Airdrie Tri turned Aquathon

Wow what an INTERESTING first "Triathlon"!

Race package pick up was on Friday night, and I left rather confused.  There was no bib for the run portion, and the package only had a unisex adult t-shirt and a couple magazines.  Why did we need to pick this up?  Turns out, we should have had our race number written on our package bag.  More on that in a bit when I talk about race morning.

Saturday afternoon I headed over to the pool location to attend the triathlon seminar.  This was fantastic being race specific.  It helped take away first time jitters knowing where we would exit the water, seeing what transition looked like, knowing the rules of how to properly rack our bike, and a little bit about where to mount our bikes and come back into transition for the run.  The word "snow" was mentioned a few times - what? wait?  SNOW is in the forecast??  Saturday was overcast and cold.  Not awesome for racing conditions, but it was at least dry.

I came home and organized my various piles that I would need.  I emptied out some large ziploc yarn bags (I smiled seeing my two passions cross paths - ha!), and thought about how I could keep everything dry, and keep myself warm.

Race morning I woke up at 6:15am and thought "let's get this party started!".  I came downstairs, saw rain/snow falling heavily and thought "is this a smart idea?".  I quickly changed my game plan a little bit, and grabbed a waterproof rain jacket for the bike, and decided I would fully change after the pool in the change room so I would be dry on the bike other than wet hair.  I loaded Ruby into the back of the wet truck and headed for the Tri.

Getting out of the truck I was quickly told the bike portion had been cancelled.  Rain had now turned to snow and it was 0 degrees Celcius.  A smart call by the race director, but this being my first Tri, there was a touch of disappointment as I took Ruby's front wheel off to securely lock her into the truck.  I started pulling things out of my ziploc bags to re-organize for a swim/run.

For all the changes race morning, the race directors handled it as quickly and as efficiently as truly possible.  We headed inside to find everyone confused and wondering what and where to go.  Finally someone arrived for body marking.  But wait?  Half of us did not know our race numbers!  We were told to head outside.  I found the race director who directed us to the original transition.  Snow was now falling heavily.  The lady in the tent instructed us we should have our numbers or we should get it inside.  As you're seeing, there was some confusion.  Apologies were also given that this was a mess up at package pick up.  Numbers received and back into the gym. Things got sorted, and transition was moved to a gym across from the pool exit.

The swim was supposed to start at 8am, and by shortly after that, the party was started and Olympic distance swimmers were entering the pool.

How did I do on my first Aquathon?  Tune in tomorrow!