Still pretty cold, but that wasn't as much of an issue. Took me a while to get my head under the water, but mostly that was because of the swim traffic. The tri was full of first-timers that couldn't sight at all, and ended up crossing in front of me unexpectedly and swimming into me. After the first 100 or so, I found an outer trajectory to take. Amazingly, I kept with freestyle the entire time for the first race ever!

They did a weird thing and didn't have all of the men's waves go before the women's. After my wave they let some of the men go and, of course, they caught up to us in the last 75 or so. That always sucks.

Not much. I know I could have gone so much faster w/ a wetsuit, but I was pretty happy overall.

T1 was pretty slow because I decided to wear my running tights and a long-sleeved shirt because I knew the air temperature (50 F) wouldn't really allow my hair to dry and would make me cold, and in my last 2 races in similar weather, my legs and arms were totally frigid during the bike. It was a great decision and worth the extra time.

Not almost fall over when rinsing my feet off! :-)

I was nervous for this event the most because I haven't been on my bike much at all.

At first I felt that I was pushing the bike too hard, but I began to pay attention to my cadence and I felt really good. I pushed the downhills as fast as I could, which is a huge improvement as I have usually been timid to speed down them. I was on my drops probably 60% of the time (my back muscles would argue it was more like 90%). My hands didn't hurt at all, just my neck muscles.

Hills were pretty good, although my lungs and heart were moving pretty fast trying to pump up the hill. But a great race overall.

1/2 way through the bike, I found my new friend Katie on the side of the road after a crash. I called out and made sure she was ok and she said help was on the way. Man I felt bad...her first tri and everything...

One weird thing that happened is that in the last 1/2 mile or so, I stood up on my toes to try and stretch my calves and ankles out for the run. I don't have clipless...which would have helped. My toes were frozen still and I slipped off the pedals, crashing down on my seat. Did I ever see stars! That's the most pain I'd felt in a long time. It dwarfed any other pain in the rest of the race.

I need clipless.

The path to T2 was really grassy/marshy and had a lot of potholes. My bike got stuck in one and over it tipped! The rest of T2 went well.

Keep a better grip on the handle bars while running.

My weird ankle tendon tenseness returned, but I kept trying to stretch them out the whole time. Got a decent side stitch 1/2 way through from the uneven surface, but that went away in just a couple of minutes. The run hurt a little, but I was happy to be under 10 min pace, considering the lack of training and feeling that I may have pushed the bike too far.

Saw Michele "zagagirl", as she was volunteering on the run course. She had a big sign for us 4 BTers that were there. That was cool!

Train

Crossed the finish line with a "thumbs-up" for the photographer, saw that I was under 10 min pace and 1:45 total, so I was happy! That turned to a bit of sadness because noone was there at my race today to cheer me on. So I ran over to my bag and called my boyfriend to tell him how it went (he was out of town). That helped, but it was hard being there alone. I got a taste of what a lot of triathletes go through, and it sucks.

But, then I found Michele again and chatted with her a bit. It was nice to see a familiar face.


Training, obviously.


Everything was ok except the post-race food. They only offered brats, which, sadly, I hate. Otherwise their 5th Annual event went well!