Today was my first experience being in a triathlon. I have been on support teams in the past for my stepfather's races, but never been on the competitor side of the event. I may have caught a bug - it was AWESOME.
A couple months ago Dustin and I began training for the 25th Annual Japanese and American Goodwill MCAS Iwakuni Modified Triathlon. Say that three times fast, it's a doozy. It consists of a 1k swim (in open water), 4k run, 28k bike, and another 4k run. After a few weeks a friend asked if I would be the bicycle portion of a three-person team. What? Still get to participate, but don't have to swim in the Seto Inland Sea? Alright! So I decided to take a baby step into the world of multi-event races.
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| Ready! Biker, Runner, and Swimmer |
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| Scared faces, Swimmer is totally confident! |
The event was held on base and started/stopped at our gym. We visited the registration tent and picked up our packet. Inside were tons of goodies - GNC water bottles, participant T-shirts, meal tickets, and coupons to off base outfitters. Our team name is Pigs Might Fly, but somewhere there was a typo.
The swimmer and runner were transported to the start. During that time Dustin and I waited in the transition area for the switch off.
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| Prepped and Ready! |
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| Getting nervous while waiting! |
Then it happened! Our runner came around the bend, gave me the high five and I took off to the transition area to change shoes and jump on my bike! Only 17.4 miles to go!
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| Lap 1 of 3 |
Three laps around the course and I made the switch off to our runner for the last leg of our relay. I'm not super fast, but my glorifying moments were blazing past other competitors on the course. Beep beep! I;m flying! Get out of the way!
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| Rocking my helmet hair! |
Our official final time was 2 hours 15 minutes... which gives me a benchmark to beat next year by myself!
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