I just finished the Lake Sammamish Sprint Triathon (my first tri).  I think I heard 1:33 over the speaker as I crossed the finish line.   Most importantly, I met my personal goal which was to finish without stopping, resting or walking any of it.

Shout-outs

To@algard for accepting the challenge on the spot a few weeks ago to do a triathlon

To @mmaunder and Kerry for pointing out that it would be a really fun thing to do

To Natalie and Susie for standing in the rain and cheering us on!

What went well

Training.  The most important thing was having a swim coach and learning proper freestyle technique.  A very close second was getting out in the open water on Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington a few times to practice.  Swimming in the open water is a completely different experience from swimming in a pool.

The race itself was pretty straightforward.  Crowding in the water with lot of other people kicking and arms flailing was not as difficult as I thought it would be.

What didn’t go well

My bike.  I’m not making any excuses here, but this is the same bike that I tried to sell unsuccessfully on Craigslist 3 times last year for as low as $50 with no takers.   During the race, as I hopped on my bike to ride, one of the race officials shouted “old school bike, yeah!”.  Enough said

Blisters.  I decided not to wear socks as a way to save time on the advice of a friend.  Ordinarily this is good advice but since it was raining the whole time I ended up running with wet feet.

Near-crashes.  Because of the rain, the roads were slippery.  One time, two bikes skidded out ahead of me and I very nearly got caught up in the resulting crash.

Overall

This was a great experience and I can see why everyone talks about getting sucked into triathlons like an addiction.

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