My Triathlon!

I finally did it! I raced in my first triathlon yesterday! It seems so odd to have trained for such a long time and to finally have it be done. My biggest fear was to come in last, looking like a complete idiot but, in the end, I was proud of my performance. Jeff and my mom were a HUGE support - they kept me calm, helped me get all of the logistics together (there are a lot of logistics with a triathlon, I've learned!), and they cheered for the WHOLE race!

The race included a 1/2 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and 3 mile run. As I was training, I had the most concerns about the bike portion - it's the longest section and I feel so much more comfortable swimming and running. But, in the end, it was the swim that gave me the most trouble. I was completely unprepared for how much the icky salt water, waves, and hordes of other swimmers would affect me. It was a mad house! People were splashing and kicking each other, there was NO visibility in the water, and a few of the buoys were really hard to see because the sun was shining straight in our eyes. Plus, I was wearing a wet suit that was nice for buoyancy but sucked for stroke mobility. I'm a good freestyle swimmer but I had to do a fair bit of breast stroke (so I could see where I was going) and backstroke (I was so out of breath from fighting through the other racers), which slowed me down. Overall, though, Jeff and my mom said that I came out of the water near the beginning of the pack, which was a pleasant surprise.

The bike part of the race went really well. The hill that I was worried about turned out to be relatively minor and I managed to avoid other competitors through the narrow course. Although I got passed, I did passing of my own as well. I took some time to enjoy the beautiful scenery around us and made sure to thank as many volunteers as I could. The run was uneventful and a bit boring. There was little to look at (e.g., the back of an RV park) but it was done pretty quickly. I was even able to do a sprint at the end.

Jeff and my mom were total troopers! They got up at 4am and helped me drag all of my stuff to the beach. Then, they waited around for a while, monitoring my stuff so that other racers didn't move it (yes, there were some people who hadn't quite learned the spirit of good sportsmanship), and cheered for me and the other "newbies" in the race. I couldn't have asked for a better support crew!

It remains to be seen if I'll do another triathlon again. My knees are too sore at the moment to consider it. But, it's definitely not out of the question ;)