Dash for Diva Triathlon

One week after the C'ville 4 miler, I became a triathlete My friend Mary Charles talked me into signing up for the Dash for Divas Sprint Triathlon at White Lake. This was an all woman event that was composed of a 250 meter swim, 7 mile bike ride and 2 mile run. It is a nice small one to get your feet wet in the world of triathlons. Training for this thing, I learned that swimming was not my thing. I tried and tried, but I think I was a little afraid of the water. 250 meters = 0.15 miles, so I figured I could fake the swim, which is what I did. We went to a clinic and they said to do whatever you had to to finish the swim, this had been my strategy all along.

We arrived the night before to check everything out. I did learn that a triathlon is a lot of prep work. You have to pack stuff for all three events. The big secret is to be organized.

The morning of the race was gorgeous and lucky for us the water was not too cold. Lucky for me I was able to walk to the first buoy. I swam the best I could to the second one. Took a break and went from 2 to 3. Right before buouy 3, I could touch the bottom and walked in. Everything felt like slow motion. I thought for sure the swim took about 20 minutes, but I did it in 8:27. Unfortunately I was last in my group and this kind of played on me mentally.

Bike ride was not too bad. I think I would do better with a road bike, but my mountain bike did just fine. We saw bikes of all shapes and sizes out there for the race. The run was not too bad either. I had a few difficulties in the transition area which cost me some time, but overallmy time was not too bad. My goal was 1:00-1:15. I did it in 1:13. I learned a lot and I know I can do better. My first thought was I will never do this again, but now I am thinking I want to do it again, because I know I can do better.

Thanks MC for talking me into this. It feels good to be a triathlete.