In this event, the time was fixed at 10 mins. Swim as far as you can in that time period. I had a great swim! Was extremely happy with performance. Felt very strong throughout. 75 yards in, one of my goggles leaked half an eyeful of water during a turn. Swam rest of the swim with one eye - huge distraction. If it were open water, I'd probably have found a good place to clear it, but since swim portion was so short decided to live with it. Felt real strong the whole way. I felt that the swim was going to be my strongest event, so I pushed it as best I could.

Tighten goggles a hair more. Investigate better pair of goggles with different seal.

Fixed time T1. Got my distance recorded on my scoring sheet from the swim, then went to locker room, threw on some shorts over top of jammers, T-shirt, and some running shoes then headed to the cardio room and found a stationary bike.

Nothing. T1 times were not recorded and did not impact the final scoring.

The bike portion was a fixed 20 mins. Go as far as you can in that time. The bikes were set up in bike mode. When you increase the resistance, the actual speed of the bike increased as if you had switched to a higher gear. I was very worried about this event. My training at my YMCA on the Precor produced distances around 6 miles. Turns out the YMCA where the race took place at uses Lifecycles which are geared totally different. Stayed at 90-95 rpms throughout. Stayed at resistance of 13-15 throughout. Trick at doing well in this portion is to find a high enough resistance where you can keep up your 90 rpms.

Didn't take enough time to set the seat to the correct height. I could have raised it up another inch or two from where I did set it at and been a lot more comfortable.

T2 was simply getting off your stationary bike, having a volunteer write your bike distance on your score card and then walking 5 feet to the treadmill right behind it. I used every bit of the two minutes I had to walk, stretch, hydrate etc.

The run was a fixed 20 mins - go as far as you can. A lot of sloshing around in the stomach when I started, but not enough to make me uncomfortable. I hit the wall at 4 mins in. Struggled for about 3-4 mins, then felt better. Hit another wall at 15 mins in, but knew it was almost over, so it wasn't as bad as the first one. Started at 8 min per mile pace. Every min that went by, I increased the speed by 0.1 mph. Started having problems with breathing/tightness in lungs and ended up dropping back to where I started at for a min or two, then started cranking it again. Sprinted the last minute by jacking up the speed.

Figure out why my breathing went funny on me. Felt like I couldn't take a full breath. Maybe it was the humidity inside. Maybe I was overheating. Still not sure, but felt terrible to bring that speed down.

Found out that they had some Krispy Kreme donuts!!! People probably thought I was crazy, but 3 mins after I was done, I had wolfed down a donut and chased it with some Gatorade. It didn't sit very well, but I kept it down and it tasted great. Did some walking. Should have stretched, but I was so happy to be done.


Breathing during the run limited my speed. The muscles could have handled slightly faster speeds, but need to figure out why I got so tight in the lungs. Even with that, I'm still extremely pleased at my overall performance.


It was great seeing another BT'er out there. Congrats Sue!!!! As far as the event - this was a great beginner race. Since everyone is competing on stationary equipment, there's no feelings of finishing in first or last place. Great way to race in the winter when the weather is colder. These are typically smaller races in terms of people too. No worries about hitting others during the swim. It took place on Sunday morning when the YMCA is closed to the general public, so there's absolutely no one else competing for the equipment. I'm surprised there's not more of them throughout the county. Also, support members, family can literally stand there right beside you and encourage you the entire race.

I left feeling great with a nice Triad Tri Team fleece for finishing #2. They also have 2 more tri's coming up in Jan. At this event, you could get a cool T-shirt that had a graphic and "swim" on it. If you get the T-shirt in the 2nd race you get one that has a different color and graphic and "bike" on it. You guessed it about #3 - a 3rd color, graphic, and "run" on it. Very cool way to keep things different, but make you want to come back to get the complete set.

I put some bigger pics in the album section if you want to see me with my shaved head.

Thanks to all my BT friends for the kind support over the past 4 months of training!!!