So - the triathlon. It came, it went, it conquered. Overall, it went okay. The day started when my alarm went off at 4:15 in the morning as I was meeting John at 5am so we can drive together. The transition area (where we keep all of our stuff for the different legs of the race) closed at 6:30, so we needed to make sure we got there in plenty of time. We did - and it was damn early.
We got our skin marked (we have the race numbers written on both arms and our rounded age (yup, that would be 30 for me folks - gulp!) written on our legs, so the officials knew the wave we started in)) and got everything set up. If you want to see mass chaos and tons of dough - a transition area for a triathlon is a great place to see it. The Lifetime Fitness triathlon is pretty cool because it has the biggest purse of any triathlon, so the pro's are there with the $16,000 bikes and all the expensive gear. Anyway, people are jamming their bikes in the rack and setting up all their stuff in just the right way so they can have a smooth "transition" from one leg to the next.
My wave started at 8:21:47 - and we were off in the water. It is nice as it is not a big group running to the water, they let each person off in 3 second intervals. Not that it matters much because when you get in the water, all the people behind are trying to swim over you/around you to beat you. Lovely.... and enter panic attack. UGH! I was so calm, cool, and collected, singing my relaxing/calm-me-down song in my head and then it all want to crap. Not sure when I lost it, but I did. Not good. Thank god for all the lifeguards lining the swim course.
Next - the bike. It honestly took me awhile to get over the swim and I was still breathing pretty heavily for the first part of the bike. My time was okay - my avg was about 15/mph. I was hoping to do better, but what are you going to do?
Next - the run. I was pretty proud of my run. While I was getting pretty tired, I managed to run the whole thing (only stopping to re-tie my shoe and drink some water.) My avg was a 10 minute mile - finished this in about 31 minutes.
Total time with transitions: 1:54. Definitely not great, finished in the last third of the women, but okay. I do want to beat it - I know I can beat it, if I can get over the swim.
I am looking online for some open-water swim courses and haven't really found anything, but I will see. The problem is that when I am in the water, I honestly feel like I am going to drown. Then, I get on the bike and I think "Gosh Kelly, you can do better than that! You have to do another one!" Plus, when I get my times, I know I can do better. I just have to mentally get over the swim part.
So, that is it. As of now, I really want to do another one, I really want to beat my times, but I know that I probably shouldn't unless something drastically changes with the swim.
2 comments:
You acquired more than just a t-shirt. You have the satisfaction of knowing you completed the race. That is alot more than the rest of us can claim. Very impressive!
The kids' pics are so cute. I think you may want to start saving money now for car insurance for when Evan starts to drive. I think he will be a very agressive driver if his lawn mower antics are any indication....haha.
It seems from your post that you are being a little tough on yourself... it seems you performed extremely well! Ten minute miles after swimming and biking is pretty impressive!
Yes... swimming. Swimming is what keeps me from doing a triathlon. Hmm, and the $170 :).
Congrats!
Looking forward to seeing you at book club soon.
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