Airdrie Triathlon Review - Swim and Run!

I have been taking a cycling class this past month with Leaping Dog Racing, and knew one of the gals from the class would also be at this Triathlon.  I was happy to see her both on Saturday at the transition seminar, as well as on race morning.  Together we found our bib numbers, got our (unecessary) body marking done, and found a good spot in the gym (which was awesome because this eventually became the transition and we had a sweet spot close to the exit door).

Once settled in the gym, we waited for our turn to be called to head to the swim deck and get our timing chip.  I was in wave 3, and was originally scheduled to swim at 8:40.  Even with all the craziness of the morning, my swim wasn't too far off of that.  I was really excited to see my hubby and kids arrive shortly after 8:20 to watch me swim and transition from the mezzanine above.

Timing chip on, and some good advice from my swim mates came true.  I had originally placed myself in the 20+ swim category, but they advised me not to do that.  People would be doing backstroke, breaststroke, and I would get really frustrated.  As I stood on the swim deck watching, it was true.  There was even one gal who was doing a drill of side stroke to freestyle.  As I headed to the lane, the race director told me not to look so nervous - it was that obvious ha ha!  A quick wave to my people and I was in the water.

A slower swimmer was just exiting the water as I was doing my second length, and I had to tread water for a bit behind her as I couldn't pass.  This unfortunately screwed up my Garmin count and I didnt' realize until I was at the far end of the lane and it read 225m.  I'm REALLY bad about counting laps.  I just can't get it straight.  I had no idea if I was at 200 or at 250.  My friend got out of the water just before I did, and my time showed 18:40.  I either swam a minute faster than normal, or my count was out.  My watch showed 725m so I had no real way of knowing.  A review of my Garmin that night confirmed I only swam 700 rather than the 750m.  Out and into transition!

I had a strategy in place to get my winter run gear on.  I dried off as well as I could, tossed my wet run tank, and tried to get my run tights on.  That's a bit tricky lol.  I then realized that my socks were still in my cycling shoes, now secure in the truck.  Shoot.  Oh well.  Running shoes on without socks!  I was happy to see somehow my hubby captured that moment on camera.  I also decided to toss the idea of putting on my heart rate monitor.  Seemed like too much at the time.  Results don't show a transition time, as there was just one mat outside of the gym to show the start of the run.  So transition was lumped into our swim time.  My Garmin showed however that I transitioned in just over 3 minutes.  Given the race weather and needing to re-dress, totally ok with that.

The run.  Wow so much snow.  The ground was pretty slick going over a couple of bridges as the snow was heavy and wet and left a good slush on the ground.  I had taken a gel before the swim, and worked on a second one during the first lap of the run.  I ditched it about 1K in as I wasn't getting much of it in and my hands were cold.  My knee felt a little awkward but worked itself out, and from 3K to the finish I was comfortably able to push my tempo and finished just under 30 minutes.

Photo captured by Tri It Multisport

Photo line finish captured by Tri It Multisport

Overall, I placed halfway both in my division and for overall females.  Really happy with that!  There were 111 people who completed the Sprint, and I was in the mid 90's for the swim.  SO... not a fast swimmer, but I know that.  Gives me something to work on!

I was happy to see that Multisport Canada e-mailed out a discount for a future race, as well as another race stepped forward to also offer a discount on their Tri.  Now that I have a swim/run under my belt, I'm really looking forwad to completing my first Tri.  I e-mailed a race director last weekend and hope to hear soon if that Tri will become a reality in just a couple weeks!