Clearlake Triathlon

I did it! I completed my first Triathlon. And I have to say, I'm hooked.

It was so much fun. I can't wait for the next one!

But let's start at the beginning. About a month ago, my friend Diana (who is an IRONMAN) asked me if I wanted to do this triathlon with her. I was a little unsure at first because I'm not much of a cyclist (aka I've never been on a road bike) and it's been a long time since I did any sort of consistent swimming, but I decided that if there was any time in my life I was going to do a triathlon, it had to be now when my good buddy could show me the ropes. 

Also I felt like since it was a Sprint distance (the shortest) I could pretty much handle it no matter what.

So, I signed up.

The next day at the gym I decided to try and do each of the distances of the triathlon consecutively so I knew I could it. That went okay so I figured I was ready! My biggest fear was the biking part so I worked some biking into my normal routine and called it good.

Ok fast forward to race day. I was nervous! I wasn't too worried about the physical part, but I felt like there were so many things that could go wrong. Like, what if I got a flat tire, or forgot some equipment, or got lost, or broke one of the rules of the race, etc. All pretty silly to be worried about, but I still was. Once we were on the dock waiting to jump in the water though I was okay. I figured there was nothing I could change now so I would have to just deal with whatever happened.

The race itself was really fun. The swim was pretty good. The water was warm (and salty, ick). We swam in a boat dock, so it was ocean water, but no waves or anything. I wish I had looked up more while I was swimming because I was zigzagging across the course more than I wanted to be. I just liked to put my head down and swim, but whenever I looked up I was never going straight. haha I guess I really rely on those lines at the bottom of the pool! 

(This water was just brown, you couldn't see in it at all.)

When you finish the swim, you climb out of the water on a ladder and the bikes are all lined up on racks. I was really slow at transition. Definitely something I need to work on for the next race. But I got all my biking gear and headed out. This was the first time I saw Tyler. He handed me some sunglasses when I came out of the water and was taking pictures while I changed and ran out with my bike. 

The bike part wasn't bad at all. I got a little saddle sore by the end of it, but other than that, no complaints! 

When I finished the bike I was still feeling strong, but when I got off the bike to start the run I couldn't believe how stiff I was. I was not expecting that at all! It took me a good half mile before I felt like I was even doing any sort of normal running. I felt like I was just kind of shuffling along at first. By the end of the run I was feeling a lot better and I even had it in me to sprint to the finish. 

Ok, enough talk and onto the pictures! 

This is where we climbed out of the water from the swim. 

This is me just out of the water going to the bikes. I'm number 775.  

This is my friend Diana coming out of transition. 

She's in black.

Diana looks really cute in this one :)

And here's me coming out of transition!

This is Diana coming in after the bike race.

And here's me.

And here's Diana sprinting in to the finish.

And me!

Post race pictures!

Here are my split times:

Swim: 10:31 

Bike: 48:58

Run: 19:47

Total: 1:22:48

 I placed 13 out of 34 in my age group.

Here's a screenshot of my results. Or you can go to this link. 

(This is mostly for dad :))

https://secure.eztoregister.com/results/storage/Sprint-091d7082-d57f-41bf-a7d7-373aef1e5680.htm

Notice how my friend Diana placed first in our age group! 

That is probably way more than anyone wanted to know. 

Can't wait for the next one!