I "TRI"ed

let me start off with saying that "I DID IT!" it wasn't looking so good the day after my bike wreck. I had a bruise on my ankle and my left hamstring hurt when i moved. i was afraid jeremy was going to have do the run for me. but by friday night it was feeling better, so i decided to go for it!

got to the race early to set up the bike at the bike station and register. at registration they gave us a goody bag which included a tech shirt (best shirt ever bc its in my favorite color.)



we also had to get our numbers written on us, like what you see in ironmans and stuff. pretty cool i thought! found out our numbers were how we would enter the pool to swim. i was the 7th person to get in the pool!




there was a 20 second stagger start between each swimmer. we did a 50 in each lane, all the way across the pool to equal a 300. my swim was ok, one of the faster times, but about 20 seconds slower than my 2 earlier swims that week.



after the swim, i ran out and went to the bike transition area. threw on my running clothes, helmet, ate some strawberry banana GU (another great flavor) and was off. the bike was pretty hilly. Twila and i have biked the course a couple times this summer so I knew to expect that going out was easier (more downhills) than coming back (more uphills). several bikers passed me on the bike. but that was ok, i still was able to maintain and go faster than my usual speed on the bike.


The bike transition area was full. Jeremy took this during the race.



i also knew that once we started running, everyone else would pass me. and of course that is exactly what happened. my fastest run on a good day, not having biked 15 miles beforehand is 10-15 minutes slower than the other triathletes running times, so i knew going in that 1) i would not be able to go a "fast" 5k time after biking and 2) i was going to finish last. but i was ok with that. i had been worrying about it all week, but finally came to the realization that "hey i'm doing this and that's the only thing that matters" not that i come in last or first, but that i did it! the 3.1 mile run was more of a walk/run. i ate another GU. this time TRI berry was the flavor - which i thought was very fitting and once again very good. used my GoLite water bottle during the run which contained.... you guessed it GU brew -Raspberry flavor. jeremy being the awesome husband that he is, ran the 5k with me. he was due for a long run today but because of a back issue wasn't able to, so he ran with me to keep my company. my run(walk) was 10 min. slower than my best time. and i came in dead last. :(





however, i did WIN my age group! ha! the other girl in my age group was the first woman overall, so she didnt count in the age group awards! go me!! i got a bag and a pair of running socks as my prize.

twila did great also! she got third in her age group and had a great tri as well. check out her blog. it's located on the right sidebar 2010 miles in 2010.

i am happy i did it, disappointed in coming in last, undecided on if and when i'll do another one. if i do, i definitely want to get my running time down before i "tri" another one!

now on to finish preparing for the half! it's only 3 weeks away!!