Completed my first Triathlon

It was actually a sprint tri that I participated in at Tri for Joe, at Coney Island in Cincinnati. It was a great experience, and for a great cause. The swimming was as bad as I feared. It didn't help that it was 2 laps around a huge pool. Actually, there were cones you had to swim around, and the problem was that there were bottlenecks going around them, so you ended up treading water for awhile as you waited for people to go, and when you finally started to swim, everyone was so bunched up that there was no way not to kick someone (or get kicked yourself). So after 2 laps, we exited and ran to the transition area to get the bikes. I didn't realize how hard it would be to actually run after swimming 700 meters. My legs were a bit wobbly, but I made it to the transition area and was a little disoriented. I had expected my bike to be on the right side, since I put it on the right side when I put it on the rack, but I forgot that I came in from the other side. Oops.. But I did notice that the numbers were going the opposite direction, so I quickly adjusted and found the bike.

I have misplaced my bike computer and didn't have my speed or distance as I was riding so that hampered me a bit I think. We turned right onto the main rode and went a couple of miles and did a turn around, and then went many more miles and did another turnaround, so it was hard to determine how far we actually were going as the ride was going on. I wrongly assumed there would be mile markers on the rode, but I didn't see any. There was only one slight hill, and that came at the very end and was more painful than it should've been.

The exchange for the run went well. We didn't get any of our transition splits, which was disappointing, but it didn't seem too bad. My legs felt fairly strong which was nice. I was passing some (but mostly getting passed). It was only a 5k run, but it felt like much longer! Many times I debated about stopping but talked myself into running the whole way, so I'm sorta proud that I didn't stop. Although I did pass 2 girls that looked to be in their 20's. They had stopped and I was feeling pretty good, but they flew by me in the last 25% of the course, so maybe stopping would've have been too bad. Oh well.. Yeah. I didn't stop! :)

So it was a good experience for me as a first triathlon. It was a 700 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run. I didn't finish last and I did finish, so I can't be too upset. :)