Oh sweet Triathlon, where have you been all my life?

[froglegs]

I did my first tri today. It was a reverse sprint in Hemet, CA.

So getting there was a ridiculous adventure by itself. I live about 4 hours away, so I got a hotel room, left around noon yesterday, and planned on meeting my sister there (she was coming to watch). Somewhere in East LA, going 65 on the freeway with cars all around, I ran over a bunch of wood pieces that were scattered on the road. Immediately I could tell that I was dragging something, so I pull over across 4 lanes of traffic, onto the shoulder next to a really scary busy offramp. I get out and notice that while I have no flat tires, my car is spewing coolant onto the road, and there is a 3' x 3' piece of particle board embedded in my radiator. I wrestle it out, chuck it over the guardrail, drive my car 1/4 mile down the offramp to the gas station, call AAA, get towed to my dad's house about 25 miles away, borrow his truck, put my bike and gear in it, and drive to Hemet. By this time it's about 8:30 and I'm ready for dinner and a beer. So I check in and go back to the parking lot, where I get approached by a woman saying she's out of gas and needs a few bucks. Scary neighborhood, random woman, all I have are $20s, so I give her one and hope she's not using it to buy crack. My sister was on the other side of the parking lot and didn't see this happen, but she though it was absolutely hilarious when I told her about it. I couldn't help but laugh, it was a fitting end to the day.

So now to the tri. It started with a 5k run on a flat course, which I finished in 28:19, a good time for me. It was in the 40s so it took me some time to warm up, but near the end of the run I started feeling good. On the bike I averaged 18 mph over a flat 12 miles. That was definitely the most fun, I passed a ton of people and didn't get passed by that many. The swim was in a pool and very short, 150m, but it took over 3 minutes because I kept getting stuck behind a bunch of people doing breast stroke. Total time was 1:15:38, 10/35 in my age group (25-29) and 394/721 overall. I am quite happy with that.

[Tri Girl]

Congrats on your first tri, froglegs!!!! You are a triathlete now- kinda has a nice ring to it. But you better watch out: they are highly addictive. Sounds like you had a wonderful race (despite that major hassle in actually getting to the venue ). Congrats on a great race!!!!
So I've never done a reverse tri. How was swimming at the end? Were you tired from running and biking? I guess you won't know how it compares to swimming first until you're able to get one of those in, but I've always wondered how hard it would be to swim after running and biking. I'm thinking along the lines of me sinking like a rock.
Glad you had a superb first race! Any pictures to share with the group??

[froglegs]

The swim was surprisingly difficult. So far I have done all my swimming in a pool, by myself, and I figured 150m would be nothing. However, the pool was really crowded and I kept getting kicked, and I sucked a lot of water because it was so choppy, plus I was quite tired from the run & bike.

Yup I'm addicted, already signed up for an oly in May (Wildflower!) and looking at one in March. I'm still waiting for my sister to fork over the pics!!

[teigyr]

An Oly? Wow!!!

That sounds like fun but I bet the swim was so short because you were already fatigued. That group swimming thing is different, isn't it. That part of it was hard for me because besides the fact I can't swim as well as I should, I'd also start getting comfortable then would have to change my style to avoid kicking or hitting someone.

Congrats! And yeah, they are addictive aren't they.

Was that your first time in Hemet? As I recall, the stop signs are larger on account of the retirees there not being able to see normal sized ones. It is nice and flat there though I think the first ride I ever did (group ride) was in Hemet way back when.

[froglegs]

Yup, first time in Hemet. I didn't really notice the stop signs, but I did notice that when we went to Applebee's after the tri, most of the people in the restaurant were elderly!! It was really flat there, I'm used to riding hills so I was surprised at how fast I was able to go.

[light_sabe_r]

Well done on your first tri froglegs! ^_^