I’ve spoken before about what led me to triathlon, and the mistakes I made in training for my first half-iron distance race. If you read the post, you might understand why I had some reluctance to start up again.

The goal has always been the same, though: complete an Ironman before I turn 30. It seemed a lot further away when I was 22 and in the best shape of my life, but, hey. Whatever, right?

When I wrote that post, I didn’t realize that I’d be on the other side of the planet for my honeymoon to Japan and The Philippines, then recovering from it, for the entire month of April. I didn’t realize that my husband’s job would be transferring to New York City, or that I’d go through depression over the continuous life-change limbo that it created and an obsession with searching for real estate in the entire Tri-State Area before finding home in Connecticut.

I digress.

What I’m saying is, I thought I wouldn’t already done my second 70.3 by now. I haven’t. In fact, I’m still getting over my fear of open water. I had only gone one time to the lake before deciding to bite the bullet and try another tri. Enter Towne Lake Tri.

Mark heard about the race through his running coach’s client. It took place on Labor Day, and there was an Olympic distance course and a sprint. Knowing full well my open water handicap, I went for the sprint. The setting was a small man-made lake in the subdivision of Cypress (a suburb of Houston) called Towne Lake. Continue reading →