Success!

Today I completed my first triathlon! As I still have knee tendonitis I went in with a game plan to complete as much of the race I could.

OFFICIAL RACE REPORT:

Night before: I had packed all my gear including my bike into my SUV.
Pre-race: 1 bowl of Special K with strawberries and soy milk.

Morning: I woke up at 4:30am to get ready to leave for the race. My intention was to get there for 5:30am so that I could pick up my race packet (which contained my timing chip, race bib and t-shirt). I arrived there at 5:30am and parked at the Sunset beach parking lot right in front of the transition area (TA).


There was not a lot of people there at the time. I picked up my race packet then walked around a little as I was not really sure what to do next, but I saw people taking in their bikes into the TA. I headed back to my SUV and grabbed my bike and helmet out of the car, proceeded to the TA and got marked with my race number. When I found my rack, I took the spot on the end so that I could find my bike quickly. I setup my gear like we had practiced in transition clinic and I had everything ready to go except my wetsuit was not on.


Swim: Close to 7am I had my wetsuit on. My wave didn't start until 7:21am. Before the swim, I got into the water to get use to the temperature - and it was the warmest that I have ever been in. I found Nicole and Emily, who were also my wave. We were all nervous and excited. Nicole and I positioned ourselves at the back of the pack as we were slow swimmers. And we were off! I reached the first buoy in no time, so far so good, but there was still a 300 meter stretch to the next one. I had decided to pull the entire swim to save my knees. As I turned I saw a girl swimming to my left that was swimming about the same pace as me, so I just used her as a guide to keep me on course. About half way to the next buoy, she started breast stroking and I'm like "great now who am I going to follow now?" So I just over took her and tried to sight on my own. About every 5 strokes or so I would look up to make sure I was on course. Things were going really well, I was really relaxed and my wetsuit felt very comfortable. My heartrate was at a steady rate. I got out of the water a little too far from the shore so the water slowed me down as I got out. But I swear the choir was singing. It look me over 10 minutes to swim that one. But I was so happy that I survived it!



TI: OK, I had a picnic here. It took me 5 minutes to transition. I had decided not to wear my tri-suit (that was probably a mistake), I ended up having to put on my bike shorts and shirt. I had my race bib pinned onto my bike shirt which ripped off and I had to fix that. I decided that I could not bike without my gloves instead I went sockless. Man, it sure didn't feel like I took 5 minutes. I spent too much time figuring out what to wear :) This was no time to be a girl Angela!

Bike: The bike was hard, everyone was passing me and I was working pretty hard too! I think I did well on the first hill climb, as soon as I saw it I picked up my speed and slowly stood up and climbed that sucker. Then about half way through the bike my knee started to complain. The last hill climb was really tough. I think overall I averaged about 16 mph. This bike took me 55 minutes.

T2: One picnic wasn't enough for me, so I decided to take another. When I arrived back into the TA I could not find my bike rack. I saw Coach Josh and remember him telling me "Put you bike on the rack!" I finally found my rack, put on my running shoes and off I went. This took 2:33 minutes.

Run: The run was painful. When I started my run I had this really tight sensation in my gluts and thighs that was new to me. This didn't feel so good, but eventually it went away. I didn't want to make my knee worse, so I tried to jog as much of this as I could and had to walk at times. Overall, I found the running trail quite nice and I was happy that it was not on concrete. 30:30 minutes - that some serious speed walking there. It sure didn't feel like 3 miles.



Post-race: I'm so glad that I did this. It was an amazing experience and I could not be happier. I ended up coming in 603/703. God this sport is so humbling! I'm a changed woman!