I did it!!!

Well, it's done! My very first outdoor triathlon under my belt and it feels AWESOME! I am officially a triathlete. Oh by the way, I didn't even wear the wet suit. The water was too warm!!! So that means I'll have to keep doing them to get my use out of it. ;)

I finished in 1:34 minutes, a time I am very happy with. Just as a recap, it was a 400M swim, 16K bike, 5K run.

My goal was to finish, not get injured and not be last. My stretch goal was to finish in about 1 1/2 hours. I met all goals! And a bonus, I was *not* last in my age group! Yay!!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. I was a little nervous last night and didn't sleep really very sound, but when I got up and got ready (at 4:45 am!!!) I was feeling good.

The swim wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but it was a beach start, so you could walk some of it in and out. But I finished the swim in under 12 minutes, which I was pretty happy about.

I felt the best on the bike. It was a little windy, but i think that was my best leg of the race.

I was slow on the run. It took me about 38 minutes (4 minutes slower than I generally run if I run only a 5k). But I ran the whole thing, which I was *very* happy about.

I feel great. After my indoor tri in the winter, I was kinda down on myself, but I don't even care anymore what "place" I get. I just want to meet my goals I set for myself, be healthy and have fun. I am looking forward to Kensington, though it is a much hard triathlon than this one. It's a 800m swim, 20k very hilly bike and 5k very hilly run. But I have 7 weeks to continue preparation. This week, I am going to take it a little easy, and then next week it's out to the park and work my ass off!

One more thing. My husband is incredible. He got up at 4:45 and drove me to Lansing just to encourage me and take these awesome pictures. Here they are:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69742387@N00/sets/72157600953718025/