My Very First Ever Tri

This morning was the mini triathlon put on by our city chamber of commerce as part of Freedom Fest. 300 yard swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run. I was excited to do this as a low key practice for Chisago Lakes next month. But I was so nervous! I was mostly worried about the swim, especially when I arrived and saw that the turnaround (a couple of teenagers in a paddleboat) was farther out than I thought it would be.


In the water and ready to go! That's my friend Erin on the left in the lifejacket - she was a turbo in that thing. There were several people wearing lifejacket, and a few others using kickboards. I told you it was low key. Anyhow, I'm in the middle and my friend Martine is on the right. Note on costuming: I really wasn't sure what to wear. I didn't want to spend any money on tri gear without knowing how much I would use it. So I wore my ridiculous 10 year old swimsuit with my sports bra underneath (the swimsuit definitely not enough support for the run!), and then pulled Nike tempo shorts and a top on for the bike and run.


And we're off. I think you can see my swim cap with the hearts on it in this pic, just at the left elbow of the lady in green and blue. There were about 50 people in the tri, but we started on both sides of the dock so it didn't feel crowded. I did better than I expected in the swim. This tri was not timed, so I'm not sure how long the swim took, but I did a good job of staying calm. I had a moment on the way out where I thought I could't possibly make it, but I told myself to just keep swimming. I switched to breast stroke a couple of times to calm myself down. Once I got to the paddleboat turnaround, I knew I could make it. I swam back and was out of the water for my transition.


The Nike shorts were a bad idea. Especially once I got to the run. They were still sopping wet and kept riding up, very uncomfortable. I think I need to do some shopping before Chisago! Anyhow . . . the bike was good. I wore my Garmin for the bike and run, didn't stop it for the transition - total time for the 11 mile bike and 2 mile run was 1:03. Not too bad for riding my hybrid bike.

When I started running, my legs were sore! I knew the second half of the course would be a nice downhill, so I just kept telling myself to make it to that point and I would be fine. It was about at the downhill that my legs started to loosen up and I was able to run the second mile faster. 1st mile was approxmately 9:10, second was 8:45.


All done! This really was so much fun, and I am really excited for Chisago - just one month away. Today helped me figure out some things to work on for Chisago: figure out my gear (including borrowing a road bike from a friend), continue to work on my swim, and do more bike/run bricks.