Back in the lanes

Walk out of the locker room and the smell of chlorine hits you in the face. Ahhhh....I love that smell. Call me crazy, but I guess its because it brings back so many memories of my BC (before children) life. I loved racing in triathlons and was pretty decent at it. My first triathlon, an Olympic distance (0.93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run) I came seconds (literally)  from breaking three hours. My time 3:00:01 all because some gels fell out of my racing shirt pocket during the run and I went back for them! agghh! 


Anyhow, I went swimming today at the YMCA. Just getting the kids from the car into the gym was a workout. I put Andrew in the sling (plus carried the diaper bag and gym bag), Meredith in the umbrella stroller and Benjamin helped push the stroller. Of course there weren't any close parking spots (I firmly before that next to the handicap spots, should be parent parking for small children. Seriously, try to get 3 kids under 3 inside a building!) so it took us about 10-15 minutes to actually get inside the gym. Took Meredith and Andrew to the Infant room...Meredith begins to scream, Benjamin looks suspicious, like he knows whats going on. Benjamin put the death grip on my finger and we walk down the hall to the toddler room. His eyes big, my finger now completely white. We say hello to the teacher and the hand off goes very smoothly, no tears. I stood back and watched as he quickly got interested in all the toys. I dart out of site and get changed to go swim. 


swim suit - check
swim cap - check
goggles - check
kick board - check


I think I remember how to do this! The water felt great and my technique...not too shabby for not being able to swim, in forever. I swam 1,300 meters and even remembered some drills to work on. I could have kept swimming all day, but little babies have a 2 hour time limit that they can be in the childcare. And since it took me approximately 20 minutes just to get them to their room and I still had to shower, my time was closing in. 


As I was trying to remember the combination to my lock, a lady stopped and asked, "are you on a swim team?" I thought, really lady I am so out of shape, you think I'm on a swim team???


I told her no and she asked if I was a good swimmer. "I'm ok, I used to be much better."
"Oh, then maybe you can help me." Is she really asking me for advice?  


She proceeds to tell me how she gets out of breath when beginning her swim, but after awhile she breaths fine.

"Oh yeah, I felt that way today; it's my first day back in the water after having a baby. It's like running a race, you start out too fast because of the adrenaline pumping. Just tell yourself to slow down."

She said she never thought of it that way, but I was probably right. She told me she was getting ready to do her first triathlon. And asked if I had any advice for race day.

I said, "have fun."

We talked 'triathlon talk' for awhile. It was so good to talk to another adult, and even better that the conversation didn't revolve around diapers, milk supply, teething, time outs, toddler beds, etc.

Who knows, maybe I'll go dig up some of those ole' triathlon racing plans and "have fun"

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In other news: yesterday this little charmer turned four months:

Not really sure where the time has gone, but it's quickly flying by.