The swim was canceled due to an oil spill in the bay. I was *super* disappointed when I first heard about it because this was supposed to be my first tri and I had been training for it since early April. The swim's my weakest event and I'd really been looking forward to proving to myself that I could do it. Oh well.

Swim!

The transition was technically our race start. They had us start in waves as though we were just coming out of the water, so we weren't allowed to wear any bike gear and no shoes or socks. I was kind of embarrassed that I was one of the few women in my group who didn't have painted toenails. Who knew a pedicure was necessary for triathlons?

I was pretty nervous at this point (first race!), but as expected, as soon as they told us to go I felt fine. I panicked a little when I got to my spot and couldn't decide whether or not to sit down and put on my shoes, heh. I did it standing, using my socks to brush off the little bit of dirt and rocks from running barefoot. For some reason they didn't time this transition (they said our time would start as soon as we entered the transition area) so I could have taken my time. As it was, I got out in about the middle of the pack, I think.

If it'd been a real triathlon, I would have practiced this transition, especially taking off the wetsuit. I probably should have practiced anyway, but I was so bummed out about the no-swimming thing that I decided not to bother the day before. I know, lame.

Wow. I don't even know how to describe how pleasantly surprised I am with this time. I went into this race with an average training pace of maybe 14 mph. Pretty much all of my training was on busy streets with lots of intersections where I had to slow down or stop altogether, so I figured I'd be faster in the race, but not this much faster, and certainly not at the front of the pack (for my age group, anyway)!

(Honestly, it's enough of a shock that I've spent a fair amount of time wondering if there was some kind of mistake. Did I skip a lap? No. Did they screw up the time? No, I had almost the exact same time on my watch.)

So yeah, the bike felt great. I never felt overly tired, although there were moments where I could tell that I was going to be hurting on the run. I'm guessing it helped a lot that I've been training entirely on rough Berkeley roads, because the potholes and cracks and bumps and stuff didn't bother me at all, and I got a kick out of all the turns. I did see quite a few people with flats, and my friends informed me that a woman crashed right before I came around the first lap. About halfway through my first lap a woman passing me yelled out a compliment (I think she said "nice riding"?), and I ended up pacing her for most of the race (careful not to draft, of course). In fact, we passed each other several times, to the point where we were joking about it. On the final lap I suddenly got a little paranoid that I wasn't sure where the turnoff was, so I kept up with the woman just so I'd know where to go. Heh.

On a side note, it was wonderful having so many friends there to cheer me on. They somehow stationed themselves at several points around the course, so it felt like every time I turned a corner someone was yelling my name. It was fun and made me want to push that much harder.

God, nothing. I am thrilled with this time. OK, I suppose I'd consider taking a gel or even a couple bites of a PowerBar before the bike, just so I could have more energy for the run. But really, this felt great.

I felt pretty shaky coming off the bike, more than I usually do during a brick. But I guess that's to be expected with teh pace I was keeping. I did get a kick out of the fact that I finished with several women at the same time, and all of them had bike shoes and had to change. First one out of transition! Ha. I'm pretty sure most of them caught up to me on the run, though.

Nothing. This probably took longer than it should, but I didn't rush things on wobbly legs.

Man, it was tough coming off the bike. I've practiced bricks, but it still sucked. I was glad to have practiced, though, if only because I knew to expect it and to give myself a half mile or so just to get comfortable. I can't say that I ever felt great on the run, but I'm perfectly happy with this time. Of course, all of the front-runners were well below the 9mm range, but whatever, I'm still new to all this.

Again, I loved having a cheering section during the run. I was feeling like crap on the first lap and it was really nice to have the encouragement.

I'm going to experiment with gels during workouts to see how I tolerate them and if they give me much of a boost. I felt more wiped out on this run than I'd expected, even if it didn't seem to hurt my time much.

I was so happy to finish! I walked around a bit with my friends, stretched, and drank a lot of water, but that's about it. I might have gotten a little overly excited when a friend informed me that I was 8th in my age group. Of course I wouldn't have done nearly as well if there'd been a swim -- partly because my swim sucks, and partly because I am guessing a lot of the best athletes skipped the race because of the lack of swim (last year there were more than 50 women in my age group). But whatever, I was excited.

After soaking up the atmosphere for about an hour we all headed off to brunch.


Mostly I'm just new, so I did about as well as possible. Better, actually, with the bike.


My only experiences with triathlons are this one and one I volunteered at a couple months ago. This one definitely seemed better organized than the other one. The organizers handled the last-minute swim cancelation very well and did a good job of keeping everyone excited and motivated, I think.

Overall, it was a really, really great time. I can hardly wait for my first *real* tri next year.