I completed my first triathlon of the year yesterday. Conditions were not ideal, but I still had a good time and managed to place third in my age group. Saturday night, I packed everything up in the car except my bike. It was lightly raining and I didn’t feel like getting wet loading the bike onto the car.

Sunday morning, I got up, showered, put my tri suit on and was out the door by 6:30. It had rained the whole night and continued to rain through out the race. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but it was definitely cold!

The venue wasn’t too far away and I arrived a little after 7. I grabbed my race numbers and headed down to the registration tent. After getting my chip and body marked, I grabbed my stuff and headed to transition. At this point the volunteer watching the transition area indicated there was 15 minutes left until transition closes. There was maybe 30 bikes racked in.

After setting up my area, I headed back to the car to finish off my water bottle and grab my wetsuit. A few folks were huddling under one of the park buildings and we struck up a conversation. Everyone was cold, but I suggested the water will feel nice once we get in it. I started getting my wetsuit on and immediately felt better that my skin wasn’t exposed.

After transition closed, we had a quick athlete’s meeting followed by the national anthem. Everyone proceeded down to the water and it felt really good compared to the air temp. No one wanted to get out and stand on the beach!

Olympic athlete’s started off at 8:00 followed by my group, the sprint athlete’s, a few minutes later. Although my bike and run training had been going decently well, I had not swam since my last race (the 70.3 at Cedar Point), I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was the first time I considered pulling out of the race at the swim, and I hadn’t even gotten to the first sight buoy yet! I kept calm and started to feel a lot better when I got to the first turn. I finally got into a groove and all of a sudden the swim was over.

T1 was not my best transition. I walked to my spot, slowly got my wetsuit down and struggled to get it off over my timing chip. I put my helmet and soggy bike shoes on and headed over to the mount line.

Even though I didn’t have a great swim, I was not looking forward to getting out of the water and onto the bike. The faster you went, the harder the rain hit and the colder you got. The bike course was hilly, twisty, and technical on a dry day… wet was even worse! At one low point in the road, water was collecting and the only route not through a deep puddle was a foot and a half wide (yes, bike traffic was going in both directions through this area)!

At one point, some one passed me and made the comment, “this is brutal!” I smirked and said, “nah, this is fun!” By the time I got off the bike, my toes were numb and my feet were soaked. I got into T2 and was happy to put my run shoes on. I had flipped them over when I set up my area and the insides were still dry!

The run was my saving grace. Typically my race falls apart at the run, but this race I was able to keep under my target pace (12:00 min / mile). I know its not that fast, but this was a good run for me with an average of 11:00 min / mile. I even had enough energy for a great sprint at the end.

I grabbed a banana and my finisher’s metal and went over to see when transition would open (my car keys were in my saddle bag). The volunteer indicated there were still about ten bikes left on the course. Usually the bike course needs to be cleared before they open transition to the athlete’s.

I huddled under the registration tent for awhile, but every gust of wind made me a bit more chilly. I headed over to the park building were I could count the number of athlete’s starting their run. It was an open-air building and was still pretty cold and by the time I counted five athlete’s I was down right freezing.

I talked to a few folks and one of them mentioned they were letting athlete’s grab stuff from their transition spot. I jumped up headed over and grabbed the keys to the car. I sat in the car with the heat on full blast and wasn’t looking forward to grabbing the rest of my gear.

I saw people were leaving and figured that every one was off the bike course and it was time to get my stuff. I threw everything into a trash bag and rolled my bike over to the car. I almost went back to see where I finished in my age group, but the wind and rain picked up and I wanted to get something warm to drink.

I stopped at a gas station where there were a few other triathletes doing the same thing as me, getting a nice, hot beverage! Later that night, I found out I placed third in my age group (out of four), now I wish I had gone back and got my age group medal…

I have another race in August at this same venue, here’s to hoping the weather is nicer and I’m able to set a PR!