I TRI-ed

First tri. Check. Mission accomplished. Today has been a long time coming and I'm glad to say it was a success. This morning at 5:45am we scooped the girls out of bed and headed to Philadelphia. We checked out the race site yesterday so we made it downtown without any complications. Brad freed me of any parenting responsibilities at the curb and I took off to find my transition spot and get set up. I was going to be in the 8th wave with other "newbies".

I had enough time to get in the water for a few minutes and get used to the dark water. The water temperature was 73! Almost too warm for a wet suit. I guess this is an advantage to not being in the NW...when I told my friend that the temp was 73 she thought I meant the weather, not the water! That is a nice summer day in the Seattle area. The water was warm and the air temperature was even warmer, in fact, heat advisory later in the day with expected temperatures in the mid to upper 90's. Guess I'm glad for the early start time!

The first wave began at 8:00am. It was hard to wait without getting a little antsy...and anxious. I have to inject a story here that could be a blog post in and of itself. Brad was taking a picture of me with the girls and someone offered to take this photo of our entire family.

We said our good-byes and I filed in line with the other swimmers walking to the swim start. A girl next to me said, "Excuse me, don't you have a blog." I looked at her with a startled expression. After I told her "yes" she said that she saw me taking the family picture and recognized the girls. She said that she came across it when she was looking things up about the triathlon and now follows my blog. We walked for a few minutes while I felt like a celebrity resisting to offer my autograph. Over 1,000 women doing this triathlon I run into one that reads my blog. Crazy.

Back to the race. My swim went well. I stayed on course, never stopped, and kept my breathing fairly normal. I did the 750 meters in 14:36 which put me 246th overall for the swim. My transition from swim to bike wasn't great but wasn't terrible at 2:58. I headed out for the 17 mile bike ride. The course ran throughout Fairmount Park in downtown Philadelphia which runs along the Schuykill River and the Philadelphia Art Museum (right in front of the steps that Sylvester Stallone runs up in Rocky). I was hoping to average a 17.0mph on the bike but had to fight heavy head winds blowing off the river and ended up averaging 16.10mph for a time of 1:03:26 on the bike and a place of 504 overall. My next transition was faster at 1:58 since I didn't have to take off a wet suit. I took off on the run...slow and steady. I'm not a fast runner. I usually average somewhere around a 10 or 11 minute mile depending on the course and conditions. I averaged a 11:07 run pace per mile which I'm not proud of but at least I finished. If I could speed up my run I would finish so much higher but a lot of woman gained time on me in the run which I did in 34:27:00 for a final finish time of...1:57:23! Out of 179 first timers I finished 97th. I finished 497 overall but it is still unknown exactly how many woman competed...they announced that 1,100 women registered and that over 950 women were there to actually participate. The website results stop around 700 but I know that when I left they were having some problem with some results. Surely 250 women didn't quit?!

My goal was under 2 hours so despite a slow, slow run I met my personal goals...finish the race, never stop, and under 2 hours.

Brad and the girls were great cheerleaders and I was so grateful that they all came and waited on me just to encourage me every twenty minutes or so. Brad had helped them make hats and signs and I was so proud to have them there to support me.

Here is a graph breakdown of my results that Brad downloaded from the website.

Check out those guns!
I'm sure you can't find me in this picture but it gives you an idea of the swim...if you look closely you can see a few yellow caps coming under the bridge, that just may be me! In transition after the swim and getting ready for my bike.
Poor Brooke was tired but a trooper for Mommy.
Cheering Mommy on with their big foam fingers they decorated with Daddy.
I'm so fast this picture is just a blur...haha!Just a few more seconds to the finish line.
Showing my finishers medal off to Baileigh...the girls were impressed that Mommy got a medal with a purple ribbon!
Next Saturday I do my second tri. I figured why not...I've trained, I have the equipment, and it's more fun then just a regular workout. Next weekends has a shorter swim and two miles less on the bike. Same run...hopefully faster though.