I Tri-ed

Sunday was the big day.  My alarm went of at 3:45AM, yes AM.  John got up and made me coffee while I blended up my protein smoothie.  He saw me off.  I swung around the corner and picked up a good friend who volunteered to get up at an ungodly hour to go with me.  She was going to do the race but found out she was pregnant a few weeks before.  So she came to be my cheerleader and volunteer.  We got to the ski ranch about 5:30 parked and walked around checking out the swim and facilities.  When transition opened we set up my bike and gear.  I got 402 marked on both arms, both legs, and the number 37 on the back of my right leg.  The 37 is my age at the end of the year.  All women had their age listed on their leg.  During the race it was exhilarating to pass a 20 something and humbling to get passed by a 50 something.
At 8am the first wave was in the water, 8:04 the green caps went, at 8:08 the red caps started swimming with me in their midst.  It was a fairly easy swim other than the fact the water smelled sulphurous.  No visibility in the water.  I apologized to the few people I swam over and then gave up being polite as I got swam over too.  I ranked 75th in the swim with a time of 7:11.  (out of 422 participants) As I exited the water I pulled off my cap and goggles and jogged over to the transition area trying not to trip on the mats.  I sat down rinsed my feet, pulled on my socks and running shoes.  I stood up put my sunglasses on, slammed my helmet on my head and buckled it, choking from the strap I yanked the back of it over my braid and could breathe again.  I pulled on my jersey but my back was wet and it rolled.  I wrestled with it and finally got it on.  I unracked my back and jogged to the mount area on the frontage road of I-35.  Transition took me 3:21.  The bike started with a brief flat and then hit a hill to get up to the overpass.  After that it was rolling hills and mostly flat through a farming area.  The course was open road so Comal County sheriff were at each corner holding traffic for us.  I think my time could have been better if I had the whole lane to pass on the downhill.  But I had to hold back a few times because there wasn't room on the smooth lane and I really didn't want a flat riding on the rough lane.  The bike was shortened the morning of because of rain the previous night causing a low water crossing to have too much water on it.  So the bike went from 11.1 miles to about 10.6.  I ranked 271 on the bike with a time of 43:54.  I dismounted and entered tranisition, racked my bike, tore off my helmet, swigged some gaterade, and realized my bib number had flown off during the bike.  Transition this time only took me 1:17.  Due to a recent calf strain I was worried about the run.  I jogged out of transition and through the skate park and then slowed to a very brisk walk.  I alternated jogging and walking.  My friend was at the final water station and she cheered me into the last mile.  The last 1/3 of the race was back inside the venue so I jogged the whole time crossing the finish line with a time of 1:20:05 (24:19 for the 2 mile run) My run rank was 341 (yikes).
Overall I was pleased.  My goal was to finish (preferably not in last) and I accomplished that.  My overall rank was 262, looks like about 59 out of 90 for my age group.  Lots of room for improvement in the future :)
 I haven't signed up for my next race yet but plan on doing a 5k run while in Colorado this summer.