Liz = Triathlete!

Its official folks, I am a triathlete!!!

I finished the IronGirl Sprint triathlon on Sunday, July 26 (the day before my birthday!) and it was awesome!!!

In fact, the local paper here (the post standard) quoted me as saying how awesome it was!

http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/07/photo_slideshow_first_iron_wom.html

one thing that was not awesome - my bike broke! so my real time is more like 1:50:00... but now i have the experience to call myself a "real" triathlete. the Bike Loft people that fixed my bike (my heros! along with the 3 guys who tried to fix the bent chain) told me that some would argue that completing a triathlon alone will NOT a triathlete make - you have to have something go wildly wrong (like your bike falling apart) to really claim the title. well, here's to me being a "real" IronGirl. YAY!

the mind is the battlefield. really. 99% of what happened out there was mental. when my bike broke, I had a lot of thoughts race through my head. "maybe I'm not supposed to do this" "what made me think I could actually complete this?" "what if i have to forfeit?" "etc" but the overarching thought - that suppressed all these crappy thoughts - was "have faith, this is just a little bump in the road. take a sip of gatorade, a couple of lunas, stretch, and soon i'll have the wind whipping thru my hair at 20mph on my FIXED bike" really. well, God really delivered (in the form of the Bike Loft tent) and after 21 minutes, I was on my way.

I proceeded to pass about 200 women. 200 awesome, inspiring, women who were huffing and putting their all in. it was so cool to see all those people. and everyone was so nice. shortly after mile 15 I passed the (speedy gonzalas) 68 year old - she's awesome by the way - and (YAY!) didn't fall off my bike in the approach to T2!

Then I finished off with a 32 minute run (not my best, but considering... eh... ok, its ok).

Next time, the bike won't break!!!!!!!!

now, about next time - www.skanraces.com. I'm going to do "I'm all that" Sprint triathlon on saturday, then 1 mile open water swim 8am sunday, 2mile TT bike race at 12, then 4mile road race at 4pm. Its called "i'm all that" when you do all of them! I'm already signed up for the tri, and i really want to practice the 1mile swim leg (the fingerlakes tri is 0.9miles), and i figured i'd round out the day with the bike and run.

then, 2 weeks after that, the olympic distance Fingerlakes tri.

T2

T2, similar to T1, except its for the bike to run transition...

T2
1. make sure not to fall off bike (i have a history of doing this when i'm excited)
2. rack the sucker
3. bike shoes off
4. helmet off
5. running shoes ON
6. swig of water?
7. GO! GO!! GO!!!
8. Cross that finish line like you just won the Ironman.

Thats my plan!

T1

T1 for those of you not accustomed to such speak is Transition 1 (from swim to bike) in a triathlon.

I jotted down my plan (since i need to mentally prep for the iron girl in 12 days!!!!!!)

T1
1. towel off dirty feet
2. put on socks
3. put on cycle shoes
4. put on shirt with race #
5. sunglasses!
6. lunas in pocket (x2 just in case)
7. helmet on head
8. grab the bike and
9. GO! GO!! GO!!!

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!