swimming for burritos

In June of 2008, some of my friends were talking about competing in an event called The Burrito Union10-Hour Triathlon - or now better known as "death by tri". Not being a quiet person, I pipped up by giving my opinion on running (it should only be done whilst chasing a volleyball or soccer ball), biking (doable) and swimming (by far the easiest of the three).

Me and my big mouth. I should have never mentioned that swimming was easy, nor divulged the fact I was a competitive swimmer.

As it turns out, they needed swimmers for their three-person teams. How "death by tri" works: a team of three people - although some crazy folks did it all themselves - strives to complete as many triathlons (600m swim, 14 mi bike, 3.1 mi run) they can in a 10-hour period. One person swims, one bikes, one runs. After much prodding, I told my friends I'd think about it.

I remember talking to my dad about it, because that constitutes "thinking about it". The conversation went something like this:

B: Dad, my friends are doing this "death by tri" thing and want me to do the swimming part. What do you think?

D: Bec, what's the worst thing that could happen?

B: Well, I could drown and die.

D: (laughs) You took to swimming like a fish and you're a strong swimmer. You're not going to drown. Go for it.

Thanks to encouragement from Dad (and continued prodding from friends) I agreed to swim on a team. Six weeks before the event. After I hadn't swam a lap in three years. I started swimming 3-4 times per weeks leading up to the event, so at least I wouldn't perform horribly.

Fast forward to the event. It was a chilly early morning (6:30 am) in Superior, Wisconsin but the masses were ready to compete. And I was ready, or so I thought. We were told the water temperature was 73 degrees. I'm sure it was....at the surface...but it was balls cold. Once I adapted to this ice bath, I was fine. Actually, more than fine. I passed both my friends who were swimming as well (on all the split times). Yes, they were beaten by a girl :) And the biker on my team had to hurry up because he wasn't ready for me to finish that early. Perhaps those days of 6:30 am swim practices finally paid off.

All in all, team PowderPuff Samurai finished five triathlons in 10+ hours. It may have been crazy, but it was a lot of fun. And I'm glad I was "coerced" into it.

We even found out that Duluth-Superior is a fun town, complete with patronizing Burrito Union, the sponsor of the "death by tri". I'd go back to Duluth just to eat there, being a self-anointed burrito connoisseur. Plus we discovered a mall of bars, meaning that one can bar hop without going outside. Seeing it gets balls cold in those parts it's a damn good idea. I also found out that UM-Duluth has an underground tunnel system for the same reason.

But why be contemplative about this more than two years later?

Turns out a plan is in place (unveiled to me on New Year's Eve no less) to return to Superior in 2011. And, go figure, swimmers are needed.

To swim or not to swim?