Yes, I did it!

[Hillhugger]

Hello everybody,

I'm so excited - I did it - my first Tri!!! It was a picture perfect day to begin with - sunshine but not too much.

The swim was great, the bike was very good and the run was ok.

It is so amazing, there were such a lot of people from my club there, cheering me on. Me, the beginner!

Well, in short, I loved it and will continue.

Good luck to everybody this season!!!

Have a great day!

[ValS]

Congratulations!
For me (same race) - I was in the outer lane of the swim, so kept hooking my arm on the ladder, and colliding with my lane mate... I didn't have a towel on the transition, so I decided to forgo socks, and that whole thing seemed to take forever... on the bike, I couldn't figure out the right gear to be in on my "touring rather then racing" bike so it didn't seem to go as well as I had hoped... and the run was quite painful and harder then I thought (my sockless feet blistering didn't help)... and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT and think I am now addicted! It felt great to be in the adrenaline of competition, and to set up a baseline to give my workouts more focus, and to sleep like a baby last night!

Hillhugger... what is your next race going to be! I am signed up for the women's triathlon in Orangeville in July, and think I will register for the Guelph Lake tri-a-try end of June as a testing ground for open water swim.

Congrats again!

[Hillhugger]

Congratulations to you too!!!

I was in one of the middle lanes at the swim and collided only once with my swim mate. She came too close and I kicked her by accident - Ouch! Sorry!

In the transition I didn't have my towel out either but I decided to pull on my socks. In training I tried before to run without socks - not a good idea! So the bike was not bad.

The run was hard... especially that last hill at the end! I had to walk that one, my left knee was complaining. After that I was able to run again. The funny part was, my son had gathered his fellow team mates at the end of the run and they were all cheering me on... That was so great, I actually sprinted up to the finish line! I don't know who was prouder, my son or I???

Did you get sunburn as well? Darn, I somewhat underestimated the sun and completely forgot to put on sunlotion... not good!

I haven't decided on future races yet, but the one in July in Orangeville looks pretty good, so I'll probably do that one too. Otherwise, we'll see. My husband and my son race as well, so I have to do a bit of planning.

Ha, I slept like a baby too! The whole family was in bed shortly after 9:00 pm yesterday! Blown out like a candle, ha, ha!

By the way, the C3 in Inglewood have open-water-swim training in a quarry nearby and also in Innislake in Bolton. Maybe you are interested?

See you!

[ValS]

I read the stuff in the info package they gave us, and think I am going to at least go to some of the open swim training. Have you done it yet this year? Is it warm enough without a wetsuit? I actually "placed" better in the swim part then in the bike and run, though open water will be a whole new ballgame. I have to figure out the best way to work on the run though... Sounds like the club is pretty supportinve of you efforts. Inglewood isn't too far (Bolton is getting to be a bit more of a commute for me though).

And actually the sun wasn't too bad (though we went home between the kids in the morning and me in the afternoon, so we weren't 'hanging around in the sun' too much. The weather MOnday was pretty miserable! We lucked out with such nice weather for our first one!

ciao
Val

[ValS]

Actually - a question for you... How long was the actual run? The registration information all said 4k, but the "chip time" results said 5k. I am thinking that the times said 5k, and figured out the 'speed' based on 5k, but that they were actually times for a 4k run. Maybe someone at your club could confirm... My run didn't seem very good at all, but the time was actually decent (for me) if it had been 5k, and certainly in range of a tired, slow 4 k, so I just want to make sure...

thanks!

[Hillhugger]

Hi Val,

I'll check with my club if 4 or 5K - it sure felt like 5K!

If it is warm enough without swimsuit - it really depends where you want to swim. Our guys say that for example Innislake is fine but that the Quarry is much colder.

Honestly, at the moment I really have enough of all this rain and cold weather - where is the summer??? It must be out there, somewhere!

I got myself a wetsuit this week and will try it out this weekend. The main challenge will be to stay on course and not to criss-cross the water in order to get from one bouy to the next. I remember from last year, when my guys did the Duathlon in Wasaga Beach, they had a lot of waves...

How did your kids like it? Did they enjoy it?

See you!

[ValS]

The little one loved the running part, bobbed around a bit like a cork in the swimming part (he can move well with a "noodle", but hadn't used a life jacket much - I figured the life jacket would be the same thing... not so much!), and LOVED the box of cereal at the end! The older one really liked it (though he HATED the bathing cap!) They want to do it again - it made for a long day especially for the little one, so I think we will look for 'me' or 'them' events rather then combined!

So I think my next one is going to be Guelph Lake (I am trying to negotiate with my 'coaching staff' i.e. husband for the tri-a-try, but I think I'm being talked into the sprint...) so I've arranged to rent a wet suit - have you used one before? What kind did you buy?

And it's supposed to be sunny until at least Monday! Yeah!

see ya

[Hillhugger]

Hi Val,

glad to hear that your little ones had fun!

I checked and it were 5K. It looks like somebody was really clever and started to measure from the middle of the road instead of at the time-check-point. Oh well....

My wetsuit is from Orca and I'm gonna try it out either tomorrow or Saturday. It is a good idea to rent one out to see if you like it. I have done scuba diving for more than 10 years and I always loved swimming in a lake. Therefore it was not a real question for me if buying or renting. I'll be in the water a lot this summer.

When I woke up to the sunshine this morning I was so tempted to stay home and go for a bike ride... And next week it is supposed to go over 20 degrees!!! Yes!!!

See you!

[Hillhugger]

...I almost forgot - check out the photos on www.c3online.ca - they have posted tons of photos from the whole event. The little ones look so cute. Maybe yours are also there...

See you!

[Tri'ing Hard]

Congrats! It is certainly addicting, and it is contagious. So much so that my husband is doing his first one this summer.

Congrats again!

[Hillhugger]

Yes, it is indeed addictive - I'm already looking for some I could do during the summer. The only thing is I have to do some scheduling with my husband (master) and my son (elite), because both are pretty active themselves.

Today I tried out my new and first wetsuit! It was awesome! So much fun! Tomorrow I'll go again. I only have to get used to the tightness around the neck. Did you have a similar experience?

See you!

[Tri'ing Hard]

I haven't used a wetsuit, but my husband will be getting one. Depending on how he likes it, I may get one later on this summer. I know they really help with buoyancy (sp?). Everyone I know who owns one swears by them.

Cheryl