FIRST TRIATHLON! WOOP WOOP! Pretty much loved every friggin second of that race! Rebecca and I were a bit worried about the weather but the blessings came through with overcast skies, no wind, and dry roads. Basically perfect weather conditions. We had loaded our bikes in the night before and made our way out at about 7 am. Upon our arrival we got our numbers on us with permanent marker. These numbers are mainly just to make you feel cool for the rest of the day because people either think you just got out of a prison camp or (if you are familiar with the racing scene) you ran a triathlon. Rebecca sang at a funeral right after and it was fun watching the strange looks people had as they looked down at the number on her rippling calf muscle ;) Anyways... We got our bikes into position and The Rampage realized she had left her goggles at home. This tends to be a very important part of triathlons. We ran to a nearby wal-mart. Luckily we were there early enough to make this possible. Lesson to all! Be early! This also allows you to get a good spot in the transition area. After a quick warm-up jog the race began! Felt good! The first mile was all uphill (beastly). I started at about 7th or 8th and then passed a couple up the hill. Then I stayed behind a guy right up until the the last turn where I passed him. The last part of the run was pretty much downhill. I came in 4th. The transition thing is all new to me so I just kinda took my time putting my shoes on and tried to run in them a bit to where I could mount my bike and I was off. Talk about friggin fun! Racing on a bike! What could be better! The first hill was rather beastly but once past that you were set to fly. I got passed by two guys who were on super bikes but I didn't care. On the 2nd lap I was seeing all the other peeps doing the race. Pretty much loved that bike ride I must say. I got back and ran awkwardly from the bike dismount to my spot where I threw off my shoes and shirt and then ran to the pool in my swim suit (also awkward). The pool tasted like straight poop and made me kinda sick. I had to resort to the side stroke for a bit to keep my head out of the water. The 450 meter swim was a lot harder then I had anticipated and I made it through. I passed one guy in the swim and another guy came close to me. He said the only reason he didn't pass me was because his swim suit started coming off... A likely story ;) Jumped out of the pool to grab sixth place. The results were retarded because they just stuck the names in alphabetical order. According to them though I was first in my age group. Yes that means that some older guys beat me. I blame their super bikes ;) Then I saw that Rebecca was not far behind so I watched her finish 2nd in the females. This was a fun race! My splits are below. After this race I can see there are many places for improvement. First of all it would be good to learn some transition techniques and practice them such as leaving your shoes attached to your bike so you are not running awkwardly. I also felt like I could have gone a lot faster on the bike. I didn't really feel I pushed myself as much as I could have. If any of you triathlon junkies have any tips I would love to hear them! I pretty much have the tri bug and can't wait for the next one! Run: 18:55 AP: 6:13 Bike: 26:40 AP: 19.5 MPH Swim: 10:11 1. 6:35 1. 4:12 2. 6:14 2. 3:08 3. 5:51 3. 2:15 Transition: 1:49 4. 2:42 5. 3:28 6. 3:53 7. 2:20 8. 2:33 8.5. 2:07 Transition: 1:33 | 