I had my first pro triathlon race a few weekends ago. It was down in northern North Carolina..my boyfriend and I drove down after work to get there Friday night because the race was Saturday morning. That race weekend was quite an adventure..
My boyfriend was awesome for packing the car and being ready to rock and roll when I got out of work Friday afternoon. It was quite the long drive down to North Carolina taking a few hours longer than expected because of traffic. We booked this pretty cheap hotel that was as close to the race as we could get.. I was scared to death going into that place. We were only there to sleep so I dealt with it and Matt made me feel a lot better about being there.. We woke up to get ready to go to the race, went to check in, and started to get our stuff out of the car. We were ready to go.. it looked like a fun course, double loop bike and run courses so we knew we were going to be able to see each other a lot. I always have my competitive edge and talk smack and say I'm going to beat my boyfriend. He always gives it right back to me and always tells me I'm never going to be him..
We were kinda rushing to get to the sw start, getting set up, doing our warm up, using the bathroom, getting our wetsuits on.. We made it down to the swim start right as they were playing the national anthem. It was a time trial start and I was in the first wave with this other pro girl. She so I was only trying to keep up with her in the swim. I didn't know how fast she swam. I was trying to tell myself that I could try to stay ahead as long as I could, but I'm not the strongest open water swimmer yet. As I heard the starter count down to the gun shot, we were off. I tried to break away from her and get ahead but she took off after the first 200 or so yards, I was impressed.. I kept her in my site but was pretty lonely out there for the swim.. I never really remember what goes through my head during the swim I guess I just try to keep telling myself to stay at a pace that works, trying not to take so much.. It's hard not to kick so much since I was so used to it in my sprint events throughout my swimming career.
T1 was good up until my bike shoes slipped as I was getting on Roxi. There was a pretty decent hill right out of transition. I was happy with my bike performance.. I didn't have race wheels since I don't own any and I couldn't borrow any from anyone in time.. I borrowed my boyfriends power meter training wheel so I was able to see what my power was for the race.. I guess it was good, 193 average.
The second transition is where I screwed up.. I was a little out of it going into transition. After I got all my stuff on and was headed out for my run, accidentally went out the wrong exit up the hill. That means I cut out about 15 seconds of transition maybe less.. I didn't hear anyone say anything because there were no Marshalls or any volunteers around. When I was running up the hill I thought I heard someone yell out my number. I guess I was right because there is a guy on the second with the run that I was running with and he mentioned that he tried to have me turn around at transition so I wouldn't get penalized. Oh well. I felt like an idiot and I knew it right after I started my run that I accidentally skipped transition. I went out the bike exit instead of the run exit. Now that was a first that I've never done before. I guess people do it often though. After the race one of the girls that I was racing against was talking to one of the officials or the meet director or someone, and they mentioned that that stuff happens all the time. Who knew.. I thought it was kind of funny. I was thinking about it during the whole run.. I tried not to focus on it because I'm sure it wasn't really a big deal I knew I probably was going to get a penalty. Which I did which was good. I felt better about the mistake that someone caught it or that it was just acknowledged after that girl talked about it. I know it's going to be something I'm never going to do again. The race was fun it was a great day, sunny, warm, just a beautiful Saturday down in North Carolina. I had fun. Its always nice to race with my boyfriend, we give each other that little competition. And then its nice afterwards just to hang out, meet new people, get awards, enjoy the day and enjoy each others company.
I was happy with my first race this season even though it wasn't a great clock time, I had a great time in general. There were way more ups than downs, so I called it a successful first race. Ready to keep having ups (:..
After that it was time to take our vacation..