It's like I'm half triathlete, half human

An adorable neighborhood boy, approximately seven-years-old, kept riding by on his bike, his eyes fixed on the black cowboy hat my husband, Gary, had sitting out in our yard sale recently. After a few back and forth trips, Gary walked over to him, placed the hat on his head and told him he could just have it.

His excitement about this unexpected gift prompted him to bike home to his family a few houses down the street and tell everyone the good news - including his brother.

Several minutes later, the two youngsters reappeared, one of whom was grinning ear-to-ear with the oversized cowboy hat atop his head.

They began looking at more of our yard sale items, and the kid with the cowboy hat announced to his brother, not knowing we could hear him, "It's like I'm half cowboy, half human."

Gary and I chuckled as quietly as possible to ourselves and then busted out laughing once they were out of earshot.

Though humorous, what this young fellow said seriously reminded me of how I feel race morning when I don a swim cap, my bare feet planted in the shifting sand of the shallow water in the lake, the race before me weighing heavily on my mind.

Me at my 2nd tri on 9/14/08.

I feel like I'm somebody else, certainly not the makeup-wearing woman clad in a business suit and four-inch heels most days.

There is, indeed, almost a dichotomy of personality. When you're out in the water or on the road, your body sweating, your nose running, your pores collecting dirt from the wind, all while you wear a skin-tight tri suit, you realize something very simple about yourself: Right then, you are just a machine.

It's no wonder heading back to the office the next morning, having curled your hair, put on some lipstick and snapped your pearls around your neck, that you feel like a girl again, the machine put aside until the next race.

But on that particular day, this new cowboy's innocent truth not only caused me to laugh at the moment, but also served as a reminder that whatever half I am, I should never take any portion of it too seriously.