I am a Triathlete!

I'm finally getting around to posting about my triathlon I competed in a month ago. It was amazing! Here I am right before the race with my cousin.

Most triathlons are in open water, but I decided to do my first one in a pool. I am not a strong swimmer and am certainly not fast. I was worried I might get tired and have to back stroke, but I was able to achieve my goal of doing it all on my front, either freestyle or breast stroke.

The bike ride was my favorite part: 12.1 miles through beautiful Cache Valley.

This is moments before I crossed the finish line!

It may have only been a sprint (half the Olympic distance), but it was a great start. It was really so much fun and I wasn't even sore afterwards; I surely should have pushed myself harder. I definitely want to do another triathlon and hope to do the Cache Valley Sprint again next year! We're officially triathletes!

Dirty Dash

At the beginning of this month I ran the Dirty Dash race, which is a 5k mud run. Our team name was "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'".

There were photographers throughout the race taking professional photos. I don't love these photos enough to purchase them, so that's why there just the samples. The race was up at Soldier Hollow in Midway. Some of the race was just a dirt road, but they had obstacles like hay bales and these walls you had to climb over.

There were sometimes fans spraying our huge amounts of water to make everything a muddy mess. There were tires to step through and tunnels to crawl though. Some runners slopped themselves with so much mud that they were brown from head-to-toe. I actually didn't get too dirty considering the mess I was running through. Near the end they had this huge blow-up thing. I tried to slide, but it didn't have enough air, so I had to jog down it instead.
At the very end there was this huge mud pit.
I decided to wear clothes that I don't care for so that I could just throw them away afterwards. Good riddance! I wore some old running shoes that were still great. After the race I washed them off and donated them to charity. I'm glad that people in Africa can benefit from them. Climbing out of that slippery pit was seriously an accomplishment.
Here is our team Cruisin' for a Bruisin' with the Dirty Dash stuffed pig.

It was really fun! It's definitely the kind of thing that is way more fun with a team than it would be by yourself. They're doing a 10k Dirty Dash in September if you're up for it.

Still Progressing

I'm still here and going strong. I've just been kind of lame about updating this blog. I'm down to 156. That means I'm down 36 pounds since mid-January and 54 since my peak at nine months pregnant.

I have still been eating right (mostly) and exercising regularly, except for last week when I had a bad cold. I haven't been as good about recording what I've been eating, but I'm determined to improve

A few Saturdays ago I ran the Heart of Hollday 5k with my mom. I hadn't run an organized race since a half marathon back in 2003, but it was great. We didn't push ourselves much; we made it in less than 36 minutes. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and made me want to run in more races.
I know that I kind of showed it in my last post, but it's amazing how much better I look since I've lost the weight. Chubby can be cute, but I sure feel a lot more beautiful slimmed down. It's pretty crazy that only three months ago I was 176, just over five months ago I was 192 and six and a half months ago I was 210 (still pregnant). It's pretty motivating for me to keep it up!

So, I am within my healthy body weight range now and have only 14 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight. At that point I can fine tune it to exactly where I want to be.