Triathlon Done!

Well I did it. I finished one of the Lake Placid Mini Triathlons on Monday and here are the results:

0:10:27(swim) 0:43:00(bike) 0:22:24(run) 1:15:51(total)

Second to last in my age group but still a finisher. Here is my commentary broken down by discipline and the overall is at the end.

Swim:

I knew going into this that the swim would be my weakest link and I was right. As we were standing knee deep in Mirror Lake waiting for the start I saw two bouys in the water. One was yellow and further away and the other was bright orange and about 50 yards closer so I asked a woman next to me which one we were to swim around. I was secretly hoping it would be the closer one but when the woman replied it was the yellow one I wasn't surprised. I stayed in the very back of the pack while waiting for the start since I had no intention of getting caught up in the swirling mess in the front. Once the leaders were about 20 feet out I started in at my own pace. I quickly discovered that since I hadn't practiced swimming I should stick with a stroke that wouldn't kill me - the side stroke. Not very fast but it got the job done. I was able to pass a few people out on the water and I also got passed by a 12 or 13 year old just be for the finish.

Bike:

I was looking forward to the bike since I had been practicing a little over the past two weeks. I had borrowed my dad's bike since it was lighter than mine and it had a speedometer. As I started the bike leg I felt good but it felt difficult getting into a rhythm to hold my speed above 18mph which was my goal. About 2 miles in I was able to find a good rhythm and kept the pace where I wanted. Here I made up a little ground on others but was also passed by a few guys. One guy on a mountain bike passed me and I decided I wasn't going to let him get to far ahead. I was able to stay with him and later pass him in the run. The bike course was fairly flat considering it was in Lake Placid. There were two hills to contend with but I felt I was able to handle them well.

Run:

This is the segment I was most looking forward to since I run quite a bit and was prepared for it. The first mile to half mile was tough on the legs as I worked out he lactic acid from the bike but I felt really strong the rest of the run. I passed a lot of people on the road and at this point no one else passed me. In fact I am pretty sure that I caught everyone who passed me on the bike.

Overall:

Overall I really enjoyed it and I came very close to my goal of 1:15:00. If I had done a little better on the swim and bike I think I would have come close to my big goal of 1:10:00. One thing I didn't take into account when guessing at my times was to include the transitions. I don't know exactly how much time I spent on each transition but it was probably about 1:30 on the first one and 1:00 on the second one. I would definitely like to try a few more mini-triathlons and maybe at some point try a half-Ironman. Beside overall preparation I would definitely like to train to improve my swimming stroke.