Summer 1999

Over the next couple of weeks, I will post some highlights and favorite memories of my 15 year running career. Here is one of those stories:

For my 30th birthday, I was 'gifted' a triathlon. Prior to that, I had never raced in any event. 

I was a total amateur.  Until I began training, I hadn't run farther than a couple of miles in my lifetime, and didn't even know how to swim the freestyle stroke. I took swim lessons and trained for two months. The morning of the event, I worked frantically to get the baby's bike seat off the back of my mountain bike. 

I'm not superstitious, well, not much, anyway - but I remember freaking out when I pulled the bib out of my racing packet and saw my number: 1313. We decided that it had to be good luck to get a number like that. And it was. 

I didn't set any records or even place in my age division - as a matter of fact, some tool volunteer disqualified me for crossing a double-yellow line and not adhering to the laws of the road, but I completed it. 

Winning!