First tri is in the bag!

I did my first triathlon this weekend.  It was a 400m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run.  I decided to do this only 6 weeks ago.  I was worried about the swim the most and I was correct to worry about it.  I spent a lot of time in the pool, but obviously not enough.  I worked up my endurance to where I could do 20 laps in the pool without stopping.  As most everybody else has experienced, my first time practicing in the pool, I was gasping for air after 25m when I first started out, so I thought that I did a pretty good job working my endurance up to 20 laps in 6 weeks.  I did a practice run of the triathlon 2 weekends ago and was able to do the swim part in around 10 minutes.  That's what I was shooting for this weekend.  Here's how things unfolded:

Started about 35 minutes after first group got into the water, so I was a little tight and cooled off - it was 54 degrees outside, and I didn't have any wet suit.  They didn't have us broken up by age group, and were letting 4 people into the water every 5 seconds according to how fast you thought that you could finish the swim.  Finally got the go ahead to get into the water.  Ran, ran and dove into the water...oops!!! I forgot my goggles were not on, so I temporarily lost them - bonehead play of the day.  Found them luckily after a few seconds, and threw them on quickly.  I flopped back into the water and started off.  I made it about 3/4 of the way to the first buoy and was in a pretty good rhythm but noticed that I was slightly off course.  This is where things went downhill.  Righted myself and in doing so, I put myself in the way of a pack of people.  They commenced to pushing and swimming on top of me causing me to swallow a couple of gallons of water.  Took off again and ran up on the same group so instead of running up on them (like they did to me) I slowed down.  A group behind had caught up and somebody was hitting my legs causing me to go down again - more water consumed.  Did side stroke and back stroke to settle down and finally made it to the halfway point.  Turned and took off to finish this thing.  Got part of the way down to realize that the rope delineating the course had broken and was causing a bottleneck of swimmers.  Made the last turn and made a gut check.  I can do this.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  Made it finally!!  13 minutes after getting in and a couple of pounds of water consumed - look at the bright side - at least I am hydrated a little more for the bike and run. 

T1 - went OK for my first time, but I need to improve it a lot!  3:46 was my time, but we had about 75m to run to transition area and I wasn't about to sprint.  Then, I spent a lot of time trying to get the gravel/sand off of my feet.  Next time, I will bring a little tupperware container with water in it to wash and dry my feet off there at the rack.  Got my bike, helmet, and a quick swig of fluids...and off I go for round 2.  I realized too late that I forgot to take my gel shot.  Oh well.

Bike - I felt a lot better on my bike.  I passed a ton of people as I was trying to push it a little to make up for my poor results in the pool.  I found out that there were many people really didn't respect the ride to the right, pass to the left standards.  I saw a few people getting penalized by USAT officials for blocking and drafting.  This left people no choice but to pass on the left and in between 2 people.  All in all, it was a good ride.  I could've probably pushed it a little harder, but I wanted to conserve my legs a little for the run.  Made it back to the bike finish, dismount, and start to run.  Man, my legs feel like noodles.  Time:  43:11.

T2 - run my bike all the way back to the rack, and take helmet off.  Take a quick drink of H2O, put my race number belt on, and I'm off.  Time:  1:41

Run - it takes me about 1/4 mile to get my legs back and I try to establish a steady comfortable pace.  Make the first mile marker just at 7 minutes!  I was pleased with that, but I still had work to be done.  2nd mile was just under 7 1/2 minutes.  My back starts to tighten up, but I do my best to ignore it and push myself a little harder.  I start to pick up the pace as much as possible, but found little kick in my legs.  I was ecstatic to see the finish line and was so proud to cross it with my 8 year old daughter running with me.  Time:  23:46

Overall time:  1:25:27, rank 554/1375 total finishers, 33/90 Clydesdales

What did I learn?  I need to work on my open water swimming - with continued building of endurance, breathing and sighting especially.  Breathing in open water is different than in the pool.  T1 can be done more efficiently.  My feet don't need to be completely dry, or clean before putting socks on.  Or I can go without socks next time.  I can push it a little more on the bike without jeopardizing my run times.  I will insert intervals and speed work into the program.  I need to do more speed and interval work on the run as well.  The biggest thing that I learned was that - I CAN DO THIS!!!  Thanks to all of you for your input and advice.