Why Tri?

Damn it.

Thanks a lot, M. the Reasonable. You had to plant the little seed. Now I'm actually thinking about buying a bike and becoming a better swimmer and...*gulp*...training for a triathlon.

I know that when I see him tomorrow, if I mention this, he'll just grin that happy grin of his and say something like, "Awesome!" or "Excellent!" and I'll just stand there thinking, "I can totally do this!" And six months from now, when I'm endlessly blogging or updating my Facebook status about how tired my arms/legs/butt/brain are from becoming a flippin' triathlete, I'll wonder what I was thinking and how I'll ever accomplish it. It's like I can see my future, and it looks...

Kinda cool, actually.

Here's the thing about goals: When you've worked your butt off (literally) to lose 80 pounds and you have faced down your biggest obstacle (your own rotten self-esteem) to become a runner, suddenly the world starts looking a little different. Okay, a lot different. Sure, I still struggle with running sometimes and I swim in super-slow-motion with my head above the water. And I haven't ridden a bicycle (the stationary bikes at the gym don't count, obviously) since some time in college...and I left college in 2001. I'm not exactly looking at instant success here.

But that's not the point--I don't want instant success. It's taken me three years to lose 80 pounds. Believe me, that wall looked impossible to scale when I was 222 pounds and sitting across a desk from a competitive power-lifter named Brian (B. the Sadist) who smacked his gum and told me it was no problem, I could lose 90 pounds by the new year. But I've scaled it, and also the wall that G. the Meanie set before me--a wall of running and giving him the finger behind his back and watching him roll his eyes every time I whined.

Something about the thought of doing a triathlon is calling to me, though my knee-jerk reaction when M. said, "Maybe we'll make a triathlete out of you!" was to deny the possibility. That's thirty-plus years of "I'm not an athlete!" talking louder than the little part of my heart that knows I can do it. The good news is that I'm taking that loud voice less seriously these days, and thinking, "Why the heck couldn't I be a triathlete?"

I did my homework. What I've found is that there are different kinds of triathlons. A "sprint" triathlon involves 750m (.47 mi) of swimming, 20k (12.4 mi) of cycling, and a 5k (3.1 mi) run. Well, I can do a 5k run. And when I swim at the gym, I usually do 500m so working my way up to 750 wouldn't be difficult--I'd need to learn a proper freestyle form, but I'm not too daunted by that. I'm even confident I could work my way up to riding 12 miles on a bike once I get used to riding one again.

There's equipment to consider. I don't have a bike, a helmet or proper biking gear. I wouldn't even begin to know how to change a tube if my tire went down. But that's the stuff I'd learn along the way, I suppose. My current Speedo is getting a little too big, so a new suit would be necessary at some point. Goggles, maybe a swim cap.

At this point, I'm exploring the possibilities, and I see nothing wrong with improving my skills in these three sports even if I never combine them all into one competitive event. So, dear readers, what do you think? Should I go for it? What advice would you give a tri-newbie?