Monday, November 14, 2011

my first tri.

I finished my first Tri yesterday! I had fun, but I was definitely out of my comfort zone. In true FWR form, I'm just going to get listy with my thoughts/results from the event.

LIST!
-I was nervous about the swim since I hadn't jumped in the pool in quite awhile, for more than two weeks actually. And am in anything but fantastic running and biking shape. But it all worked out just fine.

- I finished in under an hour, which deep down is what I wanted to do. OT = 54:52. The distances were a 500y swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run. Here was my breakdown, and yes I'm being totally shameless in posting this:  
(swim) 00:12:50  (T1) 00:03:01  (bike) 00:21:49   (T2) 00:00:03   (run) 00:17:09 

- Transitions and swimming are not my strong suit. Lessons learned for next time. I am slow at the transition, very slow. And I apparently (thanks to pictures you will not be seeing interwebs, no apologies) swim with straight arms shooting up out of the water. How I achieve this is beyond me. I'm like a human windmill, in fact its quite impressive.

- Running is obviously my strong suit so far. And seeing how I'm not particularly fast at running, this fact disheartened me a bit. I had the 4th fastest female run time, yet one of the slowest swims and T1 times and an average bike pace.

- Next time. Even though I didn't fall in love with doing a Tri (in fact I was a pretty lukewarm to the entire experience) I am going to attempt to participate in the entire Tri Cup Series. I'm not sure I'll do every Tri they offer this winter, but my plan so far is to at least do the one in December.

- I did get first in my AG, but seeing how there were all of three people in my AG I'm not sure that just wasn't plain good old fashioned luck on my side.

 *meggers and i showing off our tri pride before the race*

My indifference to the Tri probably has more to do with the fact that I am very slow to warm up to new things (and people and everything really) and that it takes me awhile to get the hang of new stuff. But seeing how I had Meggers along for the ride, and fantastic spectators in her baby Jakey and her husband... well it all helped my attitude toward the entire thing. As did the delicious coffee we went and had afterward.

At the very least I can say it was a new experience, it was fun and interesting. I met so many nice people too. I can't say I'll be a Tri junkie, I'm still pretty indifferent to the whole thing. But maybe I'll warm up to it as I go along. The series ends with an outdoor tri in the spring, which I'm considering doing. Note to self, train for the next one.

In the end, it is a new challenge, which I definitely love, and I can now say I'm an 'indoor' triathlete. I have the certificate to prove it, do I need to whip that sucker out? Because you know I will...

9 comments:

Marlene said...

Good for you getting out of the comfort zone a bit and giving it a tri. Heh. ;)

You need to out yourself in an outdoor tri next year to see what it's REALLY about! :)

CONGRATS!

Indi said...

You are awesome! way to get outside of what you are used to and pushing yourself to do something new!! Body marking..way hardcore!

Unknown said...

woooohoooo! Tri'ing is a great workout!!

Carolina John said...

That's a long swim for that bike & run distance. Usually you see 500m swims paired with 5k runs and 10-17 mile bikes legs.

Tri's are addicting. Pretty soon you'll start questioning how you can improve that t1 time. That's when you know you're hooked.

2 Slow 4 Boston said...

You seem to have the same attitude toward a tri that I do only I haven't tried it yet. Way to go through with it. Seems to me like you did pretty good for your first one.

Lindsay said...

The AG award totally counts! Congrats on stepping out of your comfort zone and conquering your first tri!!

Anonymous said...

First! Yeah- another triathlete :)

RunToTheFinish said...

congrats on your first!! i feel like i would be more apt to do one in a pool than the open water. I can do open water swims, but with so many people it weirds me out a little

Cindy said...

nice job, i wish i could do a tri...can't swim!!!