Chelanman Sprint Triathlon

After months of training the day had finally arrived for our sprint triathlon in Chelan. The triathlon was at the end of our vacation with Dave's family and the beginning of our vacation with our friends. The triathlon was on July 18 and started at 8am. We got up early (after hardly sleeping much the night before) and made it to the start about 7. Andy and I were in the first wave of swimmers and Dave and Shane Stacy (friend) were starting 5 minutes after us. I was incredibly nervous about the swim, I am not a strong swimmer and when Dave and I started training for the swim he literally had to teach me how to freestyle swim and breathe the correct way.All of my training had been done in a pool and when we got to the lake it was incredibly windy and the water was very choppy. It looked like an ocean! Lucky for me our friend Shane, who was also competing, brought over his wetsuit (he was borrowing a friend's) and told me I could borrow it. That saved me, it kept me warm and also helped with buoyancy in the water. I am going to try and find one off of craigslist before we do our next triathlon.

Before the race started -  Andy, Me and Dave.

I think the picture makes us look so calm (I was anything but calm).

The hardest part of the course was the beginning because the waves kept pushing you back towards the shore, once I got around the yellow triangle and was able to head back to land it got much easier. Within the first 100 meters there were people all around me yelling for kayaks or jet ski's, at that point I started to feel pretty confident because I was feeling good and strong. The swimming part in a triathlon is made even more difficult because of all the people around you, legs are kicking, arms flailing and people hitting you all over the place. It was quite the experience.

Dave had a freak thing happen on his swim, a sailboat was anchored down in the middle of the lake with people on board to help the swimmers who were struggling. With all the waves and wind it came un-anchored and in the process almost took Dave out with it. He still finished 2.5 minutes faster than me though.

He said the bike was his favorite part of the entire course, he finished 1.5 minutes ahead of me on the bike.

Starting his least favorite part.....the run.

Finishing strong, he was easy to spot with his bandanna!

 I was thrilled when I finished the swim, I had felt good the entire swim and even though my time was not the greatest (22 minutes) I was just happy to be done.

 The bike was fun, my legs felt strong and I didn't feel tired at all. I completed it in 36 minutes but I really didn't push myself as hard as I could of. I was worried about burning myself out for the run and then trying to figure out the course, etc. The first half I kind of just coasted through and then I really pushed myself once we hit the turn around point.

 The run was the hardest part but also the part I did the best in. My legs felt like jello after the bike ride and I felt like I was going SO SLOW!! I didn't have my garmin on so I had no idea what my pace was, my goal was to run under 8 minute miles (it was only a 3.1 mile run). Once I started running my goal was to pass as many people as possible and let no one pass me. I was passing a lot of people but I still felt like I was moving  slow, I was so tired I didn't care. Turns out I wasn't running as slow as I thought, I did the run in just over 24 minutes which was a 7:48 mile pace (this was the 4th best running time for woman). My overall time was 1 hour and 26 minutes (17th overall and 8th in my age group). For my first triathlon I was pretty happy with how I did, I am a pretty competitive person and after completing the tri and thinking back on the race I know there are a couple areas I could have done better on but I also think a lot of it comes from experience. I will definitely be doing more of these!

 My brother-in-law Andy also did the triathlon. He is pretty much a stud!

 Finishing the run, I think his time was 1 hour and 21 minutes.

 After the tri- all smiles!

 With our good friend Shane Stacy (who also completed the tri- he beat all of us!).
We headed back to the house after the triathlon to shower and get all packed up. We went to pizza with Dave's family (which tasted good after not eating all day - I felt too nervous to eat) and then they all headed home and we spent the night at a campground with Shane, Courtney and baby girl Kendall. Court's mom was nice enough to let Jax and I sleep in their motor-home with them so Dave, Shane and Colt got the tent. The next day we were meeting up with all our friends for another 5 days in Chelan.