After a few months of swimming, a new road bike, and several hundred dollars on physio for my IT band, I completed my first triathlon. Not the "My first triathlon" in Harrison Hot Springs (not a tribc sanctioned event!) but the Reflexion Clinics "Divas Only" triathlon.


Thanks to Kerry, I started swimming at Momentum Multisport and cycling with the Dizzy Chicks cycling club, and thanks to Orion, I was actually able to run after the bike and swim.
Before the details of the tri, I have to rave about Elaine Van Oosten and Janice Hanan who are *amazing* swim coaches, and Judy Latoski who did a bike fit for me on my new Trek 1500. These three amazing women made me into a proper athlete. And then the lovely Ms. Kerry K Taylor gave me the mental training, transition training, and inspiration to go for it.


Enough of the oscar speech.


Monday August 1st, I got up at 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I hopped out of bed and into the shower to get ready for the day I had been waiting for for over a month and a half. Orion heated up some oatmeal for me and I drank half a litre of e-load and began to pack up the car.


Upon arrival at the Ron Andrews Pool, I unpacked my bike and gear and headed for the transition. I picked my spot and set up everything as Kerry and I had practiced in her yard.


6:40 am, pre race meeting.


7:00 am, the divettes jump in the pool and start the event.


around 7:45 am, myself and some other equally able swimmers, stagger a start in the pool. It's 20 lengths of a 37 m pool. I start off with freestyle, but eventually resort to breast stroke because I tired easily swimming freestyle. Kerry tells me it's an unsportsmanlike stroke to choose as I may break someone's nose with my kick. I'm selfish and opt for my own comfort over the noses of others. I'll do all freestyle next time. 740 m, two fairly aggressive and entirely triumphant moments of passing with pretty fast freestyle and 16:01 minutes later, I hop out of the pool and head to the transition.


I get to my bike and someone has moved my stuff back and wedged their bike in beside mine. A little pissed off, I look to the official who tells me I can move the bike, but not to disturb their stuff. "Oh, sort of like how they didn't disturb all of my stuff to the back of my bike?" I think, but then decide to focus on that while cycling instead of while trying to pull on socks and some clothes.


I hop onto my bike and head out of the transition for the 18 km bike ride. The exit from the transition is right up hill and onto Lytton Ave and then Mount Seymour Parkway. Good thing I've put my bike into an easy gear. The first lap, my legs feel a bit like jello and I can't get my bike to go faster than 25 km/h even on the down hills. Fortunately, Kerry, Orion, Carl, and course volunteer and perennial cheerleader from EA, Becky, were all in roughly the same part of the cycle and were cheering me on at that point. I managed to start getting the bike up to higher speeds and by the last lap, I was going over 40 km/h and even managed to pass a few people *up a hill*.


Back in the transition area, I ran into the person who parked right beside/onto of my stuff. Turned out she was a mum doing the race with her two daughters. I entirely forgot about being pissed off and her and was so impressed that she was getting her daughters out to such an event and instilling such good fitness values into her kids.


I put on my trainers and headed up the hill again for the 5 km run. Two down, one to go. The hills that were a bit of a challenge on the bike turned out to be killing my calves. On occasion, I had to look down to ensure that there were not two knives being twisted into the backs of my legs. I made it to Roche Point with a lot of encouragement from runners ahead (and thus heading downhill!) on the running course. By the turnaround, my infamous second wind had *finally* kicked in. With renewed enthusiasm, I began to pick up the pace and head to the finish line. Anyone who has run with me before knows my penchant for sprinting at the finish and this time was no different, but this time there was someone hot on my heels and I wasn't having my finishing photo show me getting passed!


I finished in 1h34m59s and was greeted by Orion at the finish line who picked me up and swung me around and planted a big kiss on me despite my sweatiness. Kerry and Carl were hot on his heels with congratulations as well.


In short, I felt like a star. Next race: September 18th.


If you are thinking of a triathlon, I *highly* recommend the Reflexion one(s), it was so well organized -- Miranda and Michelle run a tight ship and really helped my first triathlon to be exceptionally fun.