My First Race Report

[Alex]

I did it! Seven weeks after my first swimming lesson, I actually completed a triathlon. I've definitely been drinking the Total Immersion Kool-Aid! There is no way I would have imagined that I could go from "can't swim a stroke" to doing a swim as part of a triathlon in such a short period of time. I couldn't have done it without some great instruction from a TI coach.

After doing an open water swim clinic last week, where we had to swim in a tight pack with people grabbing and kicking, etc., I thought I would get more out of doing a race than doing the open water swim/course preview I asked about in a previous thread. I think it was the right decision because I learned a lot during the clinic and during the race.

It was a VERY small triathlon put on by a rec center. It was a 400 yard pool swim, a 14.3 mile bike, and a 5K run. The weather was supposed to be cool, but it turned out to be cool (60 degrees) AND pouring rain for the entire race. I have NEVER been that soaked during a ride or run. My cycling shoes leached blue dye all over my socks and my running shoes sounded like sodden sponges by the end of the race. And, the bike course was along some busy roads, one of which was a highway detour, so we had huge trucks and cars spraying us with water from the deep puddles.

IT WAS A BLAST!

I did my swim 4 seconds faster than my estimated time. It was a circle swim with 3 or 4 people to a lane. They had 3 or 4 waves, and I was in the first one. I would have been faster if I knew how to turn off the wall, but I never wanted to use my precious pool time to work on that as I thought it was more important that I actually work on swimming. I felt really good during the swim.

The bike was so much fun, even though I had to slow it down in places because of the rain and puddles. I passed a lot of people on the two loop bike course. Only one guy passed me. I got passed by one woman on the run and a couple of guys near the end. I am a very slow runner, but I was happy just to have run the entire distance. I figure there is time enough to try to build some speed.

Because it was such a small tri, I took second place in my age group. There were FIVE whole women in my age group! LOL!

DH was a great support crew, taking pictures, cheering me on, etc. The only thing that would have been better would have been if I could have had my regular running buddy with me on the run. Here he is napping with the ribbon he helped me earn. He was a bit tired as we all got up at 4:30 to get to the race.

http://flickr.com/gp/utah/q53Q26

After the race, there was a pancake breakfast. Yum!

I'm already looking forward to another triathlon, next time in open water. Thanks to everyone for posting all of their inspiring race reports and for being such a supportive group!

Alex