Monday, September 6, 2010

She is the champion!

I did it! I completed my first triathlon! It was fun too. My friend, the Red Wasp, and I drove down to compete in the Umpqua Ultimate triathlon and duathlon. Red Wasp is not overly fond of swimming, so she opted for the bike/run course, and guess what? She won! She got first place, which I think is pretty awesome.

"Grrr!" say Red Wasp and Gazelle
For myself, I was happy with the overall experience. Please understand that this is a small-attended race, so there's not a lot of competition. I placed 5th in overall women's, and first in my age group. Yup, I got a medal that says "1st." Red Wasp got a plaque. So much cooler!

For those who aren't familiar with triathlons, I completed an Olympic-distance tri, which includes a one-mile swim, 40K (24 mile) bike ride, and 10K (6.2 mile) run. The swim was fine. I'm not a fast swimmer, but a confident one, so I wasn't scared of the water. The water temp was great, 72 degrees, but outside was a chilling 55 degrees, so when I ran out of the water to transition to my bike, I was cold. I wasn't thinking as clearly as usual and my extremities weren't functioning as well. It took me probably a full minute to get my long-sleeved shirt on because the sleeve was stuck and I was having a hard time knowing how to get it unstuck. I imagine it was pretty funny to watch.

The bike ride was beautiful, going through some lovely countryside. It wasn't very hilly either, which is great when you're trying to go quickly. The ride wasn't the full 40K though, only 22.5 miles or so. I transitioned quickly to my running and took off.

My feet were still numb at the beginning of the run, but I could feel them completely by mile 3. My running foundation is strong, and I'm able to gauge myself well, so I felt the run went well. There was a seemingly large hill to run on mile 4, so I held myself back a bit in anticipation for that, but it wasn't as taxing as I thought it'd be. Flying down the hill was fun, and I had a nice, strong finish. I did complete the tri in under 3 hours, but I think it was only because the bike ride wasn't the full 40K. That's all right. I didn't really have a time goal for myself; just to experience the triathlon.

All in all, it was a great time. I like competing in smaller races. And the pasta feed the night previous was included in our registration fee, which was a fun surprise. Oh, there were two great parts to the whole experience. The best were the overweight, over-age, over-painted belly dancers cheering us on at about mile 2 and 3, and the best, best part was J sending flowers to my hotel room. I love my man!

Two happy finishers          



The girls eagerly awaiting the arrival of their mom, or just playing on the slide

3 comments:

Michael Family said...

Way to go Shauna! That's impressive. I was hoping you'd post about your tri. I was excited to hear about it. First place! Whoo hoo!

Joel Deehr said...

sick! (as in cool) way to go.

amydear said...

Nice work. Why didn't you mention you got first in your age group when we talked? You are so silly. And fast.