Leigh Trains For A Triathlon

It all started at the beginning of the spring, when my girlfriend Leigh and I moved into a new neighborhood in our southern town. Both the house and the neighborhood were definitely a step up for us. We were just out of college and moved from a small town home next to campus on the other side of town to a pretty affluent neighborhood with larger lots. We were both on starter salaries but my parents had funded the new purchase. We were definitely the youngest people in the neighborhood by a good 10 years.

I had designs on proposing soon, but I wasn't necessarily in a rush.

I'm Ted, I'm pretty tall and lanky at around 6'3". Good friends describe me as "goofy". I was a decent athlete in high school, but I'm definitely not in the shape I was in back then. Leigh, on the other hand works out relentlessly. She ran track in college and could still easily be a fitness model. Some people drink 4-5 beers to unwind, she runs 4-5 miles. It doesn't matter if she's sick, if she's on vacation, or if she's completely slammed at work. She always makes time to work out. It's almost annoying.

Leigh has a great body. As you'd imagine from all the working out, her ass is damn near perfect. She's got a flat, toned stomach, but not really a six-pack. Her boobs are small C's and are as perky and flawless as the day we met when she was 19. Her looks are stunning, green eyes, auburn hair, and tan skin. She's incredible.

She's smart too, book smart at least. She's not exactly what I would call "street smart." It's not that she doesn't have common sense, but she can be gullible at times, and her desire to always see the best in people make her very trusting of almost everyone. She tends to take what people say at face value. As you'll see, that leads to some of the misadventures described in this story.

We'd met in college, and Leigh was always a "free spirit", but never a slut.

A few days after we moved in, we were outside doing some yard work. The new neighborhood seemed to have some pretty high standards for landscaping, and the previous owner had neglected this aspect a bit. While we were working, 2 cyclists rode by that looked like a couple. They stopped to talk to us, and we found out their names were Jim and Steph, and they lived on our street at the top of the hill. It was great to meet new folks, and they were "young" for this neighborhood, I estimated mid 30s. Before riding on, they invited us to a bbq at their house the next evening, an invitation we gladly accepted as we were eager to make friends.

When we arrived the next night, there were three couples there including us, plus Nick, a single guy who lived across from Jim and Steph, and looked to be about their age. The third couple was older, maybe late 40s. I'm terrible with names and don't even remember their names- they were nice but didn't say a lot. We got drinks and then went outside on the patio where Jim was grilling.

Leigh, being so into fitness, was curious about how Jim and Steph had gotten into road cycling, and much of the conversation centered around that. It turns out that both Jim and Nick competed in triathlons. This if course fascinated Leigh, and she was asking all kinds of questions about it. I could see she was interested in the idea.

"It's the ultimate test of will," Nick said. "Your only opponent is yourself, and you have to stack 3 intense disciplines, swimming, cycling and running. It's all about stretching your body to the limit and seeing how much you can take." My first impression of Nick is that he was a good enough guy but a little full of himself.

"That's right, and this is the year I catch up to you, buddy," said Jim.

"Yeah right, Jim has never beat me in a tri in about 10 attempts." I could see that these two were good friends but very competitive with each other.

"How long are your races?" Leigh asked.

"Well, we've built up over the past 3 years. We started with shorter races, but we are going to do a full Iron man for the first time this year. It's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike, and then you run a marathon- 26.2 miles."

"Wow," said Leigh, "do you train with them?" she asked addressing Steph.

"Hell no, I'll go cycling with them sometimes, but I hate running."

Jim smirked, "Steph's 'assets' are a little much to run around with." Steph blushed, and I found myself blushing too as my eyes involuntarily went to her chest, which I'd already noticed was quite impressive in the skimpy tank top she was wearing. Steph was very pretty in fact, dark brown hair with a cute button nose and breasts that were definitely larger than Leigh's. She slapped Jim's arm somewhat playfully but I could tell he'd gone a little over the line because she looked genuinely embarrassed. It made her look cute.

"Well you've convinced me, I want in. I want to train and compete with you guys," said Leigh.

"Not sure that'll work," said Nick. "We're pretty experienced and when we go at it on a workout, we go a long way, and we go fast. We can't afford to have a newbie slowing us down."

I braced myself, knowing what was coming. The best way to ensure Leigh would do something was to tell her she was incapable or afraid to.

"I'd never expect you to wait on me. Just let me train with you, I'm a former D1 athlete and probably in better shape than you think. It will make me better to train with people who are better than me."

Nick gave her an appraising look, seeming to somehow notice her killer body for the first time. "Well we could give it a try. We're doing a swim at the gym tomorrow, if you want to come."

"I'll be there!" she said.

"Great, you can ride with us," said Jim. "Pick you up at 7:30."

The next morning was a rainy Sunday, and I certainly wasn't envious of Leigh when her alarm went off. I sleepily admired her as she stripped naked and slipped into a one piece bathing suit. She put on some workout clothes over it- a white top and black shorts. Quickly tying her ponytail, she bent over to kiss me. "Enjoy sleeping in, lazy-ass."

I slapped her ass as she walked away. "Try not to drown," I joked. I went back to sleep with the rain beating on the roof.

I woke up a couple hours later when the front door opened and shut. Hearing squeaky footsteps, I realized Leigh was home. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes. When Leigh appeared at the door, I rubbed them again, not believing what I was seeing.

Her white tank top was soaked, and she wore nothing beneath it. The thin material clung tightly to her breasts and stomach, and she looked like she'd just won a wet T-shirt contest.

Her nipples were completely visible as the top was now completely sheer. She was breathing hard, which caused her tits to jiggle a little. She was virtually topless.

"Leigh, it must be pouring. How did your clothes get that wet walking inside from Jim's car?"

"Ha, funny story," she said, still panting. "Nick and Jim forgot to tell me that they like to run home from the gym after their swim. Part of the training. I didn't come prepared with a sports bra but I didn't want to look like I was too tired or scared to do it. I just left my swimsuit in a locker at the gym. I'm gonna give Jim a ride to his car in a few. Babe, it was awesome, I really felt pretty exhausted after swimming for an hour, and I didn't know if I could keep up with them, but I did! It was so exhilarating running in the rain like that. My boobs are a little sore from all the bouncing though."

I groaned. "Leigh, I doubt they had much incentive to run ahead of you with your T-shirt completely transparent. You might as well be topless. What were you thinking?"

If she had realized how see through her shirt was before now, she hid it well. She looked totally surprised as she looked down at herself, but she recovered quickly and her eyes became defiant, and she put her hands on her hips.

"I resent you suggesting that the only way a woman could possibly keep up with the boys was by distracting them with her tits."

As I started stammering in my own defense, a knock came at the door.

"That's Jim, I gotta take him to his truck," she said, peeling her wet shirt off. "Wouldn't want him staring at my tits while I'm driving." She put on a dry shirt but I noticed she didn't bother with a bra. "I'll be back in 10."

And just like that I was alone, wondering to myself what the hell had just happened. My girlfriend had just been essentially topless and sweaty with 2 guys she just met yesterday. And worse, half the town had probably seen her running around like that. I was suddenly a little insecure with this new training arrangement that included Leigh doing frequent physical activity with these guys who were in better shape than me and had already pretty much seen her tits.

I was worked up, but when she arrived at home 15 minutes later, I had calmed down. Her demeanor was more conciliatory as well when she walked in. She immediately walked to me and we embraced. "Ted, I'm sorry for what happened. When you pointed out my shirt I was embarrassed but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

I didnt know what to say. I was still uncomfortable with what had happened and uncertain about her training with these guys. But I didn't know what to say without looking like an asshole. In the end I just caved and told her I was sorry too and that I didn't mean my comment the way she took it.

For the next few weeks, Leigh continued to train. She bought an expensive new tri bike. Her already crazy workout schedule was at least doubled. She was working out 2-3 hours a day, sometimes with Nick and Jim and sometimes alone.

We had Jim and Steph over one Friday night as I'd grilled some steaks and Leigh was allowing herself a rare "cheat" day. In addition to her training she'd become almost fanatical about her diet, eating super healthy and rarely drinking at all. But tonight I'd cooked the steaks perfectly and the wine was flowing, and we were all having a legitimately good time.

Somehow it came up that Steph was something of an Instagram influencer, she earned money as a brand ambassador on social media for a couple nutritional companies as well as an athletic apparel company. I was somewhat surprised that Steph, who was beautiful but came across so low key and understated, was routinely featured in Instagram ads where she sometimes appeared in skimpy clothing including bikinis and even lingerie. We found this out when a buzzed Jim showed a picture of Steph from her Insta- it was in black and white and featured her in a sports bra and panties. Naturally, I noted the Instagram handle for future searching purposes.

"You know, Leigh, you could make money doing this too," said Steph. "I've seen the underwear pics and your body is better than mine."

Leigh laughed nervously and avoided eye contact with me. I had no idea what the hell Steph was talking about and I think she and Jim were just now picking up on my carelessness based on Leigh's discomfort.

"Oh... I don't know," Leigh managed weakly. "I don't think I could put my body out there for people I don't even know to judge."

Jim quickly changed the subject and the conversation moved past it, but I couldn't shake the sick feeling in my stomach that I was the only one at the table who hadn't seen these "underwear pics" of my girlfriend. However, I resolved to address it with Leigh later and try to resume enjoying the evening, which I did.

When we got home, I didn't even have to ask. "Babe I know you probably have questions about the comment Steph made," Leigh said. I said nothing but just gave her a look that made it clear she should keep talking.

"Jim and Nick and I have a text thread where, well, once a week we send pics to each other in our underwear. It's not what it sounds like. It's to hold each other accountable for our diets and our training. The idea is that we can talk ourselves out of a bad eating decision or skipping a workout so that we won't look bad in our underwear. We do it every Sunday night. It's not flirty or sexual in any way, it's purely for motivation."

I was dumbfounded. "Yeah I bet they are motivated, Leigh. Let me ask you a question. Do you think Jim and Nick were sending underwear pics of themselves to each other before you started training with them?"

"No, they never claimed they did," she retorted with a defensive tone in her voice. "Nick told me that this would help all three of us because having a person of the opposite sex seeing these would raise the stakes on our training. He even made some sexist comment about it being 'the only helpful part' of me training with them. I was so afraid that if I didn't they wouldn't train with me anymore. It also made me mad when he said that, and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of backing down. Besides, my underwear covers the same as a bathing suit basically. It's not like I'm sending them pics in sexy lingerie. It's sports bras and stuff like that. Here, I'll show you the pictures." She scrambled for her phone and held it out to me. "Scroll through if you want."

There were 3 weeks worth of these pics, all of them pretty much the same. Leigh standing in a sports bra and panties, taking the photo in the mirror. She wasn't doing any provocative poses or sexy faces, just standing there. But of course she looked sexy as hell anyway. Aside from Nick saying "Damn" after the first pic she had sent, none of their comments were remotely sexual or disrespectful. It really did appear to be just the 3 of them encouraging each other.

Still, I was obviously not happy with this. These guys may have legitimate cover, but they'd obviously tricked my girlfriend into sending these pictures. And I didn't like the pictures the guys sent either. I had to admit they were in much better shape than me. "I gotta get a six pack like that. Goals!" Leigh had commented under one of Nick's pictures.

"Leigh, why wouldn't you tell me about this?" I asked. I was extremely upset but trying not to show it. Part of it was that I genuinely wanted to be supportive of her new goals, but I also feared pushing too hard against her and making her defiant. I had enough experience with her feisty personality to know I had to be careful there.

"I just didn't want to get into it with you. You know how competitive I am and this training I'm doing is so important to me, and I want to be as good as I possibly can at this. These guys look at me as a stupid girl who could never compete with them, I know they do. I just don't want to ever be perceived as weak around them. Honestly, when we start racing them I want to crush them," she said. "Can you support me in this?"

Honestly I just didn't know what to say to that. I was obviously still pissed that she was sending other guys underwear pics, but I just couldn't bring myself to stay on her case about it. Maybe it was just fear of coming across too heavy-handed. Maybe it was a turn on to think about her crushing these guys in a race and then coming home to me. Maybe it was just how good she looked at that moment.

"Of course I support you Leigh, do whatever it takes to reach your goals." I didn't regret making this statement that night, as we had the best sex we'd ever had. But I sure would regret it eventually.

As summer started, Leigh, and they guy did their first race. It was shorter "sprint" triathlon that would only take about 90 min to 2 hours. Leigh was so excited and nervous before the race. Steph and I walked around and cheered them on a bit, but mostly triathlon's not a great spectator sport. So we ended up talking quite a bit. Mostly just small talk, bit it wasn't awkward or forced. Finally, she broached the elephant in the room.

"I felt dumb about the comment I made at dinner the other night. I didn't realize you didn't know. I hope it didn't cause problems for you and Leigh," she said.

"It's fine," I said. "I'd rather know about it than not, but I can't say it doesn't worry me at all. Does it not bother you any?"

"Not really. I trust Jim to stay within boundaries. He's a good guy, and we've been married for 8 years."

It made sense to me that there'd be more trust in a marriage compared to Leigh and I who weren't even engaged yet. It didn't make me feel any better though.

Nick finished the race about 2 minutes ahead of Jim, which wasn't a surprise but Jim looked disappointed. The surprise was Leigh, who ended up just 3 minutes behind Jim. Not bad at all for her first race. "You guys better train harder," Steph said. "Leigh is coming for you."

Leigh had finished 2nd among women in her age group and was ecstatic. I was extremely proud of her, and we had incredible sex that night. Her body was better than ever and I remember thinking that this triathlon stuff had its benefits after all.

The next weekend Leigh asked for my help with the training. She'd learned in her first race that swimming an open water swim in a lake was much different than lap swimming in a pool. With no lane ropes to guide you, it was easy to swim off course, zigzagging and wasting precious time and effort. She and the guys planned an open water swim across the lake just north of town. They'd swim directly at a cell phone tower that could be seen from across the lake, whose base was next to a picnic area. They'd be able to use their GPS watches to see how straight of a line they kept. Since they weren't returning to the start of their swim, they asked me to drop them off and then pick them up around the other side of the lake.

Steph, Jim, and Nick rode with us, and we tied Steph's kayak to the top of my SUV. The plan was for Steph to paddle her kayak with them across the lake in case anyone got a cramp. When we arrived, Jim and Nick immediately stripped to their briefs and put on wet suits. Steph took her shirt and shorts off, it looked like she'd be making the trip across in a bikini. They tossed their discarded clothes in the back of my SUV. Leigh had stripped down to a 1-piece swimsuit with ruffles on the side but did not have a wet suit. "Do you need one of those?" I asked.

"No I don't think so, I'll be fine. The water's not that cold, the guys just like to practice in their suits. I'll see you on the other side." She gave me a peck on the cheek and jogged toward the boat ramp where the others were now stretching. The swim was about a mile and a half, so I'd easily make the 20-minute drive across the dam to the other side of the lake before they got there. I'd brought a book to read to pass the time and some towels for them when they got done.

I waved to Nick and Jim and drove away. I'd been gone about 5 minutes when my phone rang. It was Leigh. I answered, confused.

"Hey babe, I'm so sorry but I got out of the car with my phone. Could you come grab it? I'll leave it on the picnic table closest to the boat ramp."

"Sure," I said. Truthfully I didn't mind. The drive around this area was scenic and I had plenty of time to kill.

"Thanks!" she said. "Wish me luck!"

After wishing her luck, it took me a couple more minutes to find a spot to turn around. When I got back to the boat ramp, I parked and started walking over, looking for her phone. There was no mistaking which picnic table was the closest to the ramp, but I didn't see a phone. I only saw what looked like a shirt laying there. As I got closer, my heart dropped. It wasn't a shirt, but Leigh's swimsuit with the ruffles on the side. As I approached it and picked it up, hoping desperately for any sign that it wasn't hers, I noticed her phone was under it. This was my girlfriend's swimsuit,and she was presumably naked with our neighbors in the middle of the lake.

I was fuming as I drove around the lake. When I approached the dam, I saw police lights and realized the bridge was closed due to an accident. I now had a 60-minute drive around the other side of the lake as my only option. During this drive, I convinced myself that surely Leigh wasn't really swimming across the lake naked. I reasoned that Steph probably had an extra wet suit that she'd borrowed or something. I still felt uneasy as I drove. I ran into terrible traffic and as everyone had been forced to take this alternate road with the dam closed. By the time I was turning off the main road to pull into the picnic area, it had been 2 and a half hours since I'd dropped them off, and I was a nervous wreck. Surely Leigh wasn't really nude, but if she was she had been that way for quite a while.