I did it in less than 2 hours!

At 5am this morning Tricia knocked on my door to pick me up for our sprint triathlon. This was our first triathlon and while it didn't start until 7am we wanted to get there plenty early. I'm glad we did since I was a little jittery with excitement.

You can see a little in the background of her picture the bike racks. We hung our bikes on these racks based on our age category. I was in the 35-39 category and Tricia was in the 30-34 category. Then we went to swim!

Me and Tricia before our triathlon

 Swim half a mile: The swimming part of the triathlon was in two waves. The 34 and under age group and the 35 + age group. Tricia was swimming with all the spring chickens and I was with all the old people. Fine with me!  When the race started for me I panicked. There were so many people in the water kicking around (I was kicked in the head and the side and I kicked other people) that I seriously freaked out. So I started to float on my back which I did for awhile. That wasn't so bad then and I could catch my breath. I was much slower but I finished the swimming part. I realized I didn't practice swimming in the open lake like this except one time. I could swim half a mile in the nice pool with pretty lane markers and clear water but the murky lake water is a little different.

We did it!

Bike 12.4 miles: After swimming I toweled off and put my shoes and helmet on and was off on my bike. I was one of the last ones out of the water due to my freaking out swimming stage so I was behind. I was riding faster than I'd ever ridden because of my new bike :). Last Friday we bought new road bikes. So I did have a road bike and could go much faster. However I had only gone on one long ride with it. I couldn't figure out how to get my water bottle out (so I was thirsty) and I was having trouble changing gears. I did okay in the biking but many of the Olympic triathletes passed me (they started swimming in a wave after me!).  We biked around the lake which was nice and scenic.

Run 5K: After biking I drank a lot of water. Then went straight to running. This was the event I had practiced the most and was most comfortable with. I run a 10 minute mile - pretty slow but I am consistent and was able to pass people and make up some time here. The running was beautiful. We ran on a bridge over the lake. I loved the scenic views and even saw some boats on the lake.

I ran to the finish line where Tricia's husband was taking pictures! Then crossed the finish line in 1 hour 47 minutes. I was so excited to finish in less than 2 hours.  I figured it would take 1/2 hour for swimming (I took longer I'm sure) about an hour for biking and 1/2 hour for running. The top people in our age group were doing the race in one hour 20 minutes.

We finished quick enough I could take a shower and go to church! Yipee!