Jessica, I just saw that you bumped the thread. Sorry. With all the BL stuff, I don't subscribe to the Exercise forum in general. I'll catch up tonight.

to everyone.

Anne

Knee is great! I haven't had any issues for a while. It still feels a bit "off" but moving in the right direction.

I traded out the June race for a shorter one, a sprint plus sort of distance, on my 40th birthday. Should be fun, and I should be adequately trained, which is probably the important thing.

Your Questions:

Yes, bring your own towel. Or two. Look up how to do a transition area on the web, and practice laying it out and going through your stuff a couple times. Most time you can take off your race without really training!

Yes, you really need to learn how to fix a flat. Go to your local bike shop and ask them to help you. Buy some tubes and such and they'll do it. Not especially likely that you'll get one in the race, but you will get one sooner or later and you'll need to be able to take care of yourself. And if you do get one in the race, your race is over if you can't fix it, training or no.

There is usually water or sports drink in the transition areas. Feel free to email the race director if it isn't on the web site. (PM me the web site and I'll see if I can't find something...)

There will almost certainly be bathrooms or port o potties around. Otherwise, it'd just be messy.

Wear the sports bra under your swim suit.

What else...

Your bike helmet is probably ok, but if it is more than a couple years old you should think about replacing it anyway, since foam does break down and get less safe over time.


Anne

SGeranium Woo hoo! Your first tri! Excellent.

Sarah/Warmaiden Love the username! Do you have a training plan picked out yet?

Athenawithheart Hello again!

OK, I'll try to stay caught up now.

Oh, me. My swim got hosed today because DS (10 months old) was sick. Going mountain biking tomorrow, running Thursday. Friday's road ride was also hosed (this is a technical term) since I have to make up some work since I was out Monday for DS. Running either Saturday or Sunday and will try to swim for 20 min while DD has her swim lesson at the Y.

Training was so much simpler before I had kids.

Anne

I wanted to add some of the smaller races may only have water, and they may only have it at the halfway point of the run. And some really small races might not have anything. Better to be prepared by bringing your own -- just in case!

Geranium, I'm not wearing a wet suit -- the swim for my race is in a pool and it's not allowed. I hope your blister gets better!

Anne, glad your knee is feeling better! A tri sounds like a great way to celebrate your 40th birthday! Thanks for the info. I tried to bike to the local bike shop last weekend, but I couldn't find it! It moved from its old location (which was right next to the bike path). Then I rode around with the address in my hand but still couldn't find it. :sigh: Maybe next week I can make it over there in the afternoon.

I think today I crossed the line from being scared about the tri to being excited. My mom sent me an email last night that she found cheap tickets and decided to come out here to cheer me on! (She lives in L.A., I'm in Indianapolis.) It's both good and bad -- good because I'm glad I'll have support, but bad because I wasn't planning on entertaining my mom for the weekend (two weekends in a row of family -- my sister's flying out this weekend). Oh well, I'm sure it will work out okay.

Jessica, you are almost there! Yay. We are heading off to Boston in a couple days, DH is running the marathon, so I wanted to make sure I popped in and said good luck. I know you are going to do well and have fun!

Anne

Jessica,

Have fun with the race, have fun with your mom. You rock !!

Christine

Thanks guys! I'll be back with a race report next week!

I did it!!! And I met both my goals: not being last, and finishing in under 2 hours. It was drizzling, but not raining enough to be too dangerous and it was actually really comfortable for the run (I had long pants and a long sleeved shirt).

My total time was 1:49:05, here's the breakdown:
swim: 15:07
T1: 5:29
bike: 45:42
T2: 1:28
run: 41:18

Overall that placed me 565/573.

It turned out that the swim was the hardest part. They divided us up into waves and had one person enter the pool every 5 seconds. We were ordered based on our estimated swim time, but somehow it dissolved into a mass of people in the pool all trying to swim over each other's heads. Luckily I got to get in the pool for a warmup before the actual swim, because the pool I trained in is 3-5 ft deep, and the one the tri was in is 14 feet deep at the deep end. I didn't expect that to freak me out as much as it did.

In any case I started out swimming freestyle like I'd planned but ended up reverting to breaststroke after about 1 1/2 lengths of the pool. When I tried to do freestyle, there were so many people splashing around that when I tried to take a breath I got water splashed into my mouth. Since I was near the back of the pack after the first couple lengths there was enough room for breaststroke and it was easier to breathe. I saw a couple people doing backstroke, and my mom said she saw one guy doing backstroke with a mirror mounted to his goggles so he could see where he was going!

In any case I had planned on about 15 minutes for the swim, so even though it seemed like forever, when I looked at my watch after getting out of the pool I felt better because I was right on time. I must have swam faster than I thought because I ended up resting on the ends of the pool between lengths, which I hadn't planned on, but still ended up at 15 minutes.

The T1 transition wasn't bad. Everyone ended up keeping all their stuff in plastic bags instead of laying it out so that it wouldn't get soaked from the rain, so that made it a little harder to get things out in the right order. I had a moment of panic when I accidentally ran to the wrong row of bikes and couldn't find mine, but then I remembered where it was. It was kind of hectic because the elite people, who had gotten in the pool half an hour before me, were already coming back from their runs, and other people were coming back from the biking, while those of us who were last out of the pool were still trying to find our bikes and get dressed. I felt better when I overheard a couple at the next bike rack over who had also just gotten out of the pool.

The bike course was a little hilly but I was surprised at how easy it felt. I was also surprised at how fast I went -- I finished about 10 minutes faster than I expected. Partially I bet that's because when I was out on training rides I had to stop at stop signs and lights for cars to go by, but they had stopped traffic for us for the race. I managed to pass a few people on the bike so I felt better about my slow swim time. I had one minor issue when I hit a bump going around a turn and suddenly heard this really loud noise coming from my bike. Luckily one of the volunteers saw it and told me that it was my saddlebag hitting the wheel. So I did have to stop for a second to tighten the strap on the bag, but that was my only stop along the route. The fuel belt I'd bought was actually handy -- I was able to drink some gatorade and eat half a clif bar keeping one hand on the handlebars the whole time.

The T2 transition was pretty easy since I all I had to do was drop off my bike and take off my helmet. I was annoyed when I got to the rack though because while the space for my bike was still there, someone had left their duffel bag sitting in the middle of it. So sorry anonymous person, I kicked your bag out of the way!

I jogged out of the transition area only to find that the beginning of the run was up a really steep hill. My legs felt like lead weights and refused to run up the hill, so I walked up to the top, then started jogging. It took a little over a mile before my legs felt normal again. I could have run faster after that point probably but I decided just to keep the pace I was going. I did pick up the pace once I could see the finish line though!

My mom said I didn't look too tired at the end compared to some of the other people she saw coming through (she said a couple people looked like they were about to have a heart attack!). I definitely could have pushed harder. Next time I will!

The website that has our results from the race lets you sort by anything you want, so I can find out all sorts of interesting stuff. I ended up having only 8 people after me overall, but in each individual area there were more people than that behind me, they just made up for it somewhere else. I am still amazed that the fastest person finished the whole course in 47:10. Wow!

congrats, congrats, congrats!

Did you sign up for another race yet?

I did a 37 mile bike ride on Saturday - one of my longest rides EVER. I was just riding along, and thought I'd shoot to ride 2 hrs. 30 minutes, but I was not getting tired. And then once I got out, I had to ride back. But now my knee is a little tired, so have to rest a bit.

Yea, Jessica!!! I had to come read the whole report. WTG!!!

Thanks guys!

Athena - I haven't signed up for another yet, but there's a series of them this summer. I'm thinking I might sign up for the one in July or the one in August. They're an open-water swim so it would be a little different. Great job on your long bike ride!

Well done. I'm sure it feels great to be done.

Geranium, thanks!

Okay guys, I'm ready to sign up for another sprint tri but I can't decide which one. There are three in one of the local parks, one in June, one July, and one August. That series has a 500m swim in the reservoir, then a 10 mile bike and 3 mile run through the park, which can be hilly. There's also one downtown in August, which has a 500m swim in the canal, a 12.5 mile bike, and a 5k run, and is basically totally flat.

I think the one downtown would be fun, but even though their website says it's safe to swim in the canal, that canal is pretty sketchy. I think I only want to sign up for one more for this year. Which should I do?