I didn’t plan to do a triathlon this year. Then one day back in May, I received a phone call from Sharon Cutler, who was working on public relations for the Nissan XTERRA Central Championship. With her enthusiasm, Cutler somehow convinced me to take part in the July 29 XTERRA event in Keystone. After reviewing my options, I entered in the half-distance off-road triathlon, the MicroSupreme XT. This meant that instead of swimming two laps around the frigid pond in Keystone, I’d only need to swim one. Likewise, I’d bike 13K instead of 26 and run 5K instead of 10. This all sounded fine to me – especially the shorter swim! Although I swam swim team in high school, that was 10 years ago, and since then, I’ve barely swum at all. Nonetheless, I was determined to finish the race… (more…)