First Triathalon

Well, it was a bit of a disaster, but I finished it and am planning to do another one soon! (I'm going to wait until after the adventure race on April 10th, so the next one I have planned is on June 6th, unless another one comes up in May.)

I did the sprint triathlon on Sunday, March 14th, and it consisted of a 100 meter swim, 6 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. I actually had a little bit of fun, although I learned a lot about my triathlon weaknesses and strengths. Overall, I came in 6th place in my age group...out of six people, and about 60th out of 88 people total. *sigh* My time was 54 minutes, 32 seconds...yikes. Not great, and it definitely could be better. The swim took me about 2 minutes, and the run was pretty quick, but the biking and transitions really slowed me down. I'm not racing to be first; my main goals are to finish without stopping and be as efficient as possible.

I am terrible at the transitions, but these will get better with practice. In the first one, from swimming to biking, it took me entirely too long because of little things like the fact that I forgot to untie my shoes before the race and had to do it in the transition. Also, I forgot that I had to wear a helmet, so I had to redo the ponytail in order to make the helmet fit! I was also really awkward about taking my bike off the rack and getting going, so the entire transition took about eight minutes (which is way too long). Then, on the second transition, from biking to running, I knocked over the bike rack. Awesome. So I spent about five minutes getting all the bikes back up and on the rack before I could start running. (Next time, this won't happen!!)

Also, I am terrible at biking. Terrible. My legs were burning, and my feet were numb pretty much the entire time. Spin class, here I come.

Swimming is the easiest thing for me, and I really enjoy it, but it doesn't help much in the overall time in a triathlon. So, while I am focusing more now on the running and biking, I have joined a swimming incentive program at the gym on base just for fun! It's called "Swim the Rio" and basically, the lifeguards help us keep track of all the laps we swim in the pool. They have plotted out the mileages to the different border towns along the Rio Grande, and every time we reach a city, we get some sort of prize! We are starting up in the corner of Texas, near New Mexico and going all the way down the Rio Grande on the border of Texas. First stop, Brownsville, 50 miles of swimming! (32 laps in the pool equals 1 mile) I am strangely excited about doing this.... :-)

Meanwhile, we are continuing to train for our adventure race on April 10th. 28 miles of biking, 7 miles of running, and 2 miles of rowing, all with our team of five people. Spin class is my top priority right now!!!

One thing I have always wanted to do is a triathlon, so I am really excited that I am getting into them now! No ironmans, just the sprints, building up to the next level of the sport. It's pretty fun, and I am enjoying all the cross training! Travis joins me in my workouts occasionally, but his schedule is so hectic and unpredictable that it's a rare chance that we get to work out together.

It's really exciting to have a chance to do triathlons! I'm having a great time! :-)