I am in a fit of shoulder pain right now, but do you see how I sacrifice so I can blog for you?

Because I blog regularly, as you’ve noticed. I don’t want to let you down or anything.

The indoor triathlon was Saturday. Thus, the shoulder pain. I may have completely shattered all my expectations for the 500-meter swim on Saturday. I hadn’t done better than 21 minutes, but on Saturday I swam with everything I had to give and finished the 500 meters in 12 minutes, 14 seconds.

I couldn’t believe myself. My awesomeness was overwhelming.

I felt fine, too. You see, my shoulder started hurting about two weeks ago. I’ve been lifting weights a little bit in anticipation of the swim and because upper body strength is full of the fantastic, plus it helps with running.

I can’t lose with upper body strength!

Except that today I can barely keep myself in my seat here at work. I only got on my computer a few times over the weekend, too.

Painful.

I have taken four Motrin and those little puppies better start getting to work before my arm falls off. Shoot, I had some sort of heinous shot last fall, like typhoid or diphtheria or Chinese Fallapart and everyone said, “Oh, watch out! That arm will hurt tomorrow.”

But it didn’t. Maybe this is a delayed reaction.



So there was one other woman in my age bracket for the triathlon and I smoked her. It was awesome because without her, my first-place status would be seriously in question. I congratulated her and hugged her and was really proud of her because I kept my eye on her the entire time, believe you me, and she pushed herself hard.

She worked just as hard as I did, I just happened to be faster. Or maybe I had more practice.

I’ll be honest with you; I’m not really used to winning. I’m fortunate that I feel a strong sense of accomplishment when I finish these events. I’m proud that no one had to dredge the bottom of the pool for my body on Saturday. I’m carrying an extra 9 pounds or so, and I’m not being modest when I say I’m not as in shape as I should be although obviously I’m no couch potato.

But winning was an interesting experience for me. I felt a little sheepish. My little triathlon was full of people like me: we wanted to do well and finish and there just happened to be winners. I don’t think anyone was a superior athlete and I just fell in love with the whole little group of us hanging out while the trophies were being handed out.