Triathlon

I had so much fun. All the hard work and long hours of exercising paid off. I went into this triathlon just wanting to finish and not come in last. I gave myself a goal of finishing first and in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Here are my stats…I finished at a time of 55min 38sec (average time was 42-57min); overall I finished 81st of 116; out of the females in my age group I finished 10th of 16. I surprised myself.


For those of you that don’t know what my triathlon entailed, I had to swim 8 laps (in a pool), bike 5 miles and then run 1.5 miles. This was my first triathlon I had ever competed in so I was just trying to figure everything out and finish.

As I stated in the blog before I had some fears so to follow up on some of those here I go. I did not get lost it really is easy to know where to go; I remembered where I parked my bike; my legs did work after the bike though they hurt, I did not take out the camera guy instead I have sent an e-mail to the photo company asking them not to post my swimming picture so we will see if they follow through with it, and lastly I was walking the next day. The thing that hurts the most is the sunburn I received waiting for my time to be posted.

The hardest part for me was the bike. The swim was comfortable for me. Matt said I looked relaxed in the pool and I was. The guy next to me was making me laugh until he started floating on his back. That part did not bother me; it was when he rolled over and splashed me in the face as I was taking a breath. I recovered fast. Transition from the pool to the bike was interesting. This is the part where you have to remember where you parked. I found it okay and started to get my shorts on over my wet bathing suit, socks on semi wet feet are fun but the hard part was getting my bike off the rack. The bikes are so packed in that my handle bars got stuck on the girl’s bike next to me. After freeing my bike off I went. I knew I had 3 hills from hell to get up and then it was downhill from there. The sportsmanship was wonderful. Everyone was cheering each other on, it was great. Getting off my bike was just like I practiced…I told myself get off and keep moving or your legs will refuse to work. I once again found my spot with a little help from Matt pointing it out. In the mean time our friend was yelling at me to stop messing with my helmet and get my bike put up first. The support from my friends was wonderful, I could not have asked for anything more. At this point I told myself I am almost done. As I was running/jogging out of the bike area I found the one hole in the grass, I did not fall. Coming into the finish I wanted to cry, cheer, and scream all at the same time. This is an experience I will never forget. I have had so much fun and I am hooked I am already planning on doing the one in November.

Here are a few pictures:

This is before the swim

This is after the bike. We had to walk our bike into the transition area. This is the part where your legs want to stop working. Coming into the finish line!!!