First Triathlon!

So, making lemons into lemonade, I decided to turn all the hours of (only) swimming into a positive, and let a friend talk me into doing a sprint triathlon. I figured, why the heck not? I run and bike normally, so the weakness would be the swim....

My friend and her husband helped me out - let me borrow her spare wetsuit, took me open water swimming a couple times beforehand (Freaky!!! There are THINGS growing on the bottom of lakes, things that GRAB your feet!), taught me how to set up a transition zone, took me to the course preview, gave me moral support, and more. Thanks Phyllis and Brooks, you rock!

I said before that the springtime was frustrating for me, and suddenly it was past and the day of the tri came upon me. (July 10th). I'd only been cleared to run for a couple weeks, and my foot still hurt, so I was nervous about that portion, but felt excited (and yes, nervous too) about the swim.

Looked a lot farther than 750 meters when they had the buoys set up...


Got in the water to swim, warmed up a bit.


I probably added a solid 100m to the swim by accidentally zig-zagging all over the place, but then I was on the home stretch. I couldn't believe I'd done it! Woot!


Brad caught a couple shots of me as I grabbed my sandals for the rocky jog to the transition area. (Who am I kidding? I couldn't run, not right away. I was pooped!)


Then I got back into the stride.


The transition area was crazy!


I almost missed the row with my bike!


Then finished stripping off the wetsuit.


Almost fell over.


Threw on my jersey & number & helmet.


Shoes onto wet feet.


Unracked the bike (my awesome, 1984, steel, multi-colored, down-tube-shifter bike, that outweighs one of my mtn bikes by the way).


And carried it over the gravel and broken glass to the loading zone.




And pedaled away.


No pics of the ride - but it was awesome! I passed a ton of people and just FLEW down the hills thanks to my ridiculously large gears.

Coming back, I again carried the bike into the transition area.




Threw off the helmet and on the sunglasses, socks and running shoes, and ran right back out.


The run = not so great. With only a week or two of running beforehand, I just wasn't prepared. Plus, yes, I was tired! I ended up getting passed by a lot of the people I'd passed on the swim and bike, but didn't really care. I just wanted to finish! :)


And I did.


I was 4th out of 6 in my category, so at least wasn't last, and have a time to beat next year! Yes, I'll do another one. Maybe one a year - that was super fun!