Finished my first tri

I had to use a man's wetsuit as they don't make women's suits in my size (5'11" 200+ lbs). It was a bit tight, I think, and I didn't practice enough in it, so despite swimming being my strongest event, I had a panic attack.

Looking at the photos after, I was initially well in the lead, so perhaps I took off too fast, too, but after about 100m, just in sight of the turning buoy, I was feeling really strong and confident. Then, suddenly, my suit seemed to clamp around my chest and throat. I was gasping for breath and just couldn't relax.

 I managed to stay calm and resist the temptation to call a boat and limped to shore, exhausted. I was one of the last out.

 I walked slowly to my bike, got out of my suit quite quickly, despite it sticking on my upper arms, and didn't rush myself through the transition. I walked again to the bike out, stopped another newbie from trying to mount her bike inside the transition area, was told to mount up, struggled to clip in and set off. The cycle was great and I soon caught up and overtook 12 riders.

 Back into transition and swapped shoes, discarded helmet (which I left on until the very last moment, just to be sure I didn't mess up) and walked for the run out. A marshall came over, whispered, "these people aren't here to see you WALK out of the transition, GET GOING GIRL!" so I laughed and set off. Terrible cramps in my legs for the first half of the run, but seeing my gorgeous DH and beloved pooch waiting for me and cheering me on really made me smile. I had to walk a little bit, but warmed up for the 2nd half of the run and ran the rest of the way to the finish.

 I have to say that the much fitter ladies that were doing a longer race were fabulous as the overtook me and gave me words of encouragement.

 Overall, it was a super short race (200m/5k/2.5k) but was the hardest thing I've ever done. Well hooked and can't wait for my next race on the 9th (400m/10k/2.5k).

I can't remember my exact times but they're about 5:03/16:20/21:20, which, apart from the swim, I'm really pleased with I was saving my legs on the cycle, so I know I can improve that time, and the run time was only a little slower than my usual training time for 2.5k (18:20)

 I can't help thinking though that a better fitting wetsuit would have helped a lot. Why don't these people realize that not everyone that is a triathlete STARTS OUT FIT!!??