My Second Sprint Triathlon!

I finished my second sprint triathlon this morning - and had so much fun!! It was a local triathlon 'for fun' so it was geared towards beginners and people who have never done triathlons before. I did it two years ago with my mom and had a blast, so when I saw that one of the dates fit into my schedule this year I had to sign up! {also, my brother is the best - he signed up to do it too!}

Alarm went off wayyyy too early this morning! But I made sure to eat some cinnamon raisin toast with almond butter and coffee in the car (also woke up hungry for some reason.. weird!)

Check in started at 5:30 and we got there around 5:45. Only mistake we made is that we forgot our picture IDs - but luckily since this was a very low-key event they let us get our bibs anyway. I almost thought they weren't going to give them to us which would have been horrible (money wasted, early wake up call, and not getting to participate) but thankfully that wasn't the case. 

We got our bibs, got body marked, and set up our transition stuff. I forgot to take a picture of it, but here's a list of everything I brought/wore:

• triathlon shorts
• sports bra
• dry-wick tshirt
• 2 pairs socks (just in case)
• running shoes
• swim goggles
• swim cap
• bike helmet
• 2 towels - 1 for me, 1 for the ground
• water bottle on my bike 

Then we waited around a little bit for the start, which was at 7am. 

my "i can't believe i'm awake smile"

excited but cold!!

At 6:45 they had a little info session for first-timers - I listened anyway because the last time I did a tri was 2 years ago, plus this was my brother's first one! Then the director of the event organizer that puts on the tris every summer spoke a little bit because this year marked the 25th anniversary of the Tri For Fun.

And then it was time to put our swim caps on and get ready to go! 

They organized everyone in waves - the 1st wave was the 'competitive' wave (aka everyone who knew what the heck they were doing! haha) and then every wave after that was by gender and age. The last wave was for people who were first-timers, especially young or elderly, or who were just nervous about the swim (two years ago that was the wave I was in and it defintely eased my nerves a little bit). This year I went in the women's 17-29 group and it worked out perfectly. My brother was two waves in front of me, so I didn't see him much, but it was nice to know that he was somewhere out there too!

The swim actually went by relatively quickly - it's always a little unnerving when the water's murky and there's reefy things in the water, but I managed not to panic. I swam breaststroke for most of it because it was easier to see where I was going and allowed me to get a little bit more air. 

The bike ride was mostly flat, but definitely was my least favorite part. There wasn't too much scenery and I felt like I had to pay attention all the time to make sure I didn't crash or anything. I'll take running over biking any day!

leaving for the run! 

The run was, of course, my favorite part. I passed a lot of people and it was actually a cross country course that I used to run in high school, so I felt completely in my element. It was also fun because we passed the same water station three times (the course is kind of like a figure 8) and there was a truck there with all the water stuff that was playing country music. I was like 'come with meeee!' haha but just the few seconds of music I heard each time I passed was nice. And all of the volunteers and fellow athletes were so encouraging!! The atmosphere was just so awesome :) 

Headed towards the finish line! 

I finished with an approximate time of 1 hour and 13 minutes (it wasn't chip timed or anything - the clock was just there 'for fun' i guess you could say)! Everyone cheering at the end made me so happy :) 

{Side note: my triathlon shorts I got the other day were AWESOME! dried quickly, really comfortable on the bike and run too. the brand was Zoot if you're curious!}

leg numbers!

My brother said he really liked the race too! Since we were in different waves it actually worked out perfectly for my dad who came to watch - there was barely any time where he didn't see one of us doing something. & a big thanks to my dad who woke up the buttcrack of dawn to put our bikes in the car and then took all of these awesome photos! 

And when I got around to thinking about it.. if I'm doing this at 17 years old - just think what the future holds! I am so excited for the many races ahead :) Doing things like this also just makes me realize how much I LOVE being active and how grateful I am to have a strong body and my health. 

Also, reppin' the body numbers today ;) 

have you ever done a triathlon before?