Christmas care early today as the FedEx truck pulled up to my house. I had gotten an e-mail two days ago that my Xterra vortex 4 wetsuit had shipped. As I was bringing the box into the house, my 4 year old was yelling, “It’s like a present!” “yes it is!” I confirmed. I pulled the brand new wetsuit out of the packaging and it was gorgeous!
A little background info. When I did my first (and only) olympic triathlon I was one of only three people in my wave without a wetsuit. I found this a little embarrassing but wasn’t too concerned. I LOVE swimming but HATE open water swimming, especially in some of Wisconsin’s weedy mucky waters. I’ve always wanted a full wetsuit since I started triathlons but have never been able to afford one. I feel I will be a little less grossed out and better able to focus if wearing the full suit. When I joined TriWI I was given a coupon code for Xterra wetsuits and couldn’t help myself.
Of course, I wanted to try it on as soon as I opened it. This proved to be a little more difficult than I had bargained for. As I was trying to wriggle into the neoprene I could feel myself breaking into a sweat. I must have looked totally ridiculous! I sincerely hope there is no 1/2 Ironman time prerequisite for donning a wetsuit in order to participate. I can just imagine the race officials approaching me, “we’re sorry Nataly, you’ve taken way too long with that wetsuit, you are clearly not qualified to race this distance.” Then I would have to plead, “but I look like a total badass once it’s on!” And I totally do look like a badass, my 4 year old told me so. So, okay, he didn’t actually say “badass”, he said I looked like batman, and by that I’m sure he meant batgirl, but I’m going with badass!
Mom Racing Madness 