Brand new Athena Triathlete - as of Saturday

Hi all,

I did it, after 5 months of training and a loss of 45 pounds total (in the last 12 months) I did it. On Saturday 7/10 I competed in the Athena Division of the Hagg Lake Triathlon (Forrest Grove OR) and placed 3rd, got a medal and everything, although my division was only 4 girls strong, who cares, a medal is a medal right? I'm super proud of myself, this was supposed to be my practice race, just for fun one as my goal was to train for the All Women's triathlon on 7/24... just 2 weeks away. The hagg lake course was very tough, tons of hills, so i'm looking forward to the all flat course, i'm sure to break 2 hours. My Sprint total time was 2 hours 6 min 35 seconds.... don't let anybody tell you its easy, its not, it was very tough, i was miserable for a good portion of the race, but after crossing the finish line... it was all worth it. I'll remember Saturday for the rest of my life... Here's my race report:

I did it, I’m a Triathlete. J The race went very well, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but much harder than I ever imagined. I started off with the swim, the ½ mile seemed much farther than the ½ mile I train on, it took me over 23 minutes to get in and I think I spent every ounce of energy I had to try to get in from the water faster. My transition times were excellent, no wasting time there; I quickly changed from one event to the next although the next event was the bike. The hill at the bottom of the park was just as torturous as I imagined. I think I averaged 5 miles an hour up that giant hill, but had a record (for me) downhill time at one point during the race at 38 MPH (wow). I finished the bike portion in under an hour had another great transition into the run. At this point I was terribly exhausted, I couldn’t feel my legs and the exit onto the run is uphill, I was miserable. But thanks to the encouragement of my husband on the sideline and the complete strangers just after the start that cheered and screamed for me, I was off… thank you by the way to those strangers, I’m not sure if I could have started the run without them and their cow bell…(which normally would have annoyed me) J My friend Bonnie had a wonderful race, she beat me on each event but I beat her on the transition area, she caught up with me on the run and we jogged and walked together for most of the run. Men and women of all ages passed us and with each pass they encouraged us to keep going with the “Great job girls, you’re almost there, way to go!” it was a very good feeling. I left Bonnie only briefly at the end, the downhill toward the finish line and beat her by only a few seconds, I think only because at that point I couldn’t stop my legs on the downhill. J

The official results are posted at racecenter.com it was the Hagg Lake Sprint and I was in the Athena category but the basic results are:

Total Time: 2 hours 6 minutes 35 seconds
Swim - 23:31
T1 Transition - 2:41
Bike Time: 54:58
T2 Transition: 2:18
Run Time: 43:06

Yeah! if i can do it, anyone can do it!