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Ok so a little background first. My dad had this crazy thing with the pool and made us learn to swim before we could crawl. If we wanted to swim in the pool, we had to swim a couple of perfect laps and practice holding our breath with some silly exercises before we were allowed to "play". So, I have always been able to swim but never learned a lot of the details of lap swimming. I did swim in high school but again didn't learn certain technique things or breathing things or whatever. ( I think he and his family knew someone who drowned or who's kid drowned or whatever??)<br><br>
So, we got to the race with 50 min before race start (according to snooze, I have no idea)-- the perfect amount of time in my mind. Just enough time to get set up but not enough time to get psyched out! I set everything up and teased Brian because he was freaking out about our lack of time. He was getting irritated with me and he was VERY focused, so I shut up and just stretched and stuff. We walked down to the water and people were trying out the water but I was FREEZING, so I said NO WAY! We divided into our respective starting groups and I was talking to the girls around me, telling them this was my first Tri and that I was suddenly nervous having just watched the guys take off. The girl next to me was real sweet and gave me a high five and all the others were like, :you'll be addicted! It will be fine! Slow and steady..... Just finish, etc." Whatever the starting noise was, it sounded and I ran into the water, dove in and started swimming. The water was fine, not as cold as I expected and I realized I might be going too fast. I have been in the pool 3 times so far since we started swimming again with the max amount being 1300 yds. The race was 800 so I decided to go nice and comfy and try to not have to stop. This was not an issue. It was weird not being able to see the bottom and though I have been practicing bilateral breathing I gae up on that from the get-go. I breathed every other stroke because it was comfortable and gave me a nice rythym. As I was coming around the last corner I came up on some guys from the guys' start....get to the edge of the lake and up to the transition mat in 20:26.. pretty slow but I felt great, not tired.<br>
My big fear in the whole thing was that I would go too hard and not be able to finish or be reduced to a walk. I did not want that!!! T1 2:02, just put on some shorts and cycling shoes and off I go. The bike was easy, too. I went just comfortable and thought about form and stuff. Again, I was really scared of going too fast and bonking. I was singing songs and a guy came up next to me and laughed at my singing. I passed quite a few people but I was going SLOW, I am sure. I don't know cause Brian has the timer/distance thingy on his bike. So 12 miles + T2 was 45:17. I struggled to get out of my bike shoes and there was no place to put my bike so I wrestled it and then got mad and just threw my bike onto the ground, tripping and stepping down barefooted onto the air putter inner thingy on Brian's bike. I squealed and cussed because it hurt so bad. But put on my tennis shoes and took off. Some guy said "Look at 'er go" as I crossed the mat and took off. My legs were so confused!! Normally, I think "run" and they just do it. My legs are my good friends and they are obedient and if I wanna go faster, I think faster and they do it..... not so much! So, my legs were heavy and I thought that I was going sooooo slow and so I kept speeding up and telling myself to quit being such a wimp, etc, etc. I was shocked along the way how many people were dying on the run and it seemed weird to me to be passing people with GINORMOUS M-dot tattoos and stuff (Is that mean? I don't mean it to be...). As I turned the last corner I was with two guys and I said "Come on guys ,there's the line....you can pick it up just a bit. Catch me!" ZOOOOOM-- full sprint! The one guy laughed and said "Take me in, Girl!" and we raced to the finish---- 20:28 for the 2.75 miles.... I think it's a touch faster than 7:30/mile? Finished in 1:28:15 but I felt awesome! I could have gone harder, I know it!! I got fourth place and the third place girl only beat me by 1 minute and 50 seconds. I had the second fastest run time for all the females. So, overall a good first Tri <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">
So, we got to the race with 50 min before race start (according to snooze, I have no idea)-- the perfect amount of time in my mind. Just enough time to get set up but not enough time to get psyched out! I set everything up and teased Brian because he was freaking out about our lack of time. He was getting irritated with me and he was VERY focused, so I shut up and just stretched and stuff. We walked down to the water and people were trying out the water but I was FREEZING, so I said NO WAY! We divided into our respective starting groups and I was talking to the girls around me, telling them this was my first Tri and that I was suddenly nervous having just watched the guys take off. The girl next to me was real sweet and gave me a high five and all the others were like, :you'll be addicted! It will be fine! Slow and steady..... Just finish, etc." Whatever the starting noise was, it sounded and I ran into the water, dove in and started swimming. The water was fine, not as cold as I expected and I realized I might be going too fast. I have been in the pool 3 times so far since we started swimming again with the max amount being 1300 yds. The race was 800 so I decided to go nice and comfy and try to not have to stop. This was not an issue. It was weird not being able to see the bottom and though I have been practicing bilateral breathing I gae up on that from the get-go. I breathed every other stroke because it was comfortable and gave me a nice rythym. As I was coming around the last corner I came up on some guys from the guys' start....get to the edge of the lake and up to the transition mat in 20:26.. pretty slow but I felt great, not tired.<br>
My big fear in the whole thing was that I would go too hard and not be able to finish or be reduced to a walk. I did not want that!!! T1 2:02, just put on some shorts and cycling shoes and off I go. The bike was easy, too. I went just comfortable and thought about form and stuff. Again, I was really scared of going too fast and bonking. I was singing songs and a guy came up next to me and laughed at my singing. I passed quite a few people but I was going SLOW, I am sure. I don't know cause Brian has the timer/distance thingy on his bike. So 12 miles + T2 was 45:17. I struggled to get out of my bike shoes and there was no place to put my bike so I wrestled it and then got mad and just threw my bike onto the ground, tripping and stepping down barefooted onto the air putter inner thingy on Brian's bike. I squealed and cussed because it hurt so bad. But put on my tennis shoes and took off. Some guy said "Look at 'er go" as I crossed the mat and took off. My legs were so confused!! Normally, I think "run" and they just do it. My legs are my good friends and they are obedient and if I wanna go faster, I think faster and they do it..... not so much! So, my legs were heavy and I thought that I was going sooooo slow and so I kept speeding up and telling myself to quit being such a wimp, etc, etc. I was shocked along the way how many people were dying on the run and it seemed weird to me to be passing people with GINORMOUS M-dot tattoos and stuff (Is that mean? I don't mean it to be...). As I turned the last corner I was with two guys and I said "Come on guys ,there's the line....you can pick it up just a bit. Catch me!" ZOOOOOM-- full sprint! The one guy laughed and said "Take me in, Girl!" and we raced to the finish---- 20:28 for the 2.75 miles.... I think it's a touch faster than 7:30/mile? Finished in 1:28:15 but I felt awesome! I could have gone harder, I know it!! I got fourth place and the third place girl only beat me by 1 minute and 50 seconds. I had the second fastest run time for all the females. So, overall a good first Tri <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">
