Officially a triathlete!!

I completed my first triathlon yesterday and enjoyed the experience.  I had a goal of coming in @ 1'10", but came in @ 1'12".  Not bad really... I had joked with family members that if I got through the swim, that would be a victory within itself.  Felt good on the bike, in fact probably too good, next time I will up the pace a bit. 

The bike is also where I made my biggest mistake of the race.  I've had this Clif Shot gel that is mocha flavored with a "full shot" of caffeine just waiting for an opportune time to use it.  I've been using gels on my longer bike rides with no issue, but never this flavor.  I thought this might be cool to toss into my system near the end of the bike with that caffeine shot and all.  Well my stomach disagreed and by the time I was in T2 I was feeling pretty ill... then I take off running, belly sloshing with the gel and water.  My run was way off pace, which was disappointing.  In retrospect, I skip that gel get a squirt of water in T2 and run a better 5K leg.  I don't really like getting water from the aid stations, it is usually ice cold which I don't like either.  Just a quirk of mine I suppose.   

Learned a lot throughout the day and met some really nice people.  Some guy actually thanked me for setting a nice pace in the 5K that he followed from way back.  Overall I think finishing 11th overall is good (5/13 in AG) for a first trip out given my poor swim practice so far and bad gel experience.  So I guess I will invest a little more money now that I've done one and liked it... first on tap are some shorts with some pockets for gels that AREN'T that Mocha flavor and a sports watch/HRM of some sort. 

Finally a big thanks to this forum, I can't tell you how many little bits and pieces I've pulled off of here that helped in various parts of my race.  When my stomach went south the "don't try anything new on race day" went through my head more than once.