Wanna Tri! Indoor sprint triathlon

By SC -
First triathlon race of the season. I saw the announcement on the university student rec website and the flyer at the pool. I checked the price and it's only 15 dollars for members. I was still a member at student rec when I signed up for the race. Well, who could say no to a 15-dollar triathlon race? (with a t-shirt, it's 5 dollars more).

I've been adding more swim and bike to the training since the injury but I am still a slow swimmer.

I received the instructions from the race director that I was in the 9am wave (female). The first wave was for male competitors starting at 8am. There were 3 waves today (8am (male), 9am(female), and 10am (mixed and relay). So, I arrived at ONAT around 8am. A bit after the first wave started. Below is the picture of the first wave swim.



They did not have a bib but assigned me a number. I'm #10. Longest last name (again). 


Body marking right after I checked in. 


The swim started right at 9am. There were so many good and fast swimmers in my wave and I got panicked (they were fast). I was the second to last person to get out of the water. Luckily, the bike was right in front of my swim lane. I changed quickly, hopped on the stationary bike, and started biking. I finished 2nd on the bike and immediately started running. I would say biking was the hardest part mentally because I usually don't race with music. So, it was 27 mins of staring blankly on the wall :( 

The run was nice because it was outside. I started passing the people in front of me and felt really good. Thank to ultra running and racing. Running uphill was nothing to me but other competitors slow down. I managed to finish 2nd in my wave on the run. Just one second after the 1st finisher. 


Surprisingly, I was the 4th overall female at this race! There were 2 fast female competitors in other waves. This is awesome compared to my race expectation (first indoor sprint = goal is not to die or drown). I guess the goal for me this summer is to improve swim time. 

Good thing about a short race is I still have the rest of the day to run errands, relax, and do some work before Monday morning. 

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