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27 Mar My 15th Triathlon

Posted at 08:43h in Fitness by Caroline 0 Comments

My 15th Triathlon

It had been two years since my last race, but I recently competed in another triathlon, my 15th! My dad also raced in the triathlon and Colby competed in his 2nd duathlon which is a run-bike-run. And my mom came to cheer us on!

Winter decided to linger much longer than welcome, and the temperature at the start of the race was 31 with a wind chill around 28 degrees. I can say I have never had a race in this cold of weather and I hope I never do again! In a way, I was dreading it as I couldn’t wrap my brain around how I was going to navigate being in a wet bathing suit in freezing cold temperatures.

You would think I would be nervous to race since I hadn’t swam in a pool since my last race 2 years ago and had only biked a few times and walked/run a few times, but it was the cold that had me the most nervous.

So… I came up with a plan. I ended up changing in the bathroom after the swim. I changed out of my bathing suit into a trisuit so thankfully when I ran outside I wasn’t soaking wet! I then added lots of layers once I got to the transition area, which is why my transition was sooooo slow. I was dressed for winter, with gloves, neck scarf, winter socks, pants, a hoodie and a jacket.. there was no way I was going to be cold on that bike.

Thankfully the sun was out and there was little wind, which made a big difference. Unfortunately my hands and toes were still sooo cold, but overall I managed the weather okay.

I took all the time on my bike. I was in no rush at all and never even got out of breath.. my time showed for it, but I was okay with that.

I walked probably 85-90% of the 5K. I was talking to the policeman and volunteers, cheering on the other people who were passing me, thanking the people who were there to help and more. It was so nice to just take my time and enjoy the race.

Of course, my time was a reflection of that. I was 27 minutes slower than the first time I did this race. If you are familiar with triathlons you know that 27 minutes is FOREVER!!!

My swim was 6 minutes, my bike was 36 minutes and my run was 40 minutes and then my two transitions were 8 minutes for a final race time of 1 hour 30 minutes.