Triathlon

Today I completed my first triathlon! Woot woot! :)

I don't know why I didn't get a picture with my cute hubby, but he and my two boys were there to cheer me on! :)

They're looking at me like, "Ew. Mom's all sweaty". haha.

It was the 3-3-1 Women of Steel Tri. There was also a Tri for Life that was coed and a kids tri.

The swim was a lot shorter than I had thought it was going to be (250 yrds instead of 300). It was kind of crazy!! Right about the middle of the swim a bunch of us got in a jam and there were 6 or 7 of us trying to pass or be passed and there was no room to swim. Once I got out of that it was clear sailing till the end! Though the hectic feeling of it made me kind of nervous and I could definitely tell that it's harder to swim when you're tense compared to being relaxed. I just felt so rushed (and I think having so many people in the water at once kind of made me feel claustrophobic. I'm not a fan of being in crowds, and being in a crowd in the water wasn't any better). ;)

Next was the bike. 13.3 miles. I still felt way rushed for the beginning of the bike and was kind of tired. It was a 2 loop course with a couple of good hills. I had my wonderful mountain bike, Bianca. I just had it tuned up two days earlier and the gears were a little tight still. But it works and it's my buddy!!! We had a good ride. On the second loop at the top of the last hill there was a girl with her bike on the ground. I wasn't sure if she got hurt or what so I stopped to see. Her chain had come off the front railing and was totally jammed between that and the bike. We wiggled and pulled at it and tried whatever we could to get it out. We had a little success but still couldn't get it. Finally she told me to ride on and some other people would send the tech guys back to her if they saw them. I finished the bike with some greasy black hands.

In the video my hubby took, I couldn't hear a word he was saying and obviously he couldn't hear me either. ;) haha

(after the race my hubby told me not to stop and help ever again because he wanted to know how fast I really could have been. Half joking of course. I am really curios too, but whatever. I knew I wasn't going to be first so it wasn't a big deal. I think had I been in her shoes I would have totally started crying! haha)

Then came the most miserable 'sport' ever invented. Running. ;) 5k. I am NOT a runner. Though I can do it and I guess I did alright. :) It was fun talking with other people along the run, cheering each other on, having each other to motivate you to keep running, the water station and having them pour water on you, being able to walk if I want, and I guess overall it was fun too. ;)

Here's what I've learned and what I'll work on for next time:

• practice at the pool when it's more busy (I usually go when no one is there) so I can get used to swimming with others
• just relax!!! Yes I want to do good and go fast, but I need to stay calm so I can do better
• get a LOT of sleep the week before!! (The last two days I haven't slept very good and I can tell that made a difference)
• don't stop and help others so I can find out what my real time will be ;)
• get a tri suit so I don't forget to put my shorts on before I put my shoes on in the transition area
• train better and more consistently
• get in better shape
• work on transitions
• don't do a yoga video the day before (I was a little sore this morning) :)
• get used to eating breakfast EARLY in the morning
• along with exercising EARLY in the morning
• fill the car up with gas the night before (luckily the other car had gas)
• figure out the best meals to have for the few days before so I'm on top performance.
• figure out better poses for the pictures they always take on the bike
• get a road bike :)
• DO IT AGAIN and AGAIN and Again and again!!!! :)

(I have that really weird hair on my forehead that looks like a comb over! why didn't anyone tell me! haha)

Overall I'm so glad I did it! :) I did ok, but I really wasn't in it to win. It was a lot of fun, and now that I've done one I have something to beat!!! I can't wait to get out there and train and have something to improve upon! Competing with myself is the best motivation I can have! :)

Here are my times and my ranks:

Overall: Placed 99 out of 130 who finished. I figured if I had stopped to help that girl for 10 min, I really would have been 75th with out helping her.

Total Time: 01:48:49.3

time behind 1st place: 00:38:24.400

Swim time: 00:07:06.714

1st transition: 00:03:02.848

Bike time: 01:00:27.914

2nd transition: 00:01:12.477

Run time: 00:36:59.411

out of my age group (25-29) I was 18 out of 21 who finished

anyway, I wanted to try to see how my times in the different events compared overall, but it doesn't have that info in there, so maybe later I'll update it if they update the site. :)

They were in there the whole time, but hubby said they did awesome!!! :) Here Hunter is smiling through his bowl saying, "Cheese!"