First Triathlon of the Season Report

Boy do I look mannish when I race!

It was one of those mornings where everything seemed to hiccup. The first and biggest thing was that my battery in my bike computer (the odometer and the thing that tells me how fast I'm going) died. Of all mornings, it chose this day. The first race of the season.

 (NOTE TO SELF: Always have more of these kind of batteries on hand. You may never use it but for once every two years but on a race morning, you'll thank yourself for keeping it.)

That really threw my mojo off right at the get-go because I wanted to know how fast I was going while I was riding. Sometimes you feel like you're riding fast and you're really not, sometimes you don't feel like you're riding fast and you really are! So I wanted to know!

We walked up the beach and the butterflies were fluttering in my stomach and my heart wanted to leap out of my chest. It's not enough that we've been here before doing a "mock tri" on other mornings, race day feels like a whole different story. Mock tris make me feel bold and attacking, while race day mornings make me question myself and ask myself, "What am I doing here? And why on earth am I doing this?!

I swam for about 15 minutes to shake out the jitters. It helped a little.

I stood at the edge of the water looking out at the buoy before me, like I have so many times, and waited for the horn to blow.

It's always the part where my heart wants to leap out of my chest the most.

Then the horn blew and we were off.

I swam and swam and I didn't look back.

I can bilateral breathe now, I felt aggressive, there was no fear, I just swam. There were some waves, it was a little choppy but so what, I kept going. I saw some people around me bobbing, taking a minute or five to breathe, but that's ok, I kept going. Usually that person bobbing was me. But not on this day.

I rounded the last buoy and ran out of the water. It was hard to catch my breath by I just breathed rhythmically, two in and two out and kept my feet moving. (Why does a mock tri feel so much easier than this?)

I ran into transition, ripped off my wetsuit traded out watches for the Garmin so I could use it on bike mode for my miles per hour, got my shoes, helmet sunglasses on, took way longer in transition than I wanted and ran out with my bike.

When I got on my bike, the little metal bike computer sensor was banging my spokes the whole way but I didn't dare stop - no way! But it was annoying. I thought maybe it would break off. I didn't care, that's what it gets for quitting on me on race day!

I kept a side-eye on my watch to watch my speed, I was doing great. I was passing people. I passed every girl.

I was hitting 20. Then 21, 22, 23. Almost 24 in the straightway, 10 miles in 30 minutes, it went quickly and it was amazing! NO girls passed me and stayed there. NONE. Except for a fellow Tri Warrior and that's ok. She rocked the bike.

I grabbed a Vanilla Bean GU and headed out on the run.

Oh this hurt.

I tried to keep a 10 minute pace and at first I kept 9:45 but then it fell to 10:20. It was hot. I was slower than I wanted. The timing chip was cutting into the back of my ankle, I had to stop and put some water on it and move it because I was bleeding now, it was all cut up (NOTE TO SELF: Put timing chip on my ROAD ID. MUCH more comfortable on my ankle than this thing they gave us. Might consider writing them about it even.)

I moved my race belt to the front and my race number ripped off.

Seriously?

Can we just finish this thing already?

I picked it up in the end. I ran across the finish line and grabbed my water.

In my tri group, I came in last. That shouldn't bother me but it does.

It bothers me that I felt so good in the swim, that I pounded away so hard on the bike, and in the end, I finished 34 out of 51. I did nowhere as good on the swim as I thought I had. I was 17th on the bike which was awesome, but fell back on the run.

You can see my results here.

My first transition time was crazy and my run time was long.

But it's the first one of the season, right? At least I know what to work on from here.

Things I'm proud of:
-no fear on the swim!
-great bike! Averaged 20 mph!
-great t2 transition time!

Things to work on:
-Speedwork in running. SPEEDWORK SPEEDWORK SPEEDWORK! Training needs to hurt.
-Bricks. Real bricks. Going from bike to running with zero breaks in between unlike the type we have in our group where we lollygag and chat in between, maybe potty, etc.
-Swim to bike bricks. I need to get used to breathing after getting off the swim and hopping on the bike.

Things to add to triathlon bag checklist:
-mosquito spray! (they ate me up in the bathroom! gah!)
-extra bike computer batteries.

So in sum, the first one was just "meh" for me. I had such high hopes because my runs have been so great lately (9:30 and 9:45 is good for me!) But I didn't hit that at all.

So, lots to work on!! And um, why does a sprint still hurt? I am going to double this distance in two weeks!!! GAHH!!!

But.

I'm still proud that I do this at all though.

Gotta keep that perspective, right?