10 lessons learned from my first tri

I had my first triathlon experience yesterday and I learned a few valuable lessons I thought I'd share with everyone. Most of them you probably already know, but what the hell.

1) Lie about your swim time. I put down 7 minutes for my 300m swim, which was a little slower than what I'm doing now but still in the ballpark. Apparently I'm the only person within a minute of me that was even remotely honest. I ended up having to walk certain parts of the pool swim while waiting for a spot to pass slow people who had to be lying about their times. There's no way they were doing 7 minute 300s. If I had put down 6:15 or even 6:30 I probably wouldn't have had as many people to crawl over. So whatever time I do for that distance, if it's a pool swim I'm shaving 20 seconds off my fastest time next race.

2) 'On your left' is something only I say anymore. Everyone else just goes on by without making a sound.

3) People in my general ability range aren't prepared for hills. AT ALL. The hills weren't that bad on this race(I'd call them rolling hills) but you would think we were in the Alps and Floyd had stolen all our EPO. I passed more people on the hills than on any flats by far.

4) Tri shorts? Not enough padding. Next race I'm strapping a pillow to my butt for the bike portion.

5) There's such a thing as ingesting too much Gu.

6) It's possible to keep running during dry heaves.

7) Dry heaves can become not so dry without warning.

8) It's okay to be proud that you beat an 11-year-old girl at something, even when you're a 28-year-old guy.

9) Especially when her swim time beat yours.

10) And so did her transitions.