Wahoo, completed my first triathlon!!!

Welp, today I did it...I finished my FIRST triathlon!!! And I can proudly say my training paid off and it went well! I had more butterflies before the race started than I think I've ever gotten. I had trained, taken care of myself, eaten the right things the last days before the race, but was I really ready?

The swim is what I was most nervous for...I know how to swim, and had done some open water swims to prepare... but there's just something about swimming a half mile out in the middle of a lake, with people swimming over you and kicking you and you can't see or touch the bottom if you need to that just really freaked me out {I can say past tense 'freaked' now cause I conquered it!}. With this triathlon they send you out in waves of 125ish people and have you start actually in the water {some triathlons have you run into the water from a location away from the water} and as I walked down the dock ramp to get in the water I think my heart must have been racing 180 beats per minute, no matter what kind of breathing I did I couldn't slow it down. I was SO nervous! So I'm in the water, have gotten myself wet completely to get used to the temperature and then they send us off. Soon after we started swimming I started having a major panic attack and couldn't get any air in {let me tell you, this isn't the greatest feeling in the world when you've trained so hard for something and you feel like you might lose it all in a few seconds because you can't breathe...I was worried for a split second that they might have to pull me out of the water. Now this whole panic attack prob only last a few min and once I composed myself I was fine, but it felt like forever.} After I finally caught my breath and my heart slowed down a bit I was able to start doing some strokes {during the attack I was just sort of floundering as I was trying to do a side stroke or back stroke}. But soon after I actually started swimming I realized one side of my goggles was leaking a ton and no matter what I did the whole swim I couldn't fix it....so I did a lot of the breast stroke for most of the swim because that's what kept the water out the best. {I have no clue what the issue was, I haven't had that problem before} Even with my minor issues though I think I did the swim in about 21 minutes, I was hoping for 20, so only 1 min over wasn't too shabby!

The bike was a breeze {especially with my new sweet bike Ryan got me for my birthday} and I was able to recover from the swim a bit, hydrate and refuel for the run. I gotta tell you, those energy gels are amazing!

The run went pretty well....the whole first half of the run was uphill, so I ended up walking a bit, which I had thought I would and then after the half-way point it was all down hill. My goal for next year is to run it all....which I maybe could have this year but I really just didn't know how my body was going to take to it all.

So that's it, I finished and am extremely happy!! I'm hoping I can get in much better shape between now and next summer, maybe do a few triathlons over the summer and shave off some time from this one....I'm trying to recruit people to do it with me next year, any takers!?! I'm working on my mom and sis!

Here are a few pictures from the big day:

Ready and nervous for the race to start!

Coming down to the finish line!

Yippie!!!