My First Triathlon

I have completed my very first triathlon.  I finished 143 out of 300 people, so all and all not to bad.  My time was 1:38:44.  Now I know what to expect and will hopefully improve each time. 

Swim:

35 degrees the morning of the race, 39 degrees at point of entry in the water.  All the training in the world could not have prepared me for that.  In addition, in all of the training we did in the pool, nothing could have prepared me for the loss of breath and unexpected feeling that I was going to drown when I hit the water and totally lost my breath.  Lucky for me the guy in front of me kicked me in the chin and got me back on track.  In retrospect, my swim training for next year will consist of me letting someone punch me in the stomach right before I swim, so that I can practice swimming with no breath and then I will have everyone at the pool jump on me while swimming to ensure correct preparation for race conditions.  Just kidding around a bit, all and all the swim was ok, but in this triathlon it was definitely the hardest part of the race.        

Transition:

Took 4 minutes. I was very pokey, b/c I was scared I would forget something.  Luckily, my bike was on the very first rack and I did not have any problems finding it.

Bike:

While I thought the bike was going to be the hardest part, it was not.  It was surprisingly easier than I thought.  The difficult part was changing gears without feeling your fingers.  Luckily, after mile 4, I had feeling back in the hands.  I really enjoyed the hills that we do not have around here and am thankful for Jane's spinning classes.  They really helped me out.

Transition #2:

Took 1 minute and some change.  This was much easier as I did not have to put on so many clothes. 

Run:

While very slow, I completed the run and was done with my first triathlon.

After I completed it, I felt like I could have done a lot better than I did.  But I was holding back in bike and run, b/c I did not want to run out of gas before the finish line.  With this one under my belt, I feel like I will be more equipped to gauge my body and know how far I can push myself. 

Thanks to everyone who has helped me train, I really appreciate it.  Just and FYI, I have signed up for the following races for this year.

Red Hills Triathlon - COMPLETE

Jacksonville Triathlon Series – Little Talbot (vacations kept me from doing the BFAST Series) June 25, July 16, August 6

BFAST #1 and #2 – May 13, June 10

HOT – August 27 (I have not signed up for this one yet, but I am planning to very soon)