Coastal Carolina University Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The swim was in a 25 yd saltwater pool, which was great for my first tri, because my gym has a similar pool. The only difference was that this pool was also a diving pool, and seeing the floor VERY SUDDENLY get deeper on one end made me dizzy for some reason.
I started around some girls that were insecure about their swim, so they all let me get in front of them and sort of mark the (slow) pace :)

Start my watch before jumping in the pool.

The racks did not have assigned numbers to them so I racked the bike close to the exit. That way I could run in from the swim and walk after the bike ride to start getting my legs acclimated to the change.
Rolling my socks helped a LOT with the ease of putting them on wet feet--no hassle.
Helmet, sunglasses and belt went on very easily (I didn't get a number for the bike, so I had to wear my race belt on my back while on the bike)

I created a puddle under my feet while I put my helmet, glasses, and race belt on. I put one sock on, and then when I put my foot down to put the second sock on, I stepped right on the puddle :(
Next time I will step on the space where my helmet was on the towel to wipe my feet and prevent stepping on a puddle.

The bike ride started rather badly. After the first turn, my shoelace got trapped in the crankset so I had to stop, make sure it got out of of the crankset and re-tie my shoes. By that time, 4 or 5 people passed me but that just allowed to have a solo ride for most of the course.
After that, it was all gravy. I enjoyed my ride and had fun getting off my seat for the speedbumps.

Secure my shoelaces or break the piggy bank to get some bike shoes, cleats and pedals.
Make sure I have the bike computer on the bike--I had no clue how fast I was riding, but I didn't stress about it. It actually allowed my to find my ideal pace, and stick to it, instead of trying to go faster all the time.

I had my running shoes and belt on, so all I had to do was take my helmet and glasses off and turn my belt around. I also drank some gatorade which turned out to be a bad idea down the road.

I would not drink gatorade, but rather water. I burped a lot while running. Maybe drink water instead, or less and lighter gatorade.

I started slowly to get my legs acclimated, which worked fine. I could tell I had some muscle memory from the training bricks, so that was a win.
I ran my first mile in 12 minutes, walked a minute. Then I ran 11 minutes and reached the 2nd mile. I walked another minute while passing the water station and drank some water. Then I started running again.
At this point I felt some pain in my right ankle, and as I kept running the pain was not getting any stronger, but it travelled up my leg to the point where my hip was hurting. I stoppped about 15 seconds, streched my leg and moved to the center of the road, which seemed to help. Now I had the finish line on sight, so I forgot about any pain and gave it all I had. It was an AMAZING finish. I felt so proud :)

I would make sure I run closer to the center of the road to avoid working one leg more than the other.

I made sure I didn't sit down right away, but I didn't stretch--WRONG!! My legs cramped a bit today, which could have been avoided by some stretching.
I drank some orange juice and ate a bagel, a muffin, a banana, and some trail mix--I was a HUNGRY GIRL!


This was my first triathlon, so I am sure some more training and loosing more pounds will help.


This was an AWESOME race for a first time triathlete. I would say half of the competitors were first-timers, which made it really fun. It was also a small race (~100 triathletes) so packet pick-up and body marking on the morning of the race was very smooth. The university even loaned bikes and helmets to people that wanted to participate out of the blue.