Lake Padden Triathlon Recap

I did it! I finished my 1st triathlon! I'm so happy of my accomplishment, just so happy. :)

The day started early because I wanted to get all my stuff situated and go watch the competitive race in the morning. So I woke up at 5:30am, took my sweet time to get all my gear together, eat breakfast and make my way to the lake.

Laying out all my stuff so I don't forget anything

Just getting to the lake. Competitive setting up transition

Watching the competitive division calmed my nerves a lot. Seeing how the race went before I had to do it helped. For the swim, they did waves of 50 people and really, that isn't a lot, I just imagined it was.

I was very impressed with the athletes that competed in the AM race - way to go! The winner of that race finished around 1:40ish minutes! Crazy fast! I hope to do the competitive division next year.

My race was at 1pm, so at noon I got my stuff, changed, set up transition and went for a warm up run. Just a 7 minute run to get my leggies warm. It helped a lot, but also made me realize I need to make a good warmup routine that I do before any race, so I have a plan...I didn't really have a plan today, I just knew I needed to warmup.

 Everyone gathering before the race

Padden Tri!

Ready to go!

Then it was time to start. I chose to be in the 2nd wave of swimmers. The swim was 400 meters and it went great. Didn't get kicked or pulled or anything! There was one point where I needed to do a couple strokes with my head out of the water just to get my breathing under control, but nothing major.

Coming out the water

T1 went smoothly. Not much to say here...My watch said 9:30 at this point, so that's swim and T1 combined - good time!

Coming out of T1

The bike leg was 10 miles and in training, I would do it in about 41 minutes. Well, subtract 3 minutes from that for today! I KILLED the bike. YES, a 38 minute bike leg! Felt so so SO good. I had minor problems when shifting from little ring to big ring, but finally got it to work - thank goodness! I even felt pretty good on the monster hill, that never happens!

Finishing up the bike

Came into T2 feeling good, feeling great actually. Threw on my running shoes and I was off in a heartbeat.

 Can barely see me, but I'm running out of T2

I knew going into the run that I was ahead of my 1:18 goal, so I wanted to see just how fast I could finish the run. I felt good the entire run and was able to pick the pace up quite a bit the last mile.

Coming to the finish line was AMAZING! So many people cheering! My friends and family yelling my name - what a great feeling! Thank you everyone who came out to support me, it means A LOT to me. :)

 Finishing strong!

My watch said 1:11 when I finished and results were posted shortly after that had me at 1:11:35. Radical! Those results, which I think are not confirmed, had me placed at 27th overall out of 350 people and if I read it right, I placed 3rd in my age group! Yahoo!

 I am strong! : )

Final results are to be posted tonight and I'm excited to see what my swim and run times were. Like I said above, I am so happy right now. I still can't believe I have completed my first tri! I have been waiting for this for a long time and am proud of myself for how I performed today.

 Had to celebrate with a Boundary Bay IPA!

I have 2 weeks until my next race which is slightly longer, so I'm just relaxing today and will be back at training tomorrow.

Just got final times:

Swim 400 meters: 7:22
T1: 1:32
Bike 10 miles: 37:29
T2: 1:28 (I need to run without socks)
Run 2.6 miles: 23:46
Total: 1:11:35

Finished 7th female overall, 4th in my age group and 29th overall.