Breaking my duck in a goose toilet!

It was so nice this morning to get up from my own bed and travel about 10 miles to the site of the first NJ State Triathlon. I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn either, which was great too!

Yesterday it rained all day and today dawned cool and overcast, perfect triathlon weather! I joined over 1400 other athletes milling about at Mercer County Park and got all my gear together. I had an opportunity to swim in the lake beforehand. I had breakfast and coffee, used the facilities and generally hung out for a couple of hours with other crazy people about to throw themselves into a day of triathlon and personal testing...and it was a personal test for me. I was running this race against myself, my weak swimming and my DNF at Escape from Fort Delaware in June.

So, I was wave 14 out of 15 total waves...not a good place for a weak swimmer to be, but what the hey, they put me in the wave, I would deal with it.

The swim was an in water start. The water temperature was 82 degrees. The course was an out and back. I took off and didn’t really get comfortable until the turn around point. I didn’t get fully comfortable to try T.I. at any stage either. The lake was warm, calm and murky! But, I got comfortable and did breast stroke and finished the swim in an incredibly long time of 58 minutes! Oh my.

But, my bike was not the last in the transition area. I was not the last biker on the course. The bike course was two laps and I was quickly lapped by folks finishing their second lap. That was fine by me as I had company. I rocked the first lap in around 43 minutes and I think, did negative splits on the second lap. A cyclist who had made an error on the first lap - she thought she had only to do one lap, struggled to ctach up with me and made mention of the fact that I was “cooking” even though I was not on a "go faster bike." I did not have the worst bike time. I was not the last bike to finish. I even managed to take a few people.

For the run course, I had a minor ace up my sleeve because I knew the course and could pace myself pretty well. Coming off the bike, I knew I would easily come in under my hoped for four hours and that set me off on the 10K run in a positive frame of mind. It was getting hot at this stage but I made a steady pace, stopping once in the woods for a bathroom break but otherwise maintaining, I think, around an 11 minute mile pace, slow for me but fine for my aching knees. I was not the last on the run course and managed to take a few people here too!

So I finished the race in 3 hours 37 minutes, according to my timepiece. My goal was in under four and I rocked that goal. If I do say so myself!

I will see what the official timing was, I will also post and splits and T times and some photograps when I get them.

The best things - Lisa and Harry and their dog cheering me on at every point in the race. Meeting BH (beoved husband) who had come to cheer me on half way through my run. The way the race organizers had “3 miles to go,” “2 miles to go,” down to “1/2 a mile to go,” signs on the second half of the route.

The worst thing - being in the second to last wave really made me feel slow even though I was only moderately slow. Having a sprint tri going on at the same time meant some people were finished by the time I got out of the water - make the sprinters go after the Olympicers!

Now, rest glorious rest!

Thanks to everyone who sent me mental cheers today!