Michelle
David
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I was queued as number 74 based on my estimated
swim time. The race began promptly at 7:30 AM as the first swimmers began their swims at
10 second intervals. After several minutes it was my turn to line up and get ready
for the start of my first triathlon. 
With a count down of "3.. 2.. 1.." I was off. The first couple of lengths went very well
however on the 3rd length my right calf began to cramp. What a pain, I had swum up to
2.5 km in training without ever experiencing this. After flexing my calf a couple of times
the cramp seemed to go away and I was able to continue without any further problems.
Five minutes and 48 seconds later I was out of the water and headed towards the first
transition to the bike. I thought the transition went well, considering it was my first. The only major
problem was the fact the the bike course started uphill and I had left my bike in its top gear.
This cost me time as I quickly moved the pedals by hand to get the bike in a lower gear. Oh well just
the first item
to add to my checklist for next time. At any rate in 2:40 I was done with the transition and
headed out onto the bike course. 
It felt good to get on the bike and the first hill went fine once I got into the right gear.
As I got to the top I checked my bike computer to check my speed and saw that it wasn't working.
Doh! When I had packed my bike the magnet on the front fork had moved out of place and wasn't close enough
to register my speed, item 2 to add to my pre-race checklist for next time. On the
first major straightaway I hit a bump and was showered with some water from my aerobar mounted
water bottle. Item 3 to add to my list, make sure there is a proper lid on my water bottle.
On this straightaway I also caught site of the race's first casualty (one of two as I found out later)
A girl had wiped out and was lying in the ditch. I wasn't sure what to do so I continued on. (The
race marshall found her soon after) After a couple more corners we headed up a 3/4 - 1 mile hill.
I was screaming on my new bike (a used Softride PowerWing) and passed 3 or four other riders.
As the hill got steeper I remembered to try and stay in a low
gear so I could spin up the hill and save my legs for the run even so I still passed several more
riders before the hill was complete.
After a few more turns and after passing a couple more riders things began to spread out a little bit.
The course was very demanding with a lot of hills and sharp corners. I quickly learned to shift into
lower gears prior to hitting a corner so that I could accelerate out of them. After a really steep
hill I began the final descent back to the transition area. This is where I noticed item 3 for my
race checklist, make sure the race number is firmly in place before starting. The number was not
as tightly attached as it should have been and it began to flutter in a manner that caused me to
fear it would fly off thus voiding my time for my first race. I held it with one hand while finishing
off the rest of the hill and headed into the transition area with a time of 44:28 after having passed
10-15 other bikers. The transistion was uneventful other than a quick conversation with my wife
telling her I still felt pretty good. I headed out to the run and grabbed a drink of gatorade.
The run started with a slight downhill and my legs didn't feel as bad as they had in some of the training runs
I had done but I felt very very slow. After a turn I headed into the local park and realized that
everything was uphill again. It felt like I was barely moving as I headed on up. Part way up the hill
several people passed me and I saw the lead runners cruising on down the hill heading to the finish.
Oh well I decided that I was just here to finish my first race not to win. After the first hill was done
I turned a corner to find yet another one that was even steeper. My pace continued to slow down. Finally
I reached the top of the hill and headed towards the lake that we were to circle. As I reached the
lake there was an aid station where I stopped and grabbed a cup of water said thanks and headed off around
the lake. The path went off road and lead to a dirt trail. Several more people passed me as I reached
the trail. The trail was fun as I had to jump over tree stumps, run over wooden bridges and run up
sandy slopes. All in all it was a good change from the standard road running in most races and I
even passed one runner while only being passed once myself. The trail
ended about two thirds of the way around the lake and as I headed out towards the aid station again
people began to catch up. Item 4 to add to my list improve my running speed.
I stopped at the aid station and grabbed another drink said thanks again and
let a couple more people pass me. Then I headed on towards the downhill section.
I began to think about when I would start my kick. I
was still a mile away and I didn't feel like I could last that long but I did decide to not let anyone
else pass me. Going downhill was much easier than going uphill and I could see lots of people
still coming up the hill. I finally reached the bottom of the hill and left the park area to
head towards the finish line. With maybe 200m left I started my kick (at least I thought I did
after talking to my wife she seemed to think that I was running quite slowly. Good thing she
hadn't seen my running up the hills at the start of the run ...) I cruised across the finish
line with a run time of 31:40 and an overall time of 1:24:35
(Note the clock in the picture was started when the first swimmer left)
I had finished my first
triathlon. My goal time was to finish in under 1:30:00 so I was pleased with my finish time. The
swim was right around my estimate of 6:00. My bike was faster than I had hoped at 44:28 and
my run was slightly faster than my regular run pace of 9:30 minute miles with an average time of
just over 9 minutes for a total run time of 31:40. I placed 59th in the swim, 40th on the bike
and 90th on the run with an overall finish of 61 out of 175.
Post race Michelle and I hung
around for an hour or so to watch the final finishers and see the awards handed out. The oldest
finisher was a 72 year old man who finished in 1 hour 52 minutes. Pretty impressive I thought.
I didn't receive any awards so I just sipped gatorade and snacked on some sandwiches.
All in all I had a great time and I plan on returning next year.