The Results are in:
| Overall Place | Name | Race # | Age | Sex | Overall Time | Division Place |
| 88 / 216 | Kristin W | 156 | 23 | F | 1:24:05 | 1 |
| Swim Time | Swim Place | T1 time | Bike Time | Bike Place | ||
| 0:10:35 | 149 | 2:49 | 0:42:52 | 68 | ||
| T2 | Overall Place after Bike | Run Time | Run Place | City & State | ||
| 2:33 | 143 | 0:25:16 | 93 | Portland, OR |
That’s right, I’m #1. My very first Triathlon ever, and I get #1. Of course, let’s not get too excited, there were only 5 people in my division. But still, one of the people I beat only by 1 minute.
So the story goes as thus:
I woke up at 5:30am, my wave was sleighted to start at 8:45am. I putzed around the house for a bit, ate a banana and 2 slices of spelt toast, pumped up my tires, put my stuff in a bag, and left the house around 6:45. I got to Hillsboro and wandered around the tri’s local, the Hawthorne Farms Athletic Club (which is the swankiest [and most expensive] gym ever) . I wandered around, picked up my packet, and just got a feel for the place. I went to the Hillsboro stadium and dropped off my T2 gear (my shoes, an optional T-shirt, my bib#), went back to HFAC, and stupidly wandered around.
I got on my bike and rode around for a few seconds, just to make sure everything was in working order. It was about 38 degrees when I woke up, probably about 45 by then. Pretty chilly, we were used to lows in the mid-50s. So I brought a long-sleeve shirt for the bike section, which I’m rather glad of. Of course, when I went to drop off my T1 stuff, I Realized a few things. 1) I didn’t have an extra shirt to wear, so I had to walk around with my coat over my swim gear and 2) I didn’t have extra shoes so I had to walk around barefoot. Whoops! Luckily I had my MTB shoes in my car so I put those on and did the elliptical for about 3 minutes before getting ancy and trying to stretch a bit.
The waves were running about 3o minutes late, so I had lots of time to wander around, and see how everything worked, so I felt really comfortable with everything by the time it was wave #7’s time to jump in the pool. I was really worried I would slow down my lane, turns out everyone was slow. Actually people kept jumping in front of me and slowing me down, I was kind of pissed off, so I ended up doing way worse then I was hoping. But I didn’t feel like I was sprinting at all, so I guess I’m glad that I know I wasn’t going all out, and I can do 500m in faster then my turtle crawl of 10:30. I also discovered another thing: don’t wear a normal sports bra in the water. It turns into a big lump of fabric to pull around and hold water. Kind of acted like a buoey.
After that I leapt out of the pool and ran down the carpeted path to T1. I didn’t really try to go fast in the transitions, since it was my first one. I pulled on my long-sleeve shirt and shoes and socks and took off. Thankfully I spent the money on real tri-shorts, so they dried quickly and felt great throughout (thankyou Pearl Izumi!) Even though my knees were cold for quite a while (the temps being around 48-50 degrees), I felt really good. I got up to about 19-20mph on the flats, but I wasn’t really pushing too hard. Did good up the hills, flew down the hills; even though I didn’t feel like I was going all out, I did pass like 10 people on the bike portion. It saved my race really. I see that the key to the triathlon is being strong on the bike portion. I think I placed like 60-something in the bike.
I flew off my bike and by then I was quite warm so I threw on my t-shirt, and at that point I was sad I didn’t pre-pin my race number. So my T2 time was pretty abismal. I took a huge gulp of my sports drink and went on to the run. Bad idea…it was sloshing around my stomach for a long time, causing side stitch. I never felt that tired or in need of refreshment, so I could’ve done without. Anyway, I felt really slow the first mile or so, then I felt a bit better (although my knee wasn’t very happy, it put up with it). For a little while I kind of just wanted to stop and walk, but I didn’t let myself. There’s something exceedingly painful about the bike to run transition. I always feel unbelievably slow and short. Cycling is so much faster, so much more graceful. Running is just this slow jostling thing. I didn’t feel that great, nor did I feel like I was going very fast, but the mile markers seemed to be coming at me very quickly. In fact I felt like they must’ve miscalculated the distance, because according to my watch I was doing 7 minute miles. Which didn’t seem right. But apparently it was, because my run time was in the 25-minute neighborhood.
Overall, I feel really awesome about the whole thing. I still can’t believe I won my division, since I didn’t feel like I went very fast. I didn’t feel like was sprinting at all. I had a lot of energy left after the race. During the race even, I was thinking what a bad racer I am. I didn’t push myself nearly as much as I do during a lot of my workouts, I think it’s some sort of self-preservation thing (ie my ego), or just I’m not very good at rationing my power (should I go all out and risk running out of energy too early, or hold back and risk not going as much as I could?). I realized that I really need more high intensity training. I need to feel what it is to go 100%. I also need to do bricks. really bad. And of course, my swimming SUCKS. Big shock there.
And the next day, my right arch HURTS. I can barely walk. Not sure how I strained it, but it’s painful. So lots of icing. And after the race I could barely walk because of my knee. Oh the fun of injury 
The moral of the story: TRIs ARE FUN! What a blast to go from sport to sport to sport! I can’t wait to race where I start with my division members instead of by approximated swim time. Then I’ll have some people to zone in on and beat.
