I DID IT!!!

I finished my first sprint triathlon on Saturday! It was a lot of fun. I am so glad that I was able to do it with my good friend Lisa. It was nice to have someone with me so I didn't have to feel so dumb that I didn't really know what was going on. I finished in 1:45:03 or something close to that. For experienced triathletes that is probably a time to be laughed at, but for my first one, I was quite proud of myself. My real goal was to finish and to do it in under 2 hours. So I did it. I have definitely caught the bug and will be doing more in the future. I'll work on getting faster times for those ones.

Lisa and I had a lot of support which was AWESOME!! Mike(her husband), Eric, my parents, and my brother and sister were there. It was fun to see them at the beginning and at the first transition, but it was even better when they were there screaming for me at the finish line. They were the loudest fans there!

I'm going to go into more detail below so that I can remember everything. So if you don't want to keep reading, I won't be offended. Just know that I had fun and would do another one next week if I could. I am now a triathlete! Here are some pictures to prove it:

Lisa and I in our wetsuits ready to go:

In the cold water ready to swim:

Right after I got out of the water:

Heading out on my bike after the 1st transition:

Our fan club walking over to the finish line:

Rounding the bend to the finish line:

Almost there!!:

Lisa and I in front of the finish line. We were so happy to be done!:


Now for the detailed overview:

Night before: Lisa and I went and picked up our wetsuits at BYU. They were only $10 to rent which was much cheaper than other places. They weren't the best wetsuits but they worked. Then we had to go pick up our race packets in Lehi. We got a little bag of goodies and a nice shirt. We also had to get marked. Pretty much they write your race number on both arms, and then your age and distance on the back of your legs in permanent marker. You could have had this done the morning of, but I didn't want to get there any earlier than I had to. Well, turns out it might have been a good idea because it faded a lot and my sheets now have black marks all over them :)

Morning of: We got there at about 8am. You were supposed to park in town and bike to the reservoir, but people were parking all down the streets so we did too. It made the bike ride in much shorter. We got to the transition area and felt kinda dumb because we didn't really know what to do. We figured it out though and got spots right by each other. At 8:45 we all had to be out of the transition area because they were making the timers live. It was nice because we got to hang out with Mike and Eric for awhile, and then got to say hi to my family when they get there just in time for me to start.

Swim (1/2 mile/750 m): Our wave started at 9:30. I was really nervous. The water was really cold, so I was glad that I had the wetsuit. When I heard start I just went dove in and started swimming. It was a little crazy because there were a lot of women swimming in one little area. It was hard to see in the water too. After a little while I kinda got used to the craziness and kept going. There was driftwood all over that I would run into. We had to follow these big buoys in the water, but they were hard to see until you were closer to them so I just followed where everyone else was going. It was so much different than swimming in a pool. I knew it was going to be but that still didn't prepare me for what was to come. Eventually I made it to the end and boy was I glad.

Transition 1: This was a rough transition. I actually felt dizzy and weak after getting out of the water. After I got a little water and sat down, I started to feel better. I just wanted to get on the bike and relax a little. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to get into my bike stuff and then off we went.

Bike(about 14 miles): I felt pretty confident about the bike ride going into it. Lisa and I had gone up to scout out the trail a month or so ago. Boy was I glad that we did. It was nice to know exactly where I was and what was to come. Even though I knew the route a little bit, I did get confused at one point. There was a hairpin turn that just the sprint distance had to take. Well, along the main road there were quite a few of these turns that it could have been. I didn't think we had made it to the turn yet, but then all of these people started turning around saying that we had missed it. I got a little confused and stopped to wait for Lisa. Turns out I was right, so I kept going. That did waste a little time, but it wasn't a big deal. After that I just kept going and felt good. The only problem was that the speedometer on my bike wasn't working so I didn't have a clue as to how fast I was going. I wish I would have known. Looking back now I think I could have pushed myself a little bit more. I was just concerned that I was going to use too much of my energy. Good thing we had these Power Bar gel things to eat. They really helped me to sustain some energy. Overall I felt good about the bike ride.

Transition 2: I rode into the transition and then right away started to change my shoes and get ready to run. Lisa pulled in just a little behind me, so we got to start the run together. This transition was an easy one. I could definitely go a lot faster in the future on this one, but fast transitions were not my focus.

Run(5k/3.1 miles): The run started out rough. My calves were SO tight, but as I kept running they loosened up a little bit. Most of the run was uphill. The first part was a gradual uphill which led to a bigger uphill, then to a downhill, then an uphill, then another uphill, and then it was flat. It was a pretty hard run for just a 5k. I'm not a fast 5k runner in the first place, but I definitely was going slower than normal. I was fine with that though because I had just swam and biked. We had to pass over this bridge close to the end, and as I got over it I saw Eric and everyone else. That motivated me to keep going and I knew the end was in sight! As I got closer I could hear them cheering for me and it was awesome. I was so happy when I passed over that finish line!

Post-race: After I crossed the finish line I went and got some water and some snacks and then went over to see everyone. Right after that Lisa was racing by so I got to cheer her on. After she got her snacks we walked over to stand in line for a massage. Well after about 20 minutes and the line moving very slowly, we decided to get our backs adjusted instead. That was quite the experience. I had never been to a chiropractor before and had no idea my back and neck could crack like that. After that we walked back to get our bikes, rode them up the road to meet up with Mike and Eric, and then met my family at Granny's Ice-cream shop in Heber. I wasn't quite in the mood for ice-cream but it was fun nonetheless.

Well there you go. That's my triathlon in detail. I'm excited for my next one, whenever that may be. This one was such a good learning experience. I now know what to expect and can work to get a faster time next time. Now I just need to save a lot of money to buy some new equipment:)

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a message even if I don't know you read. I like to see who reads this!