Today was my first triathlon and I have to say that it was one of the neatest experiences I have ever had. One of the biggest take-aways was how people that didn’t even know me were very supportive and encouraging.
Unfortunately, I started off the day a little tired as Dawn and I went to a concert last night. (This is not recommended and I will refrain from this in the future.) Although we had a lot of fun, we didn’t get home until about midnight. By the time I got everything ready to go, it was about 12:30am.
The alarm went off at 5:30am and it was definitely a little tough getting up. I took a nice long shower and was on the road by 6:30am. Certainly glad I had everything ready to go the night before, otherwise I would have been a lot more nervous than I already was.
I arrived at the event and I probably should have come a little earlier to get a good spot for the transition area. While it wasn’t that bad, anything to minimize stress the morning of the event is a good thing.
After getting my race number tat (drawn on with a black Sharpie), I headed down to the water to kick off the first stage of Tri. Because there were so many people, everyone was sent off in 1 of 5 waves. I ended up being in the 3rd wave. On the word go, I immediately realized that the swim was going to be a real challenge. The primary reason was not due to the physical aspect, but the difficulty in trying to get into a rhythm with all of the people in the water. Apparently I will have to practice swimming with my friends and family kicking and elbowing me.
I came out of the water feeling pretty good and began a short jog to the transition area where I got changed into my bike gear. More practice is needed for this component of the race as well since I spent a few more minutes than I probably should have getting everything on.
Riding my bike out of the transition area, I couldn’t help but smile. It was really exciting to know that I was actually doing this. The short story of the bike ride was that I did way better than I could have expected. I was only passed by 4 or 5 people (guys that were clearly frequent cyclers) and probably passed 20-30 bikers. My bike computer tells me that I averaged about 16mph with a top speed of 37mph. Overall, I really feel I kicked ass on the bike, especially since of the 17 total miles I have on the bike, 12 were from this event.
My transition from bike to run was much better, but there really isn’t as much to worry about. About 1/4 mile into the run, my legs started cramping pretty badly and I had to do the Frankenstein walk for several hundred yards. I attribute this to not hydrating myself enough during the bike phase.
I kept moving and the cramps finally went away, then it was game on for the home stretch. The run portion was about what I expected and it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other.
As I came up to the finish line, I saw Dawn and the girls and that made crossing the finish line even better. It is so great to have their support!
My goal was to finish in under 1:45 and I finished right around 1:40. I was very happy with my performance and overall it was a good sign that I am doing the right things to prepare for the real events in September and November.
