You might be a triathlete if....

Ok, this post won't consist entirely of "You might be a triathlete if...", but it's still fun!

You might be a triathlete if you spend more time of your day being wet from sweat, chlorine/pool water, or a shower than you do dry.

You might be a triathlete if you own and wear more spandex than a bad 80's exercise video.

You might be a triathlete if quite a few of your cookbooks entail how to eat an entire meal on a bike.

You might be a triathlete if having 8 different sets of tan lines seems completely normal.

You might be a triathlete if you take your bike trainer with you to use in your mom's living room just in case it gets too dark to ride before you're done with her "to do " list.

And lastly for today,

You might be a triathlete if you buy an awesome 2013 Chevy Sonic LT Turbo but then exchange it two days later for a 2013 Chevy Cruze because your bike rack and tri gear don't fit.

That last one, yep, that happened to me this past week.  I was driving on borrowed time with my 2004 Honda Civic for about a year and a half before I finally called it quits.  The Civic had treated me fairly well, ran like a champ while leaking oil like crazy, didn't balk at any kind of snowy terrain I drug her through, and just in general dealt with mine and my husband's driving.  Red and I had been talking about getting a new car for quite a few months now, but the money just simply wasn't there yet.  Well, on my most recent trip to and from Bellefontaine the Civic decided that it was going to learn and show me some new tricks.  My personal favorites were when it would feel like I was driving over a rumble strip while sitting still, and trying to stall out while going 65mph down 75 South.  When the car began to get dangerous to drive down the highway, which we do a lot, it didn't matter what our projected timeline was to get a car, it was now officially time to get a car.  I called Red and told him to pick his favorite place and that we were going car shopping the next day and the Civic wasn't coming home with us.  

We get to the car dealership and everything is peachy.  Well I get sidetracked easily, and I saw a black Chevy Sonic Turbo.  I sat in it and a salesman asked if I wanted to take it out for a test drive.  OF COURSE I DID!  Woot!  So we head out for a 20 minute ride, and I'm in love.  Forget the fact that we came to the dealership to specifically look for a Cruze, I was now in love with a Sonic.  Great handling, great pick up, smooth shifting (manual), phenomenal response to any task I threw at it.  Yep, I was a happy camper.  We came back from our ride and I announced that the car was going to become mine!  Small problem, the one I test drove was $23,000.  Nope, not happening.  We were then shown a step down model, which was the exact same thing but didn't have heated leather seats, or other random nonsense that I didn't really need.  It still drove like a champ and was a blast to drive.  Fine, so we took THAT Sonic.  Red and I are happy as can be, enjoying our new little car, and watching the MPG increase regardless of how hard I pushed  her.  This was all fine and dandy until we decided to put the bike rack on the back and load up the car for our weekend trip.  Virtually none of our stuff would fit.  We could put my bike in the back seat if we put the seats down, Red's bike had no hope of fitting.  We couldn't fit Zo's cage, golf clubs, suit cases, or much else than people and back packs in the car.  Fooey.  So Red called the dealership to see if we can exchange the car or if we were stuck.  Thankfully the salesman was able to stop the paperwork in time so we could exchange the Sonic for the Chevy.  Yeah, that was pretty much an impulse buy that went south.  I still love the way the Sonic drove and handled, but we definitely needed something that could carry all of our nonsense for triathlon training.  This was quite evident when we ended up going to Bellefontaine after the exchange and we had the bike trainer, mat, stand, my bike, both our backpacks, plus my triathlon bag, all in the trunk with room to spare.  

We definitely could have made the Sonic work if we weren't triathletes.  But, Red and I are very much on the go triathletes who virtually live out of our cars, so the Sonic was not going to work.  So yes, you may be a triathlete if you exchange a phenomenal car for a bigger car simply because your tri gear doesn't fit.