Last Saturday I got up extra bright and early to drive out of Seattle to Lake Sammamish and undertake my first triathlon. Things were pretty quiet on the freeway, but there were plenty of cars at the State Park where the event was. The transition area had opened at 5:30 am, and an hour later it was pretty jam packed. I found a place on a rack to hang my bike and set out my gear on a towel.

At 6:45 they held a meeting to go over a few points about the race with everyone, then the first wave started wading into the water. The sun was just barely up, and the lake was steaming gently in the golden morning light. The beach was cold and gravelly; when I stepped into the water it was warmer than the air and the rocks on the bottom were softened by wave action and algae. I took a place at the edge of my wave, and waited for the start.

The first rush of racing adrenalin pushed me forward and I headed towards the first orange buoy. I remembered to stick my head up and sight every so often, and did a few breaststrokes here and there to keep my bearings and my breath. I had the sense that I was in the middle of the pack. With only a quarter mile to go, the swim was over quickly and then I was gasping and jogging up the beach to the transition area. I heard someone say “seven minutes” so I assumed that was approximately my time, and a minute faster than my goal.

In the first transition I was miserably slow. I wore my bike shorts and sports bra for the swim, with a rash guard over the top. Before I got on the bike I had to take off the rash guard and put on my bike jersery, which was no problem. The problem was that I had thought a pair of spandex capris would be a good thing over the short bike shorts. It’s real tough to put on spandex pants when you’re wet, sitting on the ground, and hopped up on adrenalin. Next time, something baggier for sure!

When I finally got myself together, I jogged my bike out and along the path until there was a sign that said ‘MOUNT BIKE.’ I did so, and set off for the 14.5 mile cycle portion of the triathlon. This was definitely the highlight of the race for me, since I kept a running tally and passed 56 people. The course was out and back along the lake, mostly very flat, with one small hill. I played leapfrog with another woman for a bit, then passed her on the hill and never saw her again. I passed 9 people on the short climb. That’s my reward for crossing the Pyrenees this spring! By the turnaround, one man had irrevocably passed me, and I was playing tag with two other guys. In retrospect, I probably could have pushed harder on the cycle portion, since I was able to be chipper and exchange words with them! As we came back to the transition area, I pulled ahead of one of them, and chased the other into the dismount area.

I changed my shoes relatively quickly and set off for the run jog portion, a 3.2mi/5k course through the park. It was quite flat, and a pleasant route through grassy fields. I’ve never found running particularly enjoyable, but in the last two years I’ve slogged on until I can run 5 miles in a go. I am by no means a fast runner, so I was surprised that only 18 people passed me on the run. I assumed that many of the people I had blown by on the bike would now take their revenge, but I suppose by then the participants were pretty well spread out over the course.

Finally I came around back to the transition area and made a short sprint to the finish line. My final time was 1:36 which was pretty good considering I had been hoping to finish in under two hours!

Here’s the breakdown of my time, which earned me 191st place overall, and 10th in my age group.

• 7:53.8 – swim  (119/302 overall, 8/19 F30-34)
• 3:25.0 – first transition
• 49:59.4 – bike (150/302 overall, 7/19 F30-34)
• 1:26.9 – second transiton
• 33:38.7 – run (230/302 overall, 12/19 F30-34)

For next time, I’ll work speeding up that first transition, I’ll know I can push harder on the bike, and, of course, I’ll keep running. My taller half is talking about learning to swim more competently so he can tri with me next time; in the mean time I think he just signed us up for the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Marathon. Now I definitely can’t put away those sneakers!