300m pool swim, 10mi bike, 5k run
My first triathlon… ever.
The weather, beautiful. The course, a great one for beginners. Overall, a great first race.
The swim
I began the swim nervous. Butterflies kicked in with 4 swimmers ahead of me. We started in 15-second increments. To my surprise, after 100m, I had caught up to the woman in front of me. I ended up passing a total of 4 people before I exited the pool. If you’ve seen me swim before, you’d understand why this was a nice confidence booster.
A lesson in transition
I hit the transition area and couldn’t get my top on. This cost me about 15-20 seconds. I learned for next time, just wear the whole thing from the start.
The bike
The bike course was very flat with a few rolling hills. Mostly rural area, farmland, very little traffic, beautiful scenery. Maybe I spent too much time taking it all in. 37min+ for my bike time… ouch. But I knew this was my weakest area, so no real surprise. And my chain popped yesterday on a short practice run when trying to switch into the bigger gears, so I was tentative. I never touched the big ring.
The run
Solid transition to the run. Under a minute. I was worried about the jelly-leg syndrome I had heard rumors about. Going from the bike to the run using different leg muscles. I think I experienced it for the first 1/2 mile or so. After that, I fell into a nice zone and finished strong. For the remaining part of the run, I felt great. Finished the run in 24:07, a 7:45 pace. This is fast for me even on a good day.
Overall, great experience. A little different than the standard running races I’ve been used to. But equally, if not more, fun. Looking forward to a few more this summer. Ironman still in my sights, but man do I need some serious work on the bike first.
The result
300m swim – 6:30
T1 – 1:57
10 mile bike – 37:47
T2 – 0:59
5k run – 24:07
Overall time – 1:11:18