Triangle Tri Mini Sprint

Over the weekend I finished my first triathlon of the year! I decided on the Triangle Triathlon because it's really close to my house and is in a beautiful park that I was excited to get to race in. As another plus, they have a sprint and mini sprint, which was perfect for my first race of the year.

The mini sprint was made up of a 400 meter lake swim, 8.5 mile bike, and 1.5 mile run. As I was racing I was so happy that I signed up for the mini (which was about half the distance of the sprint) because it was harder than I expected and I was TIRED!! Here's how it went.

Swim: 12:51

The swim was in Harris Lake and went around two buoys in the water. I liked how we stayed close to the shore so it felt very comfortable for someone like me who's not a very confident open water swimmer. As soon as we started, I tried to find a spot to start swimming and get some open water. There was so much chaos at the start (which is the only thing I don't like about triathlons) so I just kind of treaded water to wait for everything to calm down. I ended up not having a great swim- I did some freestyle and when I was getting too tired I would flip over and do some backstroke and side stroke. It definitely wasn't pretty and I'm a little disappointed in how I did, but it felt great to get out of the water and run to the transition.

Bike: 31:44

Once I was on the bike, I knew it was time to put in the work and try to make up some time. The course was made up of rolling hills that went out of the park and had two out-and-back portions. My goal was to push on the straights and downhills, and keep focused on the uphills. I definitely achieved that goal and didn't crash (another big goal!) so overall I was really happy with my bike! I also passed a ton of people which made me really happy. Since this was out-and-backs, I could see Dan twice and saw that I was catching him since he had a much better swim than me. That definitely helped to motivate me to keep pushing and try to get him!

Run: 13:00

I got back to the transition area to drop off my bike, and saw that the bike beside me was pretty much on my number, so I got a little flustered trying to move his back over and also try to find my bib for the run (note for next time- just put on the bib for the bike so I don't have to worry about that). I quickly gathered myself but forgot to get some water which I really regretted as I started my run. My legs actually felt great, but I felt really sick and nauseous. I told myself to just keep running and that feeling would go away, and just said to keep running and to not walk. After running on the park road a bit, we entered the woods and ran on trails for a bit. At this point I told myself "you LOVE running on trails! This is amazing! Enjoy the shade and the beautiful trails" and that really kept me going! I did walk at the one water station to make sure I got a bunch and also dumped some on my head, and as soon as I started running again I felt like a new person and it gave me the final gear I needed to finish the race!

I ended up finishing in 1:00:39, with Dan just ahead of me in 1:00:13! 

Our next race is coming up soon- I'm going for the win this time ;)