Things I don't want to foget about my first triathlon

Luke woke up with me at 5am and asked "Is it really daytime already?"

Gina told us a funny story on the way to the park about tripping over her bike the night before...  Then she said she ripped half of her big toenail off in the fall.  Not so funny anymore. In spite of her injury, she competed like a champ!

The transition area looked awesome in the dark, in the fog, filled with bustling women preparing for the race.

The race was delayed for 10 minutes because you couldn't even see that there was a lake at 7:30am - it was foggy!

Gina approached the beach (for the swim) still wearing her running shoes! After taking her shoes back to transition, she got halfway back to the beach and realized she'd left her goggles and swim cap at transition.

At the back of our heat, the swim got off to a slow start.  We were actually chatting while swimming - breast stroke with our heads above water - waiting for the crowd in front of us to thin out.  Next time I will start closer to the front and to the far right.

My bike chain fell off at the first turn.

My Nunn drink exploded in my face as I opened the bottle with my teeth...while biking.  Nuun up the nose is not terrible.  It's not sticky either.

I spent the last 5 miles on the bike trying to decide if I needed to take a bathroom break at transition, only to forget that my bladder was full as I approached bike dismount.

At that point, it occurred to me that we hadn't practiced the bike dismount.  I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't crash getting off.

I discovered just how awesome an out-and-back course is.  Familiar faces were constantly passing by with encouraging words.  Friends who knew just how hard the run is for me seemed to come by at the perfect time, saying the perfect things.  I walked very little.

**I also discovered that I do have a competitive bone in my body!!!!  During the last mile, I started picking off girls that I knew were in my heat.  I never thought I would intentionally PASS someone just to come in before them.  Watch out next year - I might become an ultra-competitive maniac!

I got a medal.

We had a whole lot of supporters at the race.  At every start and finish line, I was cheered for and encouraged by name.  I love that!  I loved my first tri!

Swim:  93rd overall - 11:38
Bike:  220th overall - 44:04
Run:  233rd overall - 33.18
Total race time:  1:32:21

I finished 201st out of 316 competitors.  I couldn't be happier!