Animo tri At last my first tri

I still cant believe I did it even though it was just the sprint. I always watch the triathlon's on tv some mornings and it was a dream to one day participate in one myself and thanks to the blogging comunity here and people like Levy, Marga Jaymie and others, I got to TRI my first tri. I trained a while before but not the swimming leg. I always train every Monday a brick fo 1 hour bike and 10km run so I had confidence in those two legs but my fear was the swim..

I went swimming a few times before the race. Every time I was more frightened as I never managed to improve from the previous swim. I tried almost everything. I went on youtube and watched videos, went to our swimming pool tried it but to no avail. I tried all things except the one I should have a while ago and that is a swimming coach. Jaymie told me about this total emerge training and I even met the coach but it was to close to the race and believe me I will contact him for a few lessons before the next race. So let me tell all you guys and few girls how it went.

• Started with the swim. This was my biggest fear. I stood with Marga and Filipe at the side of the pool trying to not look nervous but I am sure they could see the fear in my eyes. I believe I even made a stupid joke or two in order not to think of the swim. Thanks Marga for laughing at them even though they were not funny. I watched the mini sprint take of and wow some of those guys could swim. I saw Jaymie swim and I thought, wow, I need her coach. She even looked like the guys on tv (just a little bit slower :) but the technique was brilliant. I saw the younger guys of the sprint distance go and that made me even more frightened. It was our turn. I jumped in the pool and waited. Levy walked me through teh complete process before so I knew we start in lane one and two (which was combined) then go from lane to lane until you reached the end and do it all over again. Then if that was not enough, we had to go back to lane 5 and do half of the pool again. Anyway here I was rigth at the back as I knew I would only cause others to slow down or even drown if I was in the middle or I could even drown. I almost died a few times but I forced myself not to stop even if it meant me doing breast strokes and back strokes most of the time. I was so tired when I finally made the end. I was not last, yepee, just third last!

• Off to the bike. I was so happy to be finnished so now I could catch up. I raced into the transition area, put on my helmet as I remembered Levy said it is important to do that first. I put on my Garmin watch and wanted to take a energy gel but did not know where to put it so I left it for the run. My shoes was clipped into the peddle and I trained two days before the mounting and dismounting of the bike section. It all went smoothly. I jumped on the bike and off I went. As I was going in the beginning I got confused on the route. I also saw the arrows but every time to late to know where to go and the marshalls tried there best to direct but I am still not sure if I went the correct way everytime. After downloading the route from my garmin and studying the route on Marga site, it does not correspond. Anyway I did the bike leg as I thought it should be done, after all I was not doing it to race but more for my first time experience. As I got back to the transition area, I followed another cyclist. He was quite fast on the route and I did most of the route with him. He started to undo his shoes so I knw we must be close so I undid my shoes as well just as I trained.

• Unto the running leg. The transition went smooth. I was in my running shoes in no time but had to put on socks. Maybe I should leave them in the next race and see how it goes. I grabbed my energy boost gel and my cap and off I went. I felt a little bit heavy but just the same as training and I knew it will only last for about 500m and so it did. I was soon into my rythm and felt more at ease as this was the part of the event I felt the most comfortable with and after all I trained for 10km after cycling and we only had to do 6.5km. The hill next to the golf course slowed me down quite a bit as I never thought it was so long. I overtook quite a few runners but was not sure if it was the same guys of my age group that started with me or the younger guys. I felt still good after the run and did the run in 29 minutes according to my garmin and the distance was spot on. I never had doubts as to the route of the run as it was better organised.

It was great to have so many support and thanks to all the guys that helped and supported us. I dont want to mention names as I might forget someone. To the guys that came all the way just to support, you know who you are, thank you so much, it made a wrold difference to me and made me feel part of the running group. You guys rock and the South African running comunity can only learn from the Philippino people. Sorry I left early but I have some other responsibilties back home.

I always forget my camera but will try and remember it next time. KEEP FIT, heads up and see you around and if I dont see you around, see you God willing at the next tri next month.