Triathlon Complete

WE DID IT!

Triathlon complete: 400m swim, 16.8k cycle, 4k run in a total time of 1:22:27, which makes me 7th in my age group.

The swim: In case you were unaware, salt water tastes disgusting. And once you have swallowed it once or twice or a hundred times, it will take you the rest of the race to get the taste out of your throat.

I did not do the swim properly at all. I'm not really sure what happened, I didn't panic, I just didn't feel like looking somewhat professional, I guess. So I did every stroke you can think of – proper freestyle, freestyle with my head out of the water, breast-stroke, side-stroke for a minute til I felt like an idiot. But I didn't drown, and I only finished two minutes behind Running Buddy in the swim. Happy with the result, but not the execution.

According to moderately reliably sources, I had a Thank god that's over look on my face when I emerged. Sounds plausible.

I peeled off my goggles and swim cap feeling like a pro, and headed off to my first transition.

The bike: I realised later (much later) that I somehow put my shirt on inside out, but that affected nothing. The transitions are both a bit of a blur, but somehow I was dressed, helmeted, and headed out on the bike.

Let the record show that I overtook one (1) other competitor on the bike. If the record feels like it, it may show that I was overtaken by approximately a million other riders, but that's neither here nor there. I would like to say cheers to the guy in the Australia tri-suit who overtook both myself and Running Buddy and said that we were looking good. Thanks Aussie Tri-suit Guy!

My bike (which was noticeably less, shall we say, expensive than many others there) did just fine. I hadn't really worked out how fast I could go for how long and not fall off my bike at the end of it, but I think I held a pretty good pace. Only 2:15 behind RB in the bike, so that is very good. Okay, the bike did start making a slightly worrisome clicking/clunking noise midway through the second lap, but I just had a chat to it (and didn't make it do anything alarming like change gears) and we were all good.

I had no problems with the marshal, I had one leg over the bike, and was ready to put my foot down right before the line, so all went smoothly into the second transition.

The run: My secret weapon is that I don't have clip-in shoes for my bike, so my bike-run transition was super quick.

I'd decided socks were for chumps, but they probably also should have been for people who have shoes that haven't been tested running without them. I don't think the constant rubbing actually slowed me down any, but it certainly hurt in the post-race shower.

I really really wish they had kilometre markers for the run course – or that I knew the course better. I let myself have way too many walk breaks, although in my defence, they were all super short ones. Turns out RB and I both had a sneaky one right before the final turn – which allowed me to “sprint” to the finish line.

Obviously, we should know by now that I am unable to look joyful while exercising – unlike RB who looks cheerful in every single one of her photos. Photos, by the way, are courtesy of my new camera – and the Boyfriend, who did a great job capturing every moment of our Triumph.

Then we had a chocolate milkshake. My favourite part of frisbee tournaments, 10k runs, and triathlons.