My First (mini) Triathlon

Yesterday, I joined the CNY Triathlon club for their weekly mini triathlon at Jamesville beach. It was sooo awesome!

when i first got there, the website said to get there around 5 if you were new because there are USAT waivers you have to fill out. so i got there at 4:53 (because I have to be early when I'm nervous). and .... NO ONE WAS THERE!!! so I waited a little bit & all these old men started trickling in. I was like "oh no! this is going to be weird! me and a few old guys... well, luckily lots of Irongirls started trickling in, and a couple of friendly faces from masters swim!!! boy - was i glad to see them!

so i set up my transition area - shirt, towel, bike shoes, socks. after meeting a bunch of new people, we walked down to the beach to start - we swam in a diamond (which was hard because i had to sight 3 bouys instead of 1!!!! man do i need anti-fog goggles!!!) 400m. I kicked most people's butts and still really felt like i was swimming really slow - lots of breast stroke because i couldn't see anything!!!

so i got out and meandered up to the transition area. butt on ground, wiped my feet clean of the upstate NY 'sand' and grass; put on my socks and cycle shoes, grabbed my shirt, Lunas (i love these!!!) and put my helmet on. walked the bike up the hill to where we started the bike. to sum up the bike in one word: HILLY!!! I passed a few people in the 10 miles, a few people passed me - i mostly passed people on the downhill since i like to go really really fast down the hills. i think most people coast down, but i push it into the highest gear and have the wind whipping thru my hair!!! I did have a snafu with the water bottle - I forgot it at home! so i bought a bottled water at work to bring, then realized that i wouldn't be able to coordinate unscrewing the cap and not falling at the same time, so i (not proud of this) flung the cap off into the woods once i got it off & rode with an open bottle since it wasn't too wet on the road. i guess i learned my lesson on that one!!!

bike to run transition, butt on ground. cycle shoes off, running shoes on. swig of water, started off slow on the run. but i evened out. there were a few hills on the run too (which i walked up mostly), but other than that, it did fairly well - a 5k in 29 minutes. which is about my normal time. it was a really beautiful run though - thru the woods & trails.

so now i can officially call myself a Triathlete!!! i think i'm hooked :) and i'm so glad that i did my first one in such an informal and supportive environment. the other thing i love is the people - they all have fascinating stories! and i've met so many awesome new people thru this journey.

I think Jon is going to come with me one of these weeks. i convinced him he could just do a duathlon (bike & run). some people there only did one event, some did all three, some doubled up on the swim, it was really flexible.

Just 17 more days until the Irongirl!