The aftermath...

As you know I had my triathlon yesterday morinig. I did really well. My goal was to do it in under 1 hour, but if I managed to get 1 hour and five minutes I was going to be ok with that. Well.....I did it 1 hour and 26 SECONDS!!! I was merely 27 seconds away from being under one hour!! Out of 255 people I finished 72nd. I past 3 people in the swim, 15-20 on the bike and 8-10 during the run. I was very nervous when I arrived at 6:15 am to set up my transition area. I jumped in the pool to get a few warm up laps in. The race started a few minutes late, I didn't start until almost an hour later. I was in the very back of the line. I wasn't nervous standing in line until the countdown was on for me to jump in and start my first triathlon. I jumped into the pool feet first (diving was not allowed) and of course...got water up my nose. Once I started my swim the nervousness was gone. I did my swim in 8 minutes and 49 seconds. I completed the bike ride (which was actully 9.3 miles) in 31minutes, and completed my run in 19 minutes. I felt like my run was slow, but after swimming and biking and climbing a HUGE hill the last 1/4 mile, I am satisfied with my effort. When I arrived at the hill as well as the entire time up the hill, I was the only one still running, all the other athletes were walking up it!! I was not going to let that hill defeat me!! Afterwards my beautiful family was waiting for me at the finish line as well as my trainers. They all captured lots of pics of me in my agony. Following the race, we went home, I took a shower and we went to church. I could tell I had done a triathlon but I was not exhausted after the race. Thanks to my trainers and my family for your guidance and support. I love you all.

I have decided I'm going to do another triathlon on Sep 21st. It's the one I had talked about in an earlier post. If you have any questions, post a comment...

Jeff