I'm going to be a Bilby!

Tonight I started down the path of becoming a Bilby. What's a Bilby? Well, it's like a rat, a small marsupial, with big ears and a long tail.



Ha. Not that you really thought I was becoming a marsupial, but in case you did, I didn't.

Bilby's is the biggest (and coolest) triathlon club in Canberra and tonight I joined the novice program for this year. In 7 weeks, on 25 November I'll be doing my first tri. I'm so STOKED!! www.bilbys.org

I was on the reserve list (and was considering doing a ballet class if this didn't work out) and got a call this morning saying they'd had a few withdrawals and would I like to join? Heck yeah man!

So I went to the info session tonight, which was just like my first introduction to Triton Crew in 1995, without the "These are the Days' by 10,000 Maniacs playing for the slide show. There are about 90 novices this year and as we arrived, the existing Bilby's (cocahes and committee members - there are 320 Bilby's members in Canberra, only about 10 on the organizing committee) were setting up T-shirts, singlets, and water bottles. You'll never guess the colors... BLUE AND GOLD. Yep, once again I will be wearing the blue and gold in a skin tight uniform (if I decide to get the tri suit). Funny how a theme can follow you.

And for those of you that were Triton crew with me, you'll remember the gold Avigon shirts that the varsity wore? These were as coveted on the women's team as were the striped shirts on the me's team. You only got them after your novice year - or, even more scandalous, if you were dating a varsity man you might 'accidentally' wear one of his striped shirts one day - so they were definitely a status symbol. Within the small world of Triton crew.

Well, these blue shirts are given to each novice class and have a different Bilby mark on them (feet, the tail, the whole Bilby) to mark the year. This year is the 20 year anniversary of Bilby's (which is about how long triathlon has been in Canberra and Australia total) so we got these cool race singlets with a new 20 years sign on them. But no blue shirt (which I already knew I needed, but wanted to 'earn' ). BUT, they had boxes of old blue shirts that they let us have! No way would that have happened at UCSD - but I like it better... I've paid my money, I'm in.

Now I just have to show up! Sessions start next Tuesday -
Tuesday, 6pm - Running
Wednesday, 6:30pm - Info Session (how to change a tire, wha tto wear, etc)
Thursday, 7pm - Swim (! The last time I was in a pool doing laps was when I was a hornet in 1992! Oy!!)
Saturday, 2pm - Cycle
Sunday, 8am - Running

I'm so excited to be part of a team again, to be around fit, positive, enthusiastic people! BRING IT ON!!!!