My first TRIATHLON

Yes I did one last September, but they cancelled the bike portion, so it was technically an aquathon. Saturday I completed my FIRST TRI!!!!!!!

My alarm went off Saturday morning at 4:15am... and I was up and at'em for the day... heated up my coffee, got on my tri onsie... and hit the road, I had pre-loaded my bike and other necessary equipment the night before so that was all taken care of... which is why I had those precious extra 15 minutes!

It was an hour away from my house, but I got there around 5:30 which is when transition opened... and the rain started... I got soaking wet airing up the tires on my bike... the people next to me where using an umbrella and looking at me with pity and all I could say was, "well at least we were already planning on getting wet today", they thought I was nuts I am sure! Unfortunately my umbrella holder is on a rig... so I was out in the rain.

Once I filled my tires up with air I headed over to the transition area to set up my bike and shoes so that I was good to go for race time. Everything got soaking wet in the rain, but it was set up to go. It quit raining around 630 or so, but the damage was done and my stuff was already wet. The race started at 7am, but they staged everyone based on their swim time they reported... I was 293, but found out I was in the wrong group... they put me in 10-11 min swim group instead of 9 min, my friend Jaime was in the 9 min group and was 265, so a lot of people in line let me go to 278 area, which was nice... my other friend Suzy was in the 7 min group so was 170something.

waiting to get started

I finally got started around 8am and jumped into the pool for the swim - my last tri was an open water swim and it was big groups of 30-50 people at a time all trying to swim the same course! Pool swims are MUCH nicer, they stage people in every 10 seconds, and I wasn't passed at all during the swim AND I actually passed a couple of people! Then got stuck behind a girl who would NOT let me pass, very rude... I was behind her for 4 laps, so I think I could have had a better time had she not been rude, but whatever... my pool time was 9:06 for 300 meters! Talk about being right on my time!

Transition 1 was 2:10, I got in the gate, put on my tennis shoes and then realized I had changed my petals for the MS150 to work with clip in bike shoes and was cursing myself for not bringing my clip in bike shoes, trying to bike on clip in pedals with tennis shoes is HELL... that's what I get for skipping training rides, although I did bike a lot to train for MS 150 in April... I forgot that one little detail. Then I go to put my number belt on and realize that its broken.. so I tied it around my waist with a knot, threw my helmet and sunglasses on and headed out for the bike portion.

I had a pack of GU Chomps for the bike, which is good, but I didn't put a water bottle on my bike (another blonde move)... so over the course of the 12 miles I ate my energy chews but didn't have any water, I haven't had any water at all at this point in the morning - NOT a good thing... I had coffee and figured they would have water for us there... didn't see any at this point. Finished the 12 miles in 39:36 and dropped my bike and helmet off in transistion and headed out for the run.

The start of the run had a water station so I grabbed a cup, then they started taking pictures... who designed this I don't know, but imagine being photographed while trying to run and drink water at the same time.. I had water pouring down my face and it was not sexy like you see on tv... it was horrible.. so I quit drinking and took a few non sci-fi type pictures running... luckily there was a water station at the running half way point, I stopped to walk and drink this water because the sun came out and it was hot and humid and I needed a walk break anyway to be honest, so it was nice. No cameras here, thank God! I finished the run strong, I didn't think I would have any energy left to do so because it was a struggle to keep up my jog, but I was ready to be done! The run portion took 35:09 for a 5k. Not bad considering I had already swam and biked right before it!

I was 14th in my age group with my overall time of 1:27:08! My goal for my tri in Sept was to make it in under two hours, I finished in just under an hour without the bike, my swim was 13 min, transition was 5, and run was 34 mins. My goal for this weekend was to come in under two hours and improve my swim time... and I nailed both! VERY proud of my success especially given the lack of training lately...

 

 

Now its time to concentrate on training for my half marathon October 12!