3rd tri completed

I completed my third triathlon this month today.  I am not planning another one until August, so I'm going through a bit of withdrawl. First was a 200m swim in an outside (heated) Olympic sized pool.  I've only swam in an Olympic pool once before and remembered that each lap seemed endless and it did again today.  Luckily it was only 4 length and over before I knew it.  I was out in just under 5 minutes, 2nd in my heat. Got to the transition - I need to speed that up.  It wasn't timed, but I think I took between 2:30 and 3 minutes.  The bike course was 9.8 miles (4 laps around the park, each one 1.7 miles).  The first half of each lap was mostly downhill and the 2nd half was mostly uphill.  It didn't even look like much of a hill, but it kicked my butt every time.  A few women went past me, but I also passed quite a few.  It was kind of hard to tell who you were actually competing with - there were 8 women out there from the first heat, then the women from my heat and by the end, possibly women from the next heat. Coming into the transition to run was great.  They just let you stop at the edge of the road and they took your bike and helmet for you.  Very nice - basically no transition time. I almost feel over the first couple of steps of the run.  Took a second to get my legs back.  The run was 2 miles - 2 one-mile laps around the park.  The running was on grass, which I'm not really used to, but it was ok.  There was one pretty big hill up and then back down.  I took a bit of a walk break on the way up each time.   When I got off the bike, I looked at my watch and it said 36 minutes, not sure how many seconds.  I figured if I could run fast enough, I had a little less than 24 minutes to make it in under an hour.  I generally run about that fast - about an 11 or 12 minute mile in a 5k.  Coming around the 2nd lap, I was thinking I wouldn't be able to make it - I was gasping for breath.  I took a quick walk break and looked at my watch.  I had about 1 minute left to the hour and I could see the finish line.  I picked up the pace and finished in 59:50.  Wow, what a great feeling!!!  I came in 10th in the women.  I'm not sure how many women there were - not too many - maybe 20??  I'll have to wait until the results are posted. Anyhow, these are really fun.  If you are thinking about doing one, but worried about the swim, the last two tris that I've done have made me realize that there is a VAST range in swimming abilities in these tris.  The swim isn't that long and you can make up the time in the bike or run if you are strong there.  For me, the run is the hardest, but I know for a lot of people, the swim is the intimidating one. Thanks for reading. 

Congrats! Nice that you even made it in under the time you hoped!  Nice job kicking it in gear at the finish! I'm still jealous of the short swims, but I'm determined to make it into the pool a minimum of twice a wee****il my next.  That should improve my swim immensely. Thanks for sharing! Linn

Wow 10th is awsome!!  This sounds like a really nice race.  You must be feeling on top of the world now.

Congrats man.  Awesome finish!

I "heart" your swim times. :)

Biking is my thing and I can wog with the best of them.  That swimming though... it kills me.  I'm determined to beat it though!

Congrats on the 3rd success!

Donna