Finished my first tri!

That is great. For Tris 90% of us are just racing ourselves. So you
challenged yourself and accomplished your task. Great job! Be proud of
yourself.

Chris

"mainewriter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

mainewriter said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Way to go, Anna!

Glad you had fun and met your personal goals.

Mike Tennent
"IronPenguin"

Congrats on the finish!

Hills are never easy, but if you're finding them too tough try shifting
the gears way down. A common mistake beginners make is trying to pedal
up hills at 50-60 rpm, which just kills your legs in no time at all. I
usually pedal about 80-90 rpm normally, but crank the gears way down so
I'm pedaling 95 rpm or so up hills. It makes a huge difference. It
takes the work off your legs and put them onto your lungs, which are
better able to endure the distance.

As a point of interest, it's also better to increase your cadence when
running up hills, too - again, it's more tiring then running level, but
increasing your foot speed and shortening your strides will make you
run quicker and tire your legs out less. Inside Triathlon had a really
good article on this a few months ago.

Hope this helps!

mainewriter said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

metallifried said:

Congrats on the finish!

Hills are never easy, but if you're finding them too tough try shifting
the gears way down. A common mistake beginners make is trying to pedal
up hills at 50-60 rpm, which just kills your legs in no time at all. I
usually pedal about 80-90 rpm normally, but crank the gears way down so
I'm pedaling 95 rpm or so up hills. It makes a huge difference. It
takes the work off your legs and put them onto your lungs, which are
better able to endure the distance.

As a point of interest, it's also better to increase your cadence when
running up hills, too - again, it's more tiring then running level, but
increasing your foot speed and shortening your strides will make you
run quicker and tire your legs out less. Inside Triathlon had a really
good article on this a few months ago.

Hope this helps!

Somebody explained it to me once by comparing to lifting weights. E.g.
if you had to leg press a total of 10,000kg, the most efficient way of
doing this would be to find the most weight that you could press
quickly and comfortably. Put too much weight on and you would be
struggling with every lift and would fail or exhaust yourself (too high
a gear), too little weight and you wouldn't be using your fitness
effectively.

Quoted message said:

mainewriter said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

The first one is always the hardest and most intimidating. It does get a
LOT easier from here on out. You know what to expect and it really isn't
that much of a surprise anymore. I just finished my first Ironman and
believe me when I say that ANYONE can do it.
Great job!!
Mark
"mainewriter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

Thanks for the info... I'm not really a masher when I ride hills. I
like to downshift 🙂 But these hills are tough around here (you know,
the kind where there are two lanes for the cars..."slower traffic keep
right" type of thing). I just need more practice.

Oh, I sometimes yearn (whine) for those nice flat roads of my youth in
Maryland. I love the views here in Maine though...can't have
everything, I guess... 🙂

Thanks,
Anna Marie

Thanks, Mark (and everyone). And congrats on YOUR accomplishment! I
can't even imagine doing an Ironman ("anyone"...? hmmmm)

I'm glad to hear it gets easier... I might do another one (sprint)...
not sure if it will be this fall or next year. I know I need to train
more and differently, but not quite sure how. I've got a couple of
books...time to hit them again. Any suggestions anyone?

Thanks,
Anna Marie

Welcome to the ranks of "triathletes"....

Well done for your first race; be curious as to how you feel another
day later---still thinking "not" as to whether or not to do another
tri? Be careful, they can be very addicting!

Mike C

mainewriter said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

you absolutely SHOULD do another one -- it'll give you a great point of
comparison. Also, you'll find that (in general) your times all-around
will go down, at least for the first little bit, just because of
experience etc. it helps especially that you've got a few goals, like a
ten minute mile in the run...

i know i got hooked the same way you did -- congrats!

d

mainewriter said:

Thanks, Mark (and everyone). And congrats on YOUR accomplishment! I
can't even imagine doing an Ironman ("anyone"...? hmmmm)

Quoted message said:

I'm glad to hear it gets easier... I might do another one (sprint)...
not sure if it will be this fall or next year. I know I need to train
more and differently, but not quite sure how. I've got a couple of
books...time to hit them again. Any suggestions anyone?

Quoted message said:

Thanks,
Anna Marie

"Mike C" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Welcome to the ranks of "triathletes"....

Well done for your first race; be curious as to how you feel another
day later---still thinking "not" as to whether or not to do another
tri? Be careful, they can be very addicting!

You can say that again. About halfway on the bike where I started to really
suffer I was saying I will never do another Ironman, a day later I was
kicking myself for not signing up. Now I am trying to figure out which ones
to do for next year. 🙂

Mark

Quoted message said:

Mike C

mainewriter said:

I was the one who wrote earlier about pre-race jitters.

Just wanted to say that I finished my race yesterday! I did it in 2:15
and finished 3rd to last. I ended up with 29:30 min for the 1/2mi swim,
1:07:30 for the 15.5 mi bike ride (which included 5 minutes in T1 and 3
min in T2), and 38:45 min for the 3.1 mi run. I was warned that the run
was hard and it was for me.

The course is beautiful and so was the weather. The air was cool at the
start so the water temp felt perfect. The sun came out during the bike
ride but the temp still stayed pretty comfortable. By the run, it was
hotter, but the run included a 1.5mi cross-country trail which was
shady and quiet. It was the uphill near the end that nearly got me. As
you can see, I'm not a fast runner, but I can usually run 10min miles.
Oh, well.

I'm a little sore today but otherwise ok. I'm not sure I'll do it
again, but I'm grateful that I trained for this race and that I pushed
myself to finish. I think I'll definitely keep swimming and running.
Not sure about biking... just because it's so darned hard to bike the
hills around here. Do those ever get easier?

Thanks for your encouraging words! I did think about your messages
during the last 10 minutes of the race when I wasn't sure I could make
it to the end.

Anna Marie

P.S. I did thank all the volunteers I met. That was fun 🙂

Anna Marie,

I don't think you mentioned - how did your race plan work out for you,
and did you feel confident once the race started that you knew what you
were doing?

Tam

A couple days before the race, I wrote out what I needed to bring to T1
and T2 (which were two different places). The night before the race, I
packed two different bags for each one. That helped settle my mind a
bit. The race maps given to me weren't the greatest, but I thought I
knew where to go (I had seen the pond, driven the bike course and saw
the start of the run course the day before).

I felt like I knew what I needed to do, but was not always sure about
the run, since I didn't walk it. The race officials said that there
would be folks to point out the way, so I wasn't too worried about it.
But during the run, I did end up going the wrong way for a little
bit...until a volunteer noticed and helped me out. The roads were
pretty well marked (except in the place I got tripped up).

You know, the weirdest moment was the very beginning when I felt like
my mind left me entirely after they said "go". I was just sort of
following all the other yellow swim caps... then it finally dawned on
me I should be swimming toward the buoy and not the caps...weird.

Don't know if that answers your question...?

Anna Marie

P.S. I felt pretty good today and went for a run...did some intervals
to work on speed. And I've looked into a tri in Maryland for the
fall...thinking of visiting my Mom and maybe doing another sprint...uh,
oh, what am I thinking? grin...