My first try at a tri!

Alternate title: The day I walked around looking like a sausage.

Alternate Alternate title: The day I vowed to never let people take pictures of me while I do physical activities such as swimming, biking, and running.

Ok, now that we have that all out of the way, on to the meaty details.

I finally got my act together and did my first triathlon, the Annie Oakley Super Sprint.

It fit my criteria: short and all women.

What can I say? I didn't really want to train that hard and I didn't really want to look like a huge fool in front of some 1/2% body fat man triathlete.

So I signed up for a 400mm swim, 11 mile bike, and 2 mile trail run.

Good place to start in my book.

Thank goodness my friend Lindsey was there. She has a few tri's under her belt and helped me figure out the basics. Like where to put my bike. There are so many new things to this sport that it overwhelmed me.

Here we are checking out the swim. I was so relieved that we were jumping off a dock and not walking in on the nasty lake bottom.

See I told you the spandex was bad. Sausage right?

Here we are discussing serious tri things. Like if that woman next to us plans on biking in that 2 piece?

All the men watching their ladies.

It was really neat to be among such strong women.

Contemplating the swim and looking terrible in spandex.

I bucked the blue swim cap they give you to wear in favor of my trusty, and very old, silicone AAAA swim cap I stole from my brother years ago. It made me easy to spot in the water and doesn't pull out my hair when I take it off. These are important things people. 

 Getting really excited!

The swim was the easy part for me!

I wonder why?

 In the water after a ridiculously not cute and slow jump. I swear the woman in front of me sank to the bottom. And when they called my number (time trial start) to go I couldn't dive because she was still under! I think she touched the bottom.

 Let the passing begin! My swim time was the second fastest time in my age group and  looking back on the race as a whole, I know that I had a LOT more to give on this leg.

Out of the water! 

 Not sure if I should run or walk or skip?

I probably added 30 seconds to my time in this transition by just being confused. Special huh?

 I chose power walking? Next time, run woman!

 Running very slow. They freaked us out about slipping. I blame it on that.

 This is what I look like from behind when I run? Why didn't anyone tell me??? I'm not sure if this picture makes me want to never run again so I can assure I never look like this again, or run more so I change what's going on there with my backside....

 On the bike!

I thought thiswas going to be my weakest leg, but since I was out of the water so quickly, I was riding with the fasties and didn't know how fast I was going. (My garmin battery died that morning) Turns out I shaved 4 minutes off of my best bike time by riding with those ladies!

 Pulling into the dismount zone, petrified of falling off, and trying to figure out how I'm going to do this on a down hill on pavement with bike shoes (for those who don't know bike shoes are plastic on the bottom with a raised clip that hooks onto the pedal and are impossible to walk on).

 Why is this on a hill?

 Ok time to get off the bike already.

Stop putting it off! 

 I'm off...but now I can't stop my feet...I think I'm going to fall.

 Please slow down legs.

 Lindsey, being the fastie that she is, caught up with me at the end of the bike and then smoked me on the run!

 This transition was interesting.

I kind of forgot how to tie my shoes.

 Oh my gosh my legs felt like bricks!

I didn't really train for the run and I certainly didn't do many runs after biking (all 5 times I biked in preperation!). Egad it felt terrible!

 Another reason I will never be photographed while running in spandex again. Now I know why the paid photographers sat by the bike part. No one would buy these pictures!

 This would be the last woman I would pass. After this, it's people passing me.

 Done.

My time was actually 1:12:29.

 I want to barf.

Remind me to train for the next one of these I do!

 With my cheerleaders! My other cheerleader, Alley, is taking the picture.

 Thanks for pushing me along!

 I finished 7th in my age group. 5th was my goal, but 7 is ok. I would have been in the top 3 if I could have just pulled my run together. My swim and bike times had me right up there, but I lost it in the run. Oh well, now I know, just because you can run a marathon doesn't mean you can run 2 miles in a tri! I loved the whole thing. Except the pictures of me in spandex. That I can live with out! Tri season is just about over for this year so I'll have to wait until next year for my next attempt. It's on to running again for me. Training has started for a half and a full marathon, some 5ks, and maybe, if I can swing it, a really rowdy 24 hour, 196 mile relay race from Chattanooga to Nashville. By the time this is all over it will be March and maybe I can do a trail run to keep me in shape for the Memphis in May Triathlon...and so we come full circle!