I'm Officially a Triathlete! Yay!

My boyfriend has all the photos in his camera and my splits on his stopwatch, but I survived and did well in my first triathlon last night despite only three weeks of training and having a mountain bike.

The swim, a quick 400 meter dash, was my one disasterous event.  I went out way too fast, couldn't catch my breath, and panicked.  I ended up having to hold on to the sweeper kayak for a minute and was a whopping three minutes off my time.

T1 went fairly smoothly - somewhat long because I had to tie and double-knot my running shoes, but not bad.  My dear boyfriend didn't realize he was supposed to time my transitions, so I'll never know how long it took.

Bike went great - I managed to pass people on road bikes while going uphill and make up some places from my terrible swim.  I definitely can't wait to get my 43" Trek 2.1 with clipless pedals that I have my eye on.  It took longer than expected though, maybe because of all the hills.  This was when I had to let my "Pie in the Sky" goal - finishing in under 1:30, go.

T2 went superfast since I didn't have to change my shoes.  My boyfriend said he barely had time to register that I had come in before I was off running again.

The run went good, although slow for me.  I made up several more places, which I expected to do since running is my strong suit.    Couldn't go as fast as my legs would have allowed for because I had started reaching the end of my endurance.  I recognized the feeling from my half-mary so kept it to an easy 9:00 pace as to not have to pull over and puke, which would have lost me more time. 

I crossed the finish line in 1:35 with a huge smile on my face.

I had three goals, depending on how well things were going:  Finish, Don't finish last, and sub-1:30 time.  Hitting two out of three ain't bad.

All in all, that was the most fun I've EVER had while competing.  I now have to focus on my upcoming 3-day, 90-mile canoe race in a few weeks, but cannot wait for next year.  I already have a million little "lessons learned" that I want to improve upon.  I have DEFINITELY been bitten by the tri bug.



Edited by PinkPrincess 2009-08-18 6:51 AM