say, very athletic.

I didn't care about where we placed... I only cared about making it out of the lake alive. Seriously.

I do love to swim, though, and I trained with Jonna (who swam for the other relay team) 4-5 times a week trying to build up to the distance - for those who care, it's 33 laps in a standard pool :)

I beat my best time: I swam the half-mile course in 19 minutes! I was so proud of myself... and the best part was coming out of that lake and hearing my sisters cheer me on.

The worst part? Running up a freaking hill after the swim so I could tag Amber for the bike leg of the race. How cruel is that? Honestly, that short run was worse than the swim!

Here we are with our team shirts:

From left: Amber (Jonna's sister-in-law), Jen, Gina, Me, Jonna, Debbie

And here's the back of our shirts:

We made Amber an official, honorary member of the sisterhood!

We got a lot of compliments on our shirts... and Jen's eldest boys Diego and Mateo were our cheerleaders.

I survived. I had a blast. I want to do it again.

And because I simply want to share... here's a recent picture from a Sisters' Night Out - it's not our whole group (we have 24 or 25 of us total now!), but you can see how lovely they all are. 

I love them.

Top row from left: Me, Sheree, Susan, Monica (and little Luke!), Sarah, Laura Beth, Renee

Middle from left: Susan, Cori, Debbie

Bottom from left: Jen, Jonna, Amy