1/2 mile swim in a lake ChaggoggagoggMunchoggaggoggChabunnagunnagugamogg
(or something like that) — Means “You fish on your side, I
‘ll fish on my side, and Nobody fish in the middle.”

I wasn’t nervous for the swim physically, but mentally I had this issue with swimming with 100 other competitors. The water temperature wasn’t going to bother me as I had on a wetsuit, but how I performed in the water with the wetsuit was an unknown.

The atmosphere in the beginning was totally unknown to me. I’m a veteran of many of road races. I love being at races (even ones I don’t run in), but this was totally exciting and different. My family and I soaked in the atmosphere and setting up my transition brought about some really nice feelings. This was cool.

Putting on the suit, walking to the beach and standing while awaiting the start. People were in the water, people were standing. Folks around me were mapping their strategy. I had one, get into the water, swim like crazy, get out of the water as fast as I could.

The race announcer began to describe the course with all the different buoys but noone could understand him as the mic was too close to his mouth and he really did sound like Charlie Browns teacher.

After about 5 minutes of waiting, the first wave (yep, me) were lead into the water and the sound of the horn went off.

I walked a bit and then dove in , ready to rock and roll. 2 minutes in and water began seeping into my googles. Darn, so I saw I could still stand so I did and tightened the eyes. Then I swam. Tried to get my rythm and really could not figure out why I was swimming, yet not getting anywhere. After about 3 minutes I was exhausted and didn’t understand why. It was a strange feeling, but people around me noticed and began to ask me “You ok?”.  I replied “Yep, just really tired”.

After about 6 minutes I ended up floating, back stroking, resting, breast stroking and repeat. I finally caught my breath. Of course the second wave was quickly catching up and this sort of freaked me out. I did begin to panic a bit.

I know what to do in these circumstances, but for some reason I just freaked out. I think it was because of my inexperience, but for the first time in my 30+ years of racing I thought “I can’t do this”. A lifeguard paddled up next to me and gave me the best advise : “Don’t worry, relax, it’s cold and stressful. Take it easy and go on the outside and don’t worry there are 7 more waves. You are fine.”

After that I calmed down and proceeded. I swam better and if I needed to stop and rest, I did. After 22 minutes I was out of the water. I know it may sound slow, but that was what I expected. Looking back I realize I need to work on speeding up my swimming. I need to do a 1/2 mile in 15-17 minutes.

The feeling of accomplishment of swimming that 1/2 mile was almost as big as me completing my marathon. Why ? Because that 1/2 mile took more energy than I’d ever expended in 22 minutes.

Next, the bike.

All these years and for some reason had trouble clicking into my clipless pedals. DOH.

I needed my daughters cowbell as I depended on hearing and knowing she and my family were cheering me on. How could I stop.

My swim time : 23:17 (darn slow)

After my experience in the water, I knew once I hit the beach and feel of the sand through my toes, that it was all downhill from there. I ran up the beach and through the tunnel of spectators, until finally seeing my family. I heard my daughters cowbell ringing and looked to see them and it gave me an extra kick in the pants.

Funny, I wasn’t tired but mentally I had been battling that inner voice through the swim so it pumped me up to hear and see the family cheering me on.

T1 – Out of the water there was a 1/4 mile run (on the pavement) to the transition area. I, being the amateur that I was, wanted to try and get my wetsuite off as I was running. Well, even though I practiced this many of times, the heat of the moment certainly caused me to fumble. I couldn’t get the velcro off the back and once I did, I couldn’t unzip my suit while running. So , I stopped and walked fast all the while fumbling to get the zipper down my back. How do women do this with their dresses, I don’t know.

After a minute or so I did get the zipper down and trying to mimic what I’ve read, seen pull the top off and run to transition. Worked fine in theory. I pulled my arms out and pull it down to my waist and began to run harder. For some reason the top half of my suit kept slipping and slipping and I had to hold it up as I ran into transition. Darn, I felt foolish.

Once in transition, of course, it took me quite a bit of time to get off the wetsuit. It felt like I was on America’s Funniest Videos.

Once the suit was off I was ready. I was lucky as getting to the race early I was able to put my bike on the end of the transition bar so I had plenty of room and it did help.

I got my stuff on and off I went. Once on the road I had the hardest time getting into my clipless pedals. Now, I’ve been riding clipless pedals since they first came out so this was not the case of being a rookie to triathlon. It had to be nerves. Once in the pedals I knew that my comfort level would sky rocket. In familiar territory I pushed off.

The course itself was rolling hills and rather desolate which turned out to be a good thing on a misty morning. There were a couple of hills that were pretty darn steep. A ton of people were walking up the hills but living on the top of a pretty steep hill, I just pushed up them. The nice thing about going uphill of course is that there has to be some downhill somewhere. And the downhills were nice. I flew down the hills, topping out at 38mph and averaging 25mph for the downhills and the flats afterwards.

The bike seemed to fly by but checking my time I was behind what I thought I would do. I felt good but didn’t seem to get any faster. I rode pretty steady and once I pulled up the final hill I was extremely happy. I pulled into the parking lot , unbuckled my shoes and rode up to the dismount area.

Getting off the bike, I was extremely confident even though looking at my watch I was shocked that I went slower than I expected.

45:17 (12 miles).

Next up : Run

T2 (1:46) was much quicker as I parked the bike, slipped on my shoes, hat and switched shirts. Ran out of the transition area, took a drink and went running. This of course was my most comfortable sport as I have run many races in my life. I have done a bunch of duathlons (both in training and a few races) so the transition from bike to run wasn’t a big deal. I felt it in my legs but wanted to push it harder than normal.

I ran strong, up the hills and began passing people. A nice change of pace from people passing me all day .

I hit the first mile in 7:45. Yikes, need to slow down a bit and I did. I felt strong the whole way and coming around the corner and down the end of the race, I heard my daughter and her cowbell and saw the family cheering and waving. I did my goofy wave and pushed it to the finish line. I crossed in 1:40:33 and it felt good. I was tired, but feeling very accomplished.

I’ve signed up for my second sprint and hopefully the swim will be much more manageable and I’ll be more comfortable.