Tuesday, September 10, 2019

YWCA Women's Triathlon - My First Tri

Back in May (or June) I signed up for my first ever triathlon! Totally new relm for me, I hadn't been swimming in years, I didn't even own a road bike. But I cashed in and officially closed my photography business - bought a new bike with that money at a Memorial Day sale (so it was May) and set out on my triathlon adventure. I have to say I love it. At the time of blogging this I've already done two and doing a third in five days :-D 

Night before getting everything laid out and ready to pack up


August 11th

This first one was put on by the YWCA. I even volunteer for their expo two nights before the race. I did a tri skills class with them which also had a mini-tri. But the big day had finally arrived. Transition opened at something like 5:30am or 6am. It was recommended to get there early because the lines would start to get long before transition closed. I wanted to be fully prepared so I got there a little after 6am. I got a close parking spot, rode my bike in and set up my transition area, briefly then went over to pick up my timing chip and get bodymarking. Met a friend that was right next to me. We had met a week earlier at the volunteer training. Her and I did our walk through, meaning we walked the transition course to get a feel for where we'd need to be going during the race. 


It took me a couple hours to realize my age body marking wasn't actually my age yet, I think they went by what you'll be at the end of the year but I still had 5 days before I turned 37, lol


We went down to the water to mentally run the course. The water was so calm.

After the swim we'd run out then through one of these kiddy pools to clean our feet off before heading into transition and get our bike for the bike out.

They had the sprinters together and the super sprinters together. We were actually pretty close to the swim in and the bike out and the run out so it was a nice location for us. We walked the bike out course around to the bike in course making note of the mount and dismount lines.

Someone had put this balloon on the end of the rack which was helpful for us as well to locate our rack.

Then it was wait time. We had a while before our wave started. Transition closed about 7:45 I think. We didn't' go until 9:30am so there was a LOT of time to wait we just couldn't be in transition. 

Pre-race photo :-) 


Clearly before transition closed, waiting around, walking off the jitters.

You wear your timing chip on your left ankle.

Getting closer to go time. Transition closed and listening to the pre-race meeting. The gals that were next to me. My friend Megan from volunteer training and Shelly is a fellow twin mama!


I had my phone with me up to a point then I dropped my stuff off at bag check. I hadn't seen kyle yet but knew they were parked and walking to the race area. So glad I ran into them before I started. Got a few photos before it was time for me to line up in my wave. 



Getting ready to go in, pretty cold at this point. I was able to warm up a little in the water and the water felt nice and warm. Getting out was cold! 


Then I was off! The swim took me by surprised. It wasn't actually a swim at all but more of a treading water as I dodged in and out of bodies. See they let the older age group women (50+) go right before our wave (13-49 year olds) so I had to dodge through and swim past the older ladies. This was utterly exhausting. Only took me about 5 minutes but I felt dead when I ran out of the water. Couldn't believe how tired I was and rather sad I didn't really get any swimming in like I had been working on. That was a shock. But the race was still on so I rushed to my bike, got my socks, shoes, helmet, glasses, and race belt on and was OFF on the bike!

It was a 7.5 mile bike ride. It felt good passing a ton of folks. So thankful my friend Michelle captured this photo on the bike course. 

Dropped off my bike and headed out for my one mile run. My only goal of this whole thing was to run the mile in under 9 minutes... unfortunately that didn't happen but I was pretty close and overall did amazing. 




Results: 



At first I was a little disappointed because I didn't run as fast as I wanted to but then I realized I got 11th OVERALL out of all the 240 women doing the super sprint, now that's something to be proud of! I got 3rd out of my age group of 35-39 year olds. 


My sweet friend Michelle came to watch me and another friend. So fun to see her and her family along the way! 


I loved it! Honestly wasn't even phased by the end, I mean it was only 45 minutes total. So next goal is longer course. But I do love the shorter distances, I have no desire to do marathons or iron-mans or half marathons. I'll stick with short and fast :-) 

The next day I signed up for another triathlon that was to take place two weeks later. Heck I already put the training in and paid for the year of USTA membership so might as well make the most of it :-)  And I didn't want to be one of those people that says "oh i did a triathlon once" I would like to KEEP doing them.

Here are some photos from runs later that week



I love this city, my neighborhood, and these lakes! <3 blessed="" p="" so="">

Most runs I do by myself, but sometimes I bring along my lil buddy







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