Triathlon Recap

I’ve been training since April for a Triathlon that I finally got to run on July 20th. I ran the First Capital Triathlon in Guthrie. It consisted of a 500 meter open water swim in Lake Guthrie, a 12.5 mile out and back bike ride, and a 5K out and back run.

Overall, it was AWESOME! I felt really good about all the times I turned in. I’m not super fast, but I never was. I came in about 13 minutes faster than I predicted.

Total Time: 1:47:22
SWIM: 13:07
T1: 2:12
BIKE: 55:58
T2: 0:56
RUN: 35:11

The part of the race I was the most nervous about was the swim. It’s a little bit scary swimming in an open lake where you can’t touch the bottom or rest like you can in the pool. Lucky for me, they had a practice the week before so I wasn’t learning how to do the swim in the lake during the race. I was able to do my swim a little faster than I predicted. I thought it would take me about 15 minutes and it took me 13, so AWESOME.

When I went out to the bike, I was pretty tired. I did do the swim faster than I had before, so I was a little more winded. Once I settled into the bike it wasn’t so bad, but it was pretty hilly. I knew it was so I was concerned about my bike. It had been giving me fits with the gears. So, I checked to make sure they would shift into the first set of gears the Thursday before the race, and they did so I stopped worrying. WRONG MOVE for me. My bike refused to shift into the first set of gears after the first hill, and I had to make do with my lowest gear being 2-1. I was hating life and cursing my stupidity to do a tri during the first quarter to even half of my ride. I was convinced that I was going to be the last one in, and that never makes anyone feel better. Once I made the turn, got some more quick energy into me, I felt much more positive and had a way better second half of the ride.

When it came time to do the run, I was cursing my stupidity again for the first quarter to half a mile. Once I got my running legs under me, I had the best run. I loved seeing all the different runners and the people out on the course cheering us on. It was a great run, and a lot faster pace than I’d been pulling off during my last training runs.

The best part was seeing my husband and sweet boys cheering me on right near the finish line. It made me so happy. I had a great big smile on my face when I finished not only because I finished, but because my family was there to support me in my crazy athletic endeavors. 🙂

In the end, I can hardly wait to do another race. The trouble is, I can’t seem to find one that isn’t on a Sunday. The ONE that is on a Saturday is an half Ironman distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run)! Yikes! SOOOO not ready for that. I’d like to get comfortable with a sprint and Olympic distances before I try a 70.3!