First open water swim completed

Just before my swim

I took part in the Subaru Triathlon mid-July. I was to do the half Ironman distance but with my sore joints and issues with my knee I dropped down to the Sprint. Thank god I did!

Just out of T1

The open swim was terrifying! It was my first one I've done and I should have taken my friend's advice and counted to ten before I started into the water. Something is blocking me from being able to put my head underwater like normal to swim. I had to do this half frightened, half normal swim to make it through! One woman actually stopped to ask me if I was ok. I made it around to the last bend and was passing other swimmers that weren't as strong, not going that straight and swimming on their backs. Since I've done all pool triathlons before this, needless to say I was thrown off a little bit! When I made it out of the water and I start stripping the wetsuit off (it has a fantastic up and tear release instead of pulling the zipper back down to release) and had no desire to run, was pretty exhausted from the swim, not the swim itself but the nerves that overtook me. That's when I saw a number of my friends on the beach, one of which made a sign for me! WHAT?!?! First time someone's every made a sign for me at a race! Yah, I felt kind of awesome and at that point started to run for my bike!

Heading to the finish line!

I'm still pretty slow with T1 but felt pretty good when I got on my bike. It was the first time Spanish Banks hill didn't feel much like a hill! The bike route was nice, easy (ish) and well marked. When I got to the end of Camosun and at the turn around the point  couple of my friends where there cheering me on! The ride felt great, was one of my quickest 20kms I've done even with training. Coming down Spanish Banks I just let go. I knew there'd be no one on the road besides other bikes and it could have been the quickest I've come down that hill! My friends waiting for me at the transition point said I came back in before people who had left before me. My T2 was much quicker, although the joints were getting sore now!

And I'm done!

I didn't  think my run was that fast. The run is what I need to work on the most if I want to place top three in my age group, ok, top ten! Run ended up being one of my quicker 5km runs in general!

I did the race in 1 hour 44 minutes, about 8 minutes faster than my last sprint race! Woot! that's with a very slow swim.