I'm Still Alive!

Yesterday I successfully completed my first sprint triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 5 mile run). I was very scared about this for a number of reasons: 1. My first time. 2. I haven't really trained for the last two weeks with Vegas and family visiting. 3. It was my first time on a bike in a very long time (trained on a stationary bike and picked up a rental the day before my event). 4. Hadn't made it up to running 5 miles in training.... So, yeah. I was nervous. Honestly my goal was to finish. I wasn't worried about the time. I had figured that I wanted to complete it in 2 hours and 32 minutes + transitions since that would be the pace that I have had while training. My end time - 2 hours and 38 minutes (including transitions)! And this does include Andrea and I not finding the bike trail and biking an extra mile on streets (re: stop lights). I am very happy with my time!

The swim was harder than I thought it would be. I think this was partly because I haven't been swimming in weeks. I will definitely be better about swimming in the future especially since next time the swim probably won't be in a pool that I can use the ends to push off from. But, when I finished the swimming portion, my time was 3 minutes faster than the last time I trained for it, so that might explain why it was killing me.

The bike was great! Aside from not being able to figure out the map, the biking went very well. I felt pretty good. Towards the end my wrists were unhappy and my butt was sore, but it went well. Next time I will make sure I know the course. Although, since this was so small of an event (41 people) there weren't any signs. I'm assuming an official Tri would have some sort of markings.

The run went better than expected. I figured that since it was last I would be dying. But Andrea and I had a good pace and were able to keep it up despite hills at mile 3. Midway through the run I started to get blisters on my arches. I had put some body glide on after my swim, but it didn't help much. My theories are that my body absorbed it since my skin was wet, my socks absorbed it since it was so long between application and when I needed it or that it plain just wore off. Next time I think I will go back to Vaseline.

When we were nearing the last bit, we started to here bagpipes. Turns out they were for us! Every finisher had bagpipes (live) to bring them in. It was so cool! There was a lady that asked if Andrea and I were doing the "with a kick" version. When we said yes, she told us to kick it in. So Andrea and I took off sprinting for the last bit. It was awesome. It was a bit tricky stopping and not running into the people and bikes. Also at the finish line were Ben, David, Heather (who finished her shorter course before us) and Wanda (who also did the shorter course). It was so nice to have some fans at the finish line.

For me, this will not have been my first and last tri. I really did enjoy it, and hopefully will be doing it again sometime soon. Andrea and Heather and I are thinking about doing another one in August up in Glenwood. I think it would be fun to do a lake weekend with a Tri thrown in.

(Heather - Sorry that I didn't write much about you! But you did awesome! I am so proud of you!!).