Sunday, August 26, 2007

It's done....My first Triathlon

WOW....that was an adventure!
It was fun, exciting and hard all at the same time! I'm not as good at re-capping as some of you out there, but here it goes!

We arrived and picked our spots for transition and got everything ready to go and set up. After I was all set up, I warmed up a little on the bike, went for a very short run, and then headed down to the water for a little swim. I thought I was ready!

Ready, set, start! The swim went really well, I swallowed a bunch of water, had to do some breastroke to get back on course, but I was in the front part of mid-pack when I finished....I think!

Biking also went well. It took a little bit to get my legs going, but once I got over that little hump I felt good. There were a couple of small hills that got me, as usual! I need more hill work. One was a combo of hill and wind...definitely not my cup of tea! Aside from the hills the biking went really well. I kept it in the big ring 95% of the time and had fun. Oh, and my back was killing me!

Oh the run! Definitely a sport I need to work on! The first mile was the hardest, I think I walked about 3/4 of it! Once I saw the 1 mile mark, I knew I needed to get it going. I started running again and didn't take a walk break until about 1/4 mile after I saw the 2 mile mark. I walked a little and got some encouragement from another racer and started to run again. Across the finish line I checked the clock and saw 1:46.???

I couldn't believe it! I had done it in under 2 hours! Deep down that was my goal, but after the week I had I didn't know if I could do it!

Thank You to Jane Riessen for giving me a ride up there and encouraging me during the race! Also thanks to Kyle for cheering me on and being there at the end to catch me! I was in pain and needed him! and to Tony and Kathy for coming and cheering me on and helping Kyle with Alexa, once I get some pictures from Tony I'll post a couple.

I plan on keeping up with the training and trying a couple of more next year. Maybe just the sprint ones again and participating in some of the bigger ones on a team. We'll see what happens!

4 comments:

Jules said...

Congratulations Julie!

Unknown said...

Julie,
Congratulations!

I had hoped to be there competing with you, but since I got my dog (76 lb. labradoode, Charlie)the week after Iowa Games, I haven't been on the bike or in the water to train. Charlie & I run/walk every day.

See you in Boone? We'll swap stories then.

Good job, girl.

Christy Varnum

Scott said...

Great job, my parents had mentioned two and a half hours and I knew you'd crush that!

Webbies said...

Wow, Fantastic Julie.....that's GREAT (as Tony the Tiger would say) :)