Let's just say, I'm a Triathlete!

I can now officially call myself a "triathlete!" Yesterday I completed the Ogden Valley Tri and lived to tell about it! And, I actually had a great time and am looking forward to my next one. Here is a map of the entire course:

In case there is any doubt, I did the sprint race. Oh, you want details about my day, here they are. First, you have to got and get all your stuff set up in the transition area. You are given an assigned space for your bike, etc. I had been given very specific details (including a drawing) of what my transition area should look like. So, I began to lay out my stuff.....bike shoes, running shoes (no socks allowed....they waste precious seconds during transition), bike helmet sitting on top of the visor for running, sunglasses inside the bike helmet because you put them on first. I had dutifully taped (with electrical tape....almost as good a duct tape for a triathlete) my two energy gels to my bike. I would need to eat one upon leaving T1 (the swim to bike transition) and one right before returning to start the run. Again, there is no eating allowed in transition because this just wastes precious time when you could be gaining on your competition. Once transition was all set up, it was time to get ready for the swim. There were 8 waves (3 for the Olympic distance and 5 for the Sprint distance) and I was in the second to last wave. I put my wetsuit on (half way) and headed down to the water. When I was about 15 minutes from my start time, I zipped my wetsuit on and headed into the water to do a quick warm-up. I noticed that some woman had not put her wetsuit on properly and so offered to help her fix it. Shortly after that I saw a woman I had met at the course preview the following week. She commented about how nervous I looked (remember from my last post, I realized I could actually die doing this!) My new friend with the wetsuit said she thought I seemed so calm. Well, it didn't matter because the countdown had begun and I was going to start my first triathlon. The swim went much better than anticipated. I was a bit nervous and panicky, but quickly calmed down and reached the first buoy much sooner than I thought. Around the buoy and on to the next! Without much incident, a few grabs of my legs and running into other swimmers (all part of the game I've been told), I was out of the water. I was curious about my swim time (I wanted to finish the swim under 25 minutes and thought at a stretch I could be out of the water in under 20 minutes), so I hit my watch and looked down 15:35! I was very pleased with my swim. I began to take my wetsuit off as I ran up the beach to transition. Once in transition, I finished stripping my wetsuit, put on my bike shoes, sunglasses and helmet and was on my way out of transition. I ran to the mount line, hopped on my bike and headed for the road. Fortunately, I had no problems clipping into my pedals (for some reason, I decided it would be OK to put new pedals on my bike; thus requiring new cleats on my shoes, the night before a race.....crazy idea!) I got to the straight flat section and tore off my first gel, sucked it down and drank some of my Gatorade. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Yes, they make it look so simple on the Tour de France, but it is actually quite difficult (in my opinion) to eat and drink while on the bike.....there is a lot of balance involved. I rode my way around the lake. I knew when I hit the damn I only had about 1.5 miles left until the transition area. I was thrilled because it meant getting off the bike and on with the run! I'm happy (or maybe sorry) to say, there was no falling off the bike for me! I made it through the entire ride, unclipped successfully and was back at transition. My bike was a bit disappointing (but really only after the fact when I saw, compared to others, how slow I really was) I wanted to complete the bike in under 1 hour (15 miles) and finished the bike in about 51 minutes. Time for the run. I racked my bike, threw off the helmet and bike shoes, slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my visor, race belt (with my number) and the extra gel that I had left out "just in case" (When I went to eat my second gel coming back to transition, it didn't open so I knew I'd have to eat one at the start of the run!) I was quite pleased with the quickness with which I exited from T2 (bike to run). I knew there was a hill out of transition up to the road, a downhill section and then another uphill before hitting the turn-around. I just wanted to get through this, my first triathlon! Before I knew it, I was at the last little uphill before the turn-around. Off the road and onto the trail. It got a bit tricky as this was a single track trail and not much room for passing, but I managed to pass quite a few people! Once I hit the bridge, I knew I was home free. Across the finish line! My goal for the race was merely to finish under 2 hours (and hopefully not fall off my bike!) Well, I'm happy to report that I met my goals. My official finish time was 1:38:44. Definitely under my 2 hour mark and pretty impressive for a first-timer (so I've been told!) You can look at my results here. You'll notice in looking at the place standings (overall, gender and division); my bike killed me in the end. Oh well, I can't do anything about this race, but now I know what I've got to work on. I'll be doing a lot more biking this winter! As a side note: When I say there is "no eating" in transition; this is not entirely accurate. You are allowed (by race rules) to eat in transition. However, when you know and get all your advice from the person who wins the whole thing; you have different "rules" than the rest of the crowd! Basically I was told I couldn't eat in transition, all my nutrition needed to be consumed on the bike or during the run.