The good news? The Rookie Tri is done. The better news? I didn’t drown.
As I mentioned in the last post, I joined approximately 800 others on an early Sunday morning at Decker Lake in Austin Texas to compete in the Rookie Triathlon. Having never done a triathlon before I was a curious about what to expect. I arrived at the venue at 6:15 am and began the process of checking in. First to body marking where my race number (297) was written on both of my upper arms and both of the front of my legs and my age was written on my right calf. Then to the transition area where Chris helped me find my assigned spot and set up. By now it was about 7:15am and my wave wasnt scheduled to go until 8:40. Off to the truck for a nap.
The swim was the only part of the race that I was worried about, mostly because I didn’t know what to expect. Others had tried to tell me just how chaotic this part of the race could be but I was still unprepared. I had worked hard in the pool and was confident in my abilities, but I couldn’t get any sort of rhythm going. After 150 meters of being kicked and run into, my pulse was through the roof and my anger was rising. I needed to put myself in a happy place – which is just what I did. I stopped trying to pass people and just breast stroked to the finish.
The next two parts of the race went better for me. I was able to keep a good pace on the bike and the vast majority of the racers I passed were extremely polite and happy to move to the right so I could get by. The run started out a little slow but after 1/4 mile I was able to loosen up and lengthen my stride.
How did I do? I won my age group by 12 seconds.
Good job Peter!