Dear Tracy,

The first tri I did was an Oly. I knew nothing about it. My friend, Nic, did all her training on a bike in the gym. Our first STOP (of many) on the bike portion of the race was to teach her how to fasten her helmet. As Denise would say, OY! It was insane. Yet, we made it across the lake. We made the bike distance. (We stopped 7 times for Nic to catch her breath, use her inhaler, etc.) We walked 6.25 miles. We were dead last across the finish line. Our picture was up on the website, the only picture up for two weeks. "Congratulations to all the first timers", it read.

You can do this. Maybe not as fast or as gracefully as next year or the year after that. But of course you can do this. Take a deep breath. Keep training. And don't worry. It's there to be done. L.