So I was a swimmer through high school and the start of college, but now as a fourth year college student this was my first time doing a triathlon, and despite it being classified as a sprint, this was way longer than any race I had done before. Coming into this race I was seeded pretty high up based on my swim times, so jumping in I started second. My first thought was that the start of the event seemed pretty sudden. I jumped into the pool and then was told to go. It caught me a little off guard not having some type of lead up like “Take your marks” or “Attention” before heading out, but once I got going I felt like I had a pretty strong pace. Then, after a couple lengths I felt that my timing chip had fallen off my ankle. That was really frustrating. I had done my best to make sure it was tight before the race because when I was warming up that morning it had fallen off as well. But there was nothing to be done, so I continued on. The one thing I found interesting about the swim was how up close and personal everyone got. I passed one guy, but two more passed me in the next length and for the rest of the swim we were fairly close, which made hitting the walls an experience. At the end of the pool I hopped out of the water third which I was pretty happy with.
Going into the first transition my main thought was making sure I got my helmet on before anything else, I knew that was important. After that I tossed on socks and grabbed my shoes and bike and ran out of transition. It wasn’t until I was almost at the mount line that I realized I hadn’t put on my shoes, so I ducked down and tossed them on before continuing. I felt pretty solid on the bike portion. I got passed by a few people, but I felt like I attacked it pretty well, so I was happy with how I did there (even though with no timing chip I have no clue how I compared to the rest of the field).
Finishing up I came into the second transition and did a flying dismount which I was proud of getting down. But once my legs hit the ground they felt like Jello beneath me. I somehow stayed on my feet and ran into transition, popped on my shoes (before leaving this time!) and made my way into the run. I was pretty wiped out at this point and running is by far my weakest skill currently, but I just put one foot in front of the other and made my way around the course as best as I could. Finishing felt fantastic, and even though I don’t know any of my splits, I feel pretty happy with how I did overall and look forward to more races in the future.