Cure Autism Now Bethesda Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Not sure what my swim time was - I kind of panicked as I went to get in the pool (they were starting people every 7 seconds, and that was kind of intimidating!). So, I forgot to start my watch. Which caused me to panic a little bit more - I don't think I took a breathe for the first 25. When I went to switch to the next lane, I focused myself a bit and reminded myself to breathe. Once I started breathing and putting my head straight down, I was fine! Passed a bunch of people - big, athletic looking guys who were kind of giving me looks when I put myself in the medium swim group. I was very polite and tapped them all on the feet :) Hey, I might not look like that much of an athlete when I just have my sports bra on (being without a shirt makes me very self conscious!) but I can swim.

Remember to breathe at the beginning? I didn't expect to have any panic moments since this was a pool swim, but there were so many people and such quick timing between pool entrances, I got intimidated. Once I focused on breathing and looking straight down, I was fine. Can't wait to see my swim time once they post results.

First transition of my life, since this was my first tri :) No wetsuit to deal with - THIS TIME! Transitions weren't timed, but since I did this race just for the transition practice, I pretended they were! You weren't allowed to run with your bike, so I didn't.

It took me longer than I expected to get my socks on. Also, I need to remember to put my helmet on ASAP - I kind of forgot, and then had to stand like an idiot near the bike mount line trying to put it and my gloves on, haha.

So, I passed a ton of people on the hills, and they promptly passed me on the downhill. On the uphills, I did three main things: 1) never look to the top of the hill, look right in front of me until I'm close to the top. That's what I do when running, and it seemed to help here!, 2) 'small circles' - something Steve suggested in our mentor group - trying to draw small, smooth circles with your pedals while on uphills. I focused on that and it seemed to help keep me moving smoothly. 3) tried to stay loose on the handlebars. I don't know if it helped, but I tried really hard not to do a death grip.

I'm too afraid to go downhill without clutching my brakes. Need to work on that! I think I improved over the course of the three loops - by the final loop I tried to avoid touching my brakes on that downhill. It was tough though because there are a few potholes and it was kind of rough.

A three-loop course is kind of annoying. Also, given the way they started the race, I was going past a lot of slow people for my first two laps, and then on my third lap I had a few of the faster age-groupers rocketing past me. Which is fine, just annoying. They should have started the fastest people first!

Try to just go with the flow on the downhills. But realize that I am ME, and I'll always probably be scared of downhills.

Not allowed to run with bike. No problems! Easy into my running shoes, took of my Garmin, popped on my hat, off on my way.

Nothing, went really well. Maybe try to make sure there are no pebbles in my shoes - I had to shake them out!

Run is definitely my strength :) Had fun - passed a ton of people. Only 3 people passed me - and they were definitely from the 'fast' group that started after me.

Not much!

Walked around, had oranges. Love oranges!


The biggest problem with the organization was the start structure - since it was a pool start, they had us seed ourselves as 'fast', 'medium' or 'slow' swimmers - they didn't give any time guidelines, just how you felt you were as a swimmer. THEN - they started the slow group first, the medium group second, and the fast group last. I went medium and was fine on the swim - I passed a few people, but it wasn't a big deal. I heard the slow start was just chaos though...

The start structure also had big problems for the bike - it was almost dangerous! I got out on the bike and passed quite a lot of the slower people. Then, the fast people finished their swim and came out and rocketed past me. Which is fine - it must have been very frustrating for the fast bikers to have the course already clogged up like that. Especially since it was a three loop course, there were a lot of people out there. Anyway, they should rethink that.

Other than that, it was a very positive experience!