PCC Triathlon Race Report

I did it! I finished my first triathlon and didn't crash into anyone. Mission: accomplished. Yippee!

Friday:

I picked up Sumi from her tune up at the bike store and took her out for the first time. I've never ridden a road bike before, so I spent the first mile sorting out shifting gears and trying to get comfortable. Once I figured out that my hands can go on top of the handles instead of around the curved part, things got much easier. 12 quick miles and off to dinner.

The Husband loves himself some Valentino's pizza buffet, and while I always resist going, I figured I could justify it as carb loading. They had mac and cheese pizza. Clearly my husband has fantastic ideas. Made it home to (try to) get to bed early.

Saturday:

I woke up at 5:45 feeling tired but excited. Race morning always feels like that. Triathlons require a ton more stuff, so I took extra long to double check my list and pack my giant bag. I made the very long drive to the race start and got a little lost along the way. Even getting IN the map Joey Tribbiani-style didn't help.

Once I finally made it, I had to pick up my packet, get body marked (hands down my favorite part- so legit!), and set up transition.
Swim:

The swim started in heats in the pool, and with 130 racers, I knew it could be a wait. I'm not sure if it was better or worse, but I was Heat 1, Lane 2. Eek. No time to get nervous but everyone was watching. Ten quick laps and it was over. I haven't swam since January, but since it was in a pool, I figured I could flip turn off the wall and bank on my legs instead of my worthless pencil arms.

(My next tri will definitely be open water swim. I know a pool isn't nearly the same challenge.)

Time- 500M- 9:23

T1 was a blur. Do I have everything? Guess so!

Bike:

Plattsmouth is insanely hilly. I haven't been riding for long, and I'm still extremely nervous turning corners. Especially at the bottom of hill. Good thing there weren't many people around me so I could swing wide pretty slowly. Killed serious time, but, hey, it's better than crashing.

Along the way, I dropped my chain twice, so that cost time too. Then I got stuck in gear going up a GIANT hill and nearly tipped over. Panic. (Am I going to have to walk this bike up this hill like a puppy?!) Thankfully I had chain-on-the-brain, so I hopped off and manually shifted. Much better! Before I knew it, the bike was done too. Crazy how much faster it goes when you're not waiting for stoplights.

Time- 15M- 49:04

T2 was a blur again. I made a point to take off my helmet (classic tri rookie move), but I still had on sunglasses. Can't. Have. Anything. DIFFERENT! Instead of running the 25 yards back, I rip them off, turn, and launch them toward the grass by my bike like a center fielder. See, I knew wearing free sunglasses would come in handy.

Run:

This was the only part I was confident doing. Just had to hang on for three (hilly) miles. The first half was super downhill. Weeeeee. Turn around point, okay great! Uh, what? Back the same way? Exact same way? Damn you little girl with the cup of water. They originally claimed it was 3 miles, but there's no way it was that longer than 2.8.

Time- 2.8(ish)M- 22.06

The finish line was pretty unceremonious, but I was thrilled to cross the orange spraypaint line and be done. The entire thing went by so much faster than I expected. It felt like I just started and it was over. I hung around a bit and mingled. Everyone was super nice and friendly before, during, and after the race. I even ran into a co-worker and the captain of our running group. Final stats:

1:24:01

8/38 Overall

1/5 AG

Overall, I'm SO happy I did this. Running will always be my first love, but marathon training is so time consuming. Plus, I like the variety of triathlons. (And the gear. All my new stuff worked out perfect.) I also have tons of room for improvement on the swim, bike, and transition so that's an exciting challenge to think about as I read everyone's racing blogs.

There's another small race in a few weeks, and I'm already signed up. The swim is in a lake. A dirty lake. Guess that gives me something to spaz out about for the next 21 days. I knew I'd find something.