Tips Please - Do's and Dont's for First Tri

It's your first tri so enjoy it.

1. Make a checklist the night before (several can be found on BT and other websites).

2. DO NOT try anything new on race day that you haven't tried/practiced. This goes for your gear, shoes, nutrition, breakfast, EVERYTHING. Stick with what you know works.

3. Make sure you have your helmet on whenever you are touching your bike, but be sure to remove your helmet at T2 (have seen it many times)

4. Get to the venue EARLY and walk through the transition area(s) several times until you are comfortable remembering where to enter & exit and where you racked your bike.

5. Time permitting, ride the bike course and run the run course.

6. DO NOT race against anyone else in the event - do not try to "catch up" with anyone. Run your own race, at your own pace, otherwise you will blow up.

7. TRUST YOUR TRAINING - try to relax the night before knowing you have built a solid base of training and try not to second-guess your abilities...although you will anyway, and likely not sleep very well at all, and will be a bundle of nerves on race morning as you make your way to the port-a-potty for the fourth time...just take comfort that everyone else around you will be feeling the very same things! 

8. Smile as you get close to the finish - photographers will be snapping shots.

9. After finishing and gathering yourself together, step back to the finish area to cheer on other finishers...just as there were others there cheering you!

10. HAVE A BLAST AND SIGN UP FOR ANOTHER TRIATHLON/DUATHLON THE VERY NEXT DAY!!!

...oh yeah, number 11:

Call yourself a Triathlete!

And be gentle when showering to maintain the body markings on your arms so you can brag about them while wearing short sleeves on monday morning at work, "oh, that...just from another triathlon I did on the weekend...no biggie"

Don't worry, don't stress, don't fret,   just have fun.....  Second Triathlon, you can worry, stress and fret.

Unless you are going for the money cash prize.   Go like helllllll!!!!

As listed, make a list for what you will need in the PM before the race, AM when you get up and list of stuff at the transition.  Get everything in the car the night before, sit back and watch a movie or something.  You wont be able to sleep anyway.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/search/query.asp?fid=0&action=search&searchforumid=all&keywords=checklist&mode=1&subjects=1&messages=1&author=&collapsethreads=1&days=1&datemode=3&custom-start=&custom-end=

I'll just try to offer two things that others might not.

1.  I've heard not to jump across the finish line.  All you end up with is a picture of yourself in a half squat landing position as if you are trying to go to the bathroom.

2.  Definitely do a warm up swim.  I learned several valuable things in my tri by doing this.  The jugs used as markers along the rope were too far apart to be used for sighting and the water was too murky to see the rope so I started to the far left instead of right.  And the entrance/exit went from 1 ft to 8 ft deep almost immediately (man made lake).  So I was prepared for the steep dropoff going in and more importantly, coming out.  I knew to swim hard right up to the shore before trying to stand up.  I passed several people who were trying to stand where you would think you could (5-10 ft from shore) and were caught offguard by the fact that they couldn't.  To me this is as important as touring the bike and run courses ahead of time to look for surprises and it takes care of the whole acclimating to the water temp thing at the same time.

My mantra is "DFL beats DNF beats DNS."  The hardest part of the tri, for me, is getting my body near a body of water just before a horn sounds.  If I can do that much then I beat everybody who Did Not Show.  And once that horns sounds I just trust my training to get my body to move over and over again until I cross a finish line. 

 I injured myself in my first tri and the run hurt but I recall grinning like a cheshire cat the whole way because I knew, as long as I didn't fall over and knock myself out, that I was going to Finish This Traithlon and be a Triathlete!  It was an intoxicating feeling.

 So, my advice is to remember that saying: DFL beats DNS beats DNS.  Oh, and my other piece of advice:

Thank the race volunteers.  Smile at them as often as you can.

And have fun!