New Bri Tri

So I completed the New Bri Tri today. Jason just got home from work and won't let me tell him about it until I blog. Unfortunately he has a valid point. If I tell the story too many times I'll never get around to writing it down.

Back in January one of my classmates Maria and I started swimming at school to survive the winter. She is an amazing swimmer who has competed heavily in the past. With all of the overachievers in dentistry it wasn't hard to find encouragement or suggestions to do a triathlon. So Maria and I decided we would set a goal and start training for the summer for our first ever triathlon. Conveniently, our suburb has a triathlon which is near by and at a time we could both go - today.

The day started at 5:30am (actually earlier if you count that I couldn't sleep last night because I was so nervous I wouldn't get up.) I went to go pick Maria up and arrived at the park at 6:45.

Although it is June we finally got some rain. So while it's been beautiful all week it was cold and rainy today. The temp outside was in the neighborhood of 50 degrees and I'm guessing the water was about 67 degrees.

We set up our transition area. (FYI this apparently is a motivating factor for the intense athletes to arrive at 5am and take the spots nearest the exit. We are not that motivated.) This involved putting out our bike and laying our towel, helmet and running clothes out. One of my friends from school let me borrow a road bike his mom had for the race - it was awesome - super fast and red.

Maria and I were in the fourth wave - after the elite athletes and men. I'm assuming this is so small people like me don't drown in the rush for the water. (They were set at 3 minute intervals.) There were probably 100 people in each of the 5 waves. Despite the cold weather, with our wetsuits it was actually pleasant to stand in the water and easy to transition to swimming.

The biggest mistake I probably made preparing for this triathlon was not swimming in my wetsuit before hand or swimming in a lake. I got caught in the middle of what is referred to as "the washing machine." There is such a mob of people that you are being grabbed from everywhere and hitting others in the process. The water already has zero visibility but now is also being agitated. I've been practicing in a pool where I can see the bottom and track where I am going. It took me almost half of the swim course to figure out what my game plan was. I couldn't swim normal freestyle because of the mass of people and I couldn't see where I was going. My goggles had fogged up a bit so even with my head out of water it was tough to see. I tried breast stroke for awhile but there wasn't the leg room and the wetsuit was too restrictive for the kicks. A ridiculous amount of energy and time was spent just trying to stay afloat. We were supposed to swim out along the buoys and then come back in an elongated U. I was finally starting to get into the groove of just pulling in freestyle (which worked well with the buoyancy of the swim suit) when I realized I was drastically off course. I'm convinced I lost at least seven minutes in my detour - I didn't make the turn and kept heading for the other shore. I'm still not entirely sure how to get into a rhythm and be able to see where you are going - next year. The good news is that there was no one for me to run into way out there. I finished and walked out of the lake to my transition site where my friends Katie and Erin from school were cheering me on. I was so disoriented from the swim it was a good thing they were there to coach me through the change. I could barely stand and kept forgetting things like drying off before getting dressed.

I then walked my bike to the mounting area and was on my way. I think I did best in this part. I ended up pacing a guy for the entire 14 miles and fortunately wasn't passed by too many people. (I know this wasn't the point - I was competing with myself. However, you know I like a little competition to keep motivated.) It started to sprinkle during the bike ride but fortunately wasn't too bad and the roads weren't wet enough to have splash from the tires. (I absolutely hate that.)

Moving from biking to running is just weird. If you've ever been on a trampoline and then tried to start jumping on the ground or running you'll know what I'm talking about. It took me at least a mile to feel like I was moving normally. I kept a slow but steady pace and met my goal of running the 3 miles without walking. It rained the entire run but it didn't bother me too much. Fortunately it only started pouring while we were driving home.

The group that did the triathlon did a nice job. All the participants were well marked and we wore chips on our ankles to record our times. (I was number 85.) The data on the chip let them know who was coming so I crossed the finish line with the announcer bellowing my name to the crowd. My time was one hour and fifty-five minutes, next year will be faster as I improve the swim. The entire experience was a lot of fun. All of the volunteers and workers were awesome, lots of encouragement from everyone along the way. (Except the swim - that's all about survival. There are kayakers out there if people need to rest on something or be saved.)

How am I feeling you may ask? Pretty good. Each event works fairly different muscle groups so it wasn't too bad to start something new and carry through with it. I have a feeling I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow, but nothing terrible. Maria and I have decided we definitely want to make this an annual event. Thanks for every one's support along the way!


Here are my stats: I came in as 289 out of 359 and 80 out of 120 females in my age group. (Like I said - next year will be better once I figure out the swim.)
Swim: 17min 48 sec
Transition one: 3 minutes 53 seconds (I thought for sure it took longer than that)
Bike: 51:28
Transition two: one minute 4 seconds
Run: 32 minutes
Total according to the posted data: one hour, forty-two minutes and twenty seconds (the clock said 1:55:33 so I don't know where the discrepancy is)