What have I done?!?

Am I finally in over my head?

Monday morning I got an email from Active Advantage. If you are a member, you know the one I mean. The free race entry email! You read the email, check the date, and....if the date is right.....you hover over your computer just before the designated time, holding your breath, hoping you are one of the lucky 5. 

The race? Tuckahoe Triathlon/Duathlon/Aquabike. If I was one of the lucky five, I could take my pick of which race I wanted. Over the next few hours I agonized over it. Should I? Shouldn't I? I don't have a bike. Or a helmet. Just a cruiser with a cute wicker basket. Seriously.

I was considering the duathlon. Two mile run. Twelve (.5) mile bike. Two mile run. I can do that without training. I ride all the time. I am training for a marathon. I am good to go.

BUT

A duathlon? As soon as the doubt crept in I knew I had to do it! And so, at 1:58 I got my laptop ready, with my mouse hovered over the button. Should I? Shouldn't I? 2:00. Time to click. And then it makes me sign in. UGH! This is new! I panic, because now I *want* to do this! I sign in, and it says 2 registrations left! I click.......

and I get in! Wooohoooo

Oh, crap!

I have no bike. I have no helmet.

Facebook to the rescue! I put out the call....and my neighbor just 3 doors down answers right away! She has a 7 speed bike in her garage that has hardly ever been used! WOW! It needed air in both tires, so I wheeled it allllll the way back home...3 doors down..... and left it out for the hubs to take care. That's what hubs' do,  right? 

Poor hubs. He comes home from a day of work, excited for me to have this loaner bike (and excited that he doesn't have to shell out cash for a new bike, lol) and gets the pump out. The pump is broken! The boy used it to pump up a basketball, and the pin broke off. Instead of telling us, he did what all boys are apt to do. He put it back in the shed. Broken. Poor hubs spent 20 minutes prying that pin out, and mangled the pump in the process.

Yikes.

Off we go to Walmart to replace it. They are renovating at our Walmart, expanding it to a Super Walmart, so we had to go in through Lawn and Garden and walk alllllll the way to the back of the store to get to the bikes. Just as I start to fan girl over the cute, yellow, floral bikes.....the fire alarm goes off. Seriously. It was probably a false alarm, but they evacuated us anyway. 

::::::sigh::::::

After several failed attempts to get out of the parking lot, due to all of the construction, we finally made it out, and headed over to KMart. I don't know about your KMart, but ours is a nightmare. It is cluttered, and dim, and a little scary. You go there when you have to, not usually because you want to. Luckily, they had Schwinn bike pumps, and we grabbed it and ran!

Whew!

Now I have 2 freshly filled tires, and am ready to go! I will take the bike over to the local bike shop and have them check it all out, and help me adjust it if I need to. I am so excited to start riding! I only have 5 weeks. 5 weeks!!!! before the race, so I plan to ride a couple days a week to get used to the bike. 

My only fear was that the race would turn me and my little seven speed bike away, but the race director says I can ride any bike I want! Woot! 

I also bought a book about Duathlons at Barnes and Noble tonight, so I will start reading that later today! 

I am giddy!

Have you raced in a duathlon or triathlon? Any advice for a newbie, who is just trying out a new form of racing?