Confucius say…
by carlywen ~ February 19th, 2011. Filed under: Uncategorized.While teaching my grade 8 social studies class about ancient Chinese philosophy this past week, one my students read aloud his favourite quote from Confucius, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s incredibly cheesy, I know, but the quote really stuck with me because I feel that it sums up me and this triathlon. Sure, doing a triathlon seemed unattainable, but it’s all about taking that first step. When I first decided to do a triathlon in November, the distances seemed impossible for me to do. There have been several times since then where I’ve tried to convince myself that I wouldn’t be able to do it, I guess I was somewhat of a self-saboteur.
However, Wednesday night gave me the boost I needed; I had my first timed swim. I swam 1089m in 26 minutes. Even though I’m not totally impressed by the time, it’s a huge improvement when I started swimming just two months ago. Had I done this in December, it probably would’ve taken me over two hours because I would have taken a 5 minute break after each lap. I can’t believe I actually swam for 26 minutes straight. The thousand mile journey isn’t so far anymore.
On another note, how gorgeous was today??? One of the things I love most about Vancouver is that the people who live here really know how to take advantage of beautiful days. There were so many people out and about today. I went on a short run from my apartment to Jericho and back. Even though that run would normally take me less than 30 minutes, I was gone for over an hour because I playing around on the beach. All sunnyness aside, it was bloody cold.
I kept the run short today because I didn’t have the materials to prepare my feet with moleskin, duct tape, or whatever else will help. It’s usually just after the 5k mark where my feet decide to turn on me so I made sure not to cross that painful line.
Next up: 40km bike ride tomorrow morning to Iona!