Festival of Flowers

Completed my first triathlon this weekend. Despite the pouring rain and the fact that I can't swim in a straight line, I really enjoyed it. The swim was 1500 meters, bike was 24 miles, and the run was 6.2 miles. My goal was to see how I would do and have fun doing it (and secretly to beat Ben...shhh). Ben did it last year so I knew a lot about the course and how it was doing all 3 at the same time, but you can't prepare for something like this until you do it. I can swim, bike, and run, but could I do them all three together was the question.

As soon as we started the swim, I knew this wasn't going to be easy. I started with all the age group participants that were female and under 44, so it was a big group. From the start I was trapped in a pack and kept getting kicked and hit in the face, side, and legs. My goggles fogged up right away so it was hard for me to see where I was going. When Ben and I swim, we go to the pool...yea a LOT different in open water. You can't push of the wall or hang on the wall to catch your breath when you’re in open water. The pack that I had gotten trapped in kindof thinned out after a few minutes and I was able to swim faster. I pretty much just went as fast as I could and tried to stay on track. The course was a horseshoe shape and we were supposed to be swimming to the left in order to make the turns. Well, I certainly swim to the right, several times I had to stop and see how far off course I had gotten. I swear I swam close to two miles. Also, in the pool I breathe every 4 strokes, well that was not happening. To avoid drowning I had to breathe every another stroke. The water was very choppy so I drank quite a bit of lake water. All and all I actually ended up doing good in the swim. My time for the swim was 33:35 (which included running from the lake to my bike). My transition from the swim to the bike was 1:19.

The bike is certainly my weakest of the three. I'm still uncomfortable on my bike, which slows me down. Not to mention at this point it was pouring, which just makes me even more nervous. The bike course was pretty flat for the most part, but there were several inclines to. I just kept seeing more and more people pass me, but I knew I would see them again on the run. My average on the bike was 18.9 mph, which is really good for me. Normally I average around 16 or 17, but I still need to improve if I want to continue doing tri's. The whole time I was thinking, "what if my tire pops?", "what if I fall?", "what if I land in a ditch due to the rain?"...All these thoughts kept going through my head. I think I could have gone faster if I had someone I knew close to me that would help me pace. Most of the time I was alone or getting passed. The rain slowed me down to...but I shouldn't make excuses. My time on the bike was 1 hour 14 mins. When I was finishing the bike, I saw Ben on the run, so I knew how far ahead of me he was.

Going from the bike to the run, I had some trouble. Everything was soaking wet so I had a hard time putting on my shoes and kept missing with my watch. My transition time from the bike to the run was 2:10. I was feeling good though. My legs were tired, but I was sooo ready to pass everyone that had passed me on the bike. The run felt the best I think because I was in my comfort zone. The rain was still coming down pretty good and the course wasn't as flat as I thought it would be. There were several rolling hills and inclines. The course was out and back, so I knew was to expect on the last 3 miles. I'm not going to lie, it was sooo much fun passing all the people that had just passed me on the bike. I was moving, I passed on guy and he said, "You must be in a hurry", I quickly responded, "I'm trying to catch my husband"! I passed Ben and Adam when I was around mile 3 and they were on the way back. I knew I wasn't really going to catch them, but I still wanted to get a good run time. My time for the run was 41:39.

My overall time was 2 hours and 33 minutes. I came in 11th overall and first in my age group. I'll take that for my first tri! Ben did beat me by about a minute and 20 seconds. Ben did a great job; he beat his time from last year by 15 minutes. It was a wonderful experience and we are already looking for another tri to do. It was so nice of Ben's parents to come watch us and cheer for us. They brought the girls with them and we just loved being able to see them along the course cheering us on. Laura and Mason also came which was very sweet of them. They all had to stand on the pouring rain for hours waiting on us. Thankfully it was raining so no pictures...