my first Trialthon

Warning: if any of you have called me vain in the past you will now need to bite your tongue I will be showing some very bad picture of myself. The old Nicole would have never let these out of her vault, but this goes with the territory of the event. So if you would like to keep a perfect image of myself in your head. Do not look at the following pictures. I was VERY tired and not feeling photogenic!


At the beginning of this summer my friend Sara and I decided we would do a small triathlon the YMCA here puts on. it was their version of a sprint one: 1/4 mile swim 6 mile bike and 2 mile run. Sounds easy right???? That is what I thought too. I was never too serious about training. It did help me get back in the water again. Which I really enjoyed. So then the day came last Thursday for the race. I really did not feel ready, but decided to give it a try. Sara decided she wasn't ready either and will do it the next time. I was able to borrow a nice road bike from my friend here Amy and rode it for the first time on Tuesday two days before. I was nervous about using the clip in shoes. I have never done that before. I knew it would use my hamstrings and save my quads for my run and be much faster. SO I figured it was worth it, even if my feet were attached to this bicycle.
We arrived at the pond (yes we swam in a pond) it was kind of gross lots of seaweed all over my legs and smelt gross, but I didn't see too much duck poop like I thought I would and the water wasn't too cold either. I got all checked in and put my bike in the transition area and got ready to get in the water. Sara came and helped me get set up too. When I was in the water I saw Dan and Parker arrive they came and stood on the dock and watched from there. There were so many people I could not believe it. In my race it was divided by all beginning women (about 150+) and we would do the whole thing together. Once the swim started I was afraid it would be a huge group of people all over each other. So I made sure I was out in front and would get out of the group. The hardest part about the swim was we were facing the sun and it was 7:30 at night and it was setting in the water. I could not see anything!!! I could not see the kyackers leading us front group and I definitely could not see the buoys. I had to stop, block my eyes from the sun and look around for a shadow. I didn't swim it as efficient as I would have liked I was all over the place. Once we turned around half way through it was much better. There was one girl ahead of me from what I could tell so I did my best to pull even with her and then the last 100 yards sprint ahead and beat her out of the water. I had no idea til later when I was running up the hill toward my bike that I was the first one out of the water. I was so proud of that. My time wasn't great, Earlier in the week I had swam it 2 whole minutes faster in 5:30 minutes, but I blame my slow time here for no walls to push off and not exactly swimming in a straight line. I took too long getting my shoes on and bike ready there were already 7 girls on their bikes and gone before I was. The biking was hard and long. The back of my legs BURNED. I am not an experienced biker, but I think because of the bike I did a good job. I finished around 12th from that. So a few people passed me and I passed a few too.

then off to the run. I again had to take time and change my shoes to my running shoes and then off again. That was the hardest transition. I was already so tired how would I now run. But it was only two miles, but it felt like an eternity, maybe because it took me close to one, but it was sure hard. Once we turned around at the half way point it was much easier on the second half, because I had some clue of how much farther I had to go. I was able to sprint the last few hundred yards in and cross the finish line. that felt soo good. my final time was 53 minutes. my goal was to finish under an hour so I am glad I did that. I finished overall 6th in my division. I think I can do so much better next time. It was great to have Dan Parker and Sara there to route me on and help me transport stuff. overall it was a great experience and now I am much better prepared of what to except next time. MY new goal is 47 minutes. That was the winning time for my division this time. I think I can do it!