Who would have thought?

(Mike made this video for me)

Who would have thought that I, Rhiannon Nielsen, would ever do some much physical activity in one year? Who would have thought that I could swim without having an asthma attack? Who would have thought that I could actually run more than a mile? I certainly didn't.
Last year I made a lengthy list of things I wanted to see happen and change about myself. Well that list fell to the way side and I thought I could never do anything that was physical activity that didn't consist of walk Jersey to school or walking up and down my stairs at home.
I have made some serious improvement. So far have down 4 races and one of those was a triathlon. On Saturday. I did it. I'm so happy, tired and a bit sore. I have been training for months. I know that I could have trained more but what I did seem sufficient. I now know that I want to keep up this routine of training.
It all started when my friend Sarah suggested that we do a triathlon before she turned 30. (she turns 28 on Tuesday) I didn't want to train and train without actually doing something. So I signed up first for the triathlon. I wanted to do a triathlon close to home with the lest amount of expense. Luckily there happen to be a triathlon that was coming up that was close to home. I could train in the lake and I was close so my Sister in Law could come to the lake to watch my kids. This lake or reservoir is in her neighborhood. We spent many afternoons at the lake this summer,  to practice open water swimming. It was hard to get use to but once I didn't it wasn't hard after that. Again I didn't want to put so much expense into the whole thing because if I didn't like it, I didn't want to have wasted money.
I was nervous on Saturday. I had been training all three activities but there weren't many times that they were all together. I knew I could swim fast and biking wasn't to hard but I knew my running wasn't my greatest strength. My goal was to finish within 2.5 hours. I finished at 2 hrs and 19 min. I was thrilled.
I started to cry right before I went into the water because I could see my family watching me on the side cheering me on. At every point they were waiting and cheering me on. I'm so grateful for their support to help with the kids so I could train. I'm so grateful for Mike for his patience with me in doing this. For the use of his bike and for his encouragement. (I think he was a little jealous that he wasn't doing the triathlon himself.) But next year we have another triathlon that we are going to do together.