The swim, the bike, the run...all harder than I expected...individually not so hard, but put them together and its totally different...but fun

I just remember how great it was to have a bunch of my friends there, fired up and cheering me on. The lake was wicked hot and the temps above 90 by the time I set out for the run, but it was just awesome! Of course I was super slow and naive (and still am), but I felt like a pro with them hootin' and hollerin' at each transition. The bloody marys they supplied afterwards weren't too shabby either.

I remember hyperventilating during the swim so that I ended up doing the breaststroke the entire 750 m. I remember how I seemed to take forever to set up my transition area. My parents flew out to see me do the race, which was great because it was Mother's Day. However, my parents didn't see me finish because they never saw me come into T2. Most of all I remember the feeling of crossing the finish line for the first time and realizing how great the whole experience was. The feeling of the last 200 meters to the finish, in that race, and every race actually, keeps me motivated every day I train. The emotion of those moments cannot be captured any other way.

I was also jealous of everyone that passed me on the bike. I never trained on the bike, and I bought it one week before the race. Obviously I didn't expect it to be my strongest event, but I really underestimated how slow I was. 25 miles without passing a single person. 29 years old, finished right around 50% of the field in the swim, and spent 90 minutes watching people blow by me.

I'll never forget the feeling that came over me the moment that I realized that a sprint triathlon is not a sprint. Unfortunately, the moment was about 100 meters into the swim. If it wasn't for the gigantic sign that my friend made, I probably would have called it a day. http://www.tuxbro.com/nicesign.gif

my first was a couple of years ago. motor city sprint tri. swimming in the detroit river was quite an achievement on its own...i was totally not prepared for how tired i was going to be coming out of the water. i was 4th i think out, but man T1 was rough. in my mind at the time there was nothing harder than a) putting a jersey, shoes, helmet on while wet and huffing for air. my helmet was stolen by somebody else who had a similar but not identical helmet... mine was a size larger and had my oakleys on it. so i wore a bell sweep xc instead of my ghisallo without any sunglasses. never got my helmet or glasses back, but my girl got a sweet new helmet for free out of the deal and i got to buy new sunglasses and a helmet. yay for new gear.

The wave of men 5-9 years older than mine that went after my wave passed me on the swim. Then the wave of men 10-15 eyars older than mine that went after the wave that went after mine passed me on the swim. That and I peed a lot on the bike because I drank so much seawater. That's what I remember from my first tri.

I entered the Kelowna Apple Olympic Triathlon in 1993 as research for a trip I was making to Kona in October that year to cover the Ironman for Sporting Times Magazine. I figured a little experience might save me from the embarrassment of asking too many dumb questions.

I had no training, just a little hoops and wt. room exercise. I had never swum 1500m before, (they have kayaks, right?) had run a Mother's Day 10k a few months before on a whim and two week's jogging. My bike was only used for the one kilometer commute to the gym. I packed a lunch and a radio in my handlebar bag.

I was the last man to finish in 3:37:54, and cramped up several times in the last km of the "walk."

PoC

I remember heading into the transition area to set up our stuff. It was me and a buddy and we had two Walmart specials - mtb's no less. I remember looking around at all the people with all the cool stuff thinking "what are we doing here??!!". We didn't know a soul and had no idea what to expect. Anyway, five years later, it's still fun and it's great seeing tons of people you know at the races and the feeling of community. But there's still nothing like the feeling of crossing the finish line for the first time!

I remember that the "family" of triathletes was really great. I had forgotten a swim cap and they were required (now it seems like every race supplies one) and someone had brought an extra for newbies like me and just handed it over - how cool was it that he actually planned for that!? Then I flatted a few miles into the bike and have never practiced changing a tire (important tip: practice changing your tires). I can't even remember what my time was or my placement, but it was great to be cheered on by random strangers and fellow athletes. Many years later I have fun still, even though I'm older and slower (but better at changing tires) and I can go a lot further, too!

It was awesome! My wife, a swimmer, decided it would be fun and healthy to do a sprint. Before long, my parents were both on board. The water was cold and I stuck my hand up my wife's nose on the swim. The bike was slow and easy. We were on mountain bikes with baggy shorts. I stopped and helped two or three people get their chains back on their gears (I didn't know you couldn't give or accept assistance). The run went by just fine and we finished a happy couple. ChunkyB and his non-chunky girl watched our kids. We had such a fun time, we bought road bikes for Christmas. This was 2005. We have continued doing triathlons casually ever since.

I was 16 when I did my first solo triathlon (I did the swim for a team at 11 or 12). I had everything planned out pretty well, so there were no major mistakes. My dad and sister were doing the same tri as a team and I let my sister distract me in T1 (she's a faster swimmer) while my dad got off on the bike. I took the time to pull on bike shorts in T1 for the 17 mile bike (17 mph on my 3 day old roadie) and then run shorts for the 3 mile run. I also didn't really know what to do with my race number - I had it half pinned to my run shorts and I spent the first minute of the run trying to pin the top half to my swimsuit as I ran (a 30 minute 3 mile 'run'... even though my 5k pr at the time was a high 22). I did win the 17- age group by 20 minutes including the boys though.

Ah yes....the first tri (olympic distance). Like so many others I didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into. I hadn't swum in over 10 years and borrowed a wetsuit that was 3x too big for me (talk about drag). I had just bought a road bike that I rode with tennis shoes and I had never biked more than 20 miles. I wasn't too worried about the run as I had been running marathons for years, but I do recall thinking about half way through the 10K that I would have rather run a marathon than be doing this @#$@ triathlon. In the end, I managed to be first out of the water. Got passed by what seemed like 100's of people on the bike, and crossed the finish line with a huge smile on my face....Oh.. I would be back!!!!

My first tri was a relay. I was doing the swim and bike, and a partner was doing the running.
They cancelled the swim because the water was too cold. There were junior champs earlier and they had to pull out of the water some of the kids. I was really disappointed, but that's part of the game. They changed it to a duathlon, which my partner was not ready for at all, the most he ever run was a 5k, and now he had to run 2x5k with a one hour break in between.

Even though I just did the biking, my mistakes would apply to any tri. I decided to try a new flavor of powergel. That made my stomach quite upset. I had no practice in the aerobars, and that made some parts of my body quite upset...I got passed by so many people, at some point I had to ignore it. The good thing is, towards the end, I wasn't passed by anybody. I like to believe that I was keeping up, but most likely there was nobody left to pass me :oP

I pushed too hard at the start, without a proper warmup. Usually, the swim is a good warmup, but you have to remember, as Mark709 said, a sprint is not a sprint. You can't go all out (at least I can't) for the entire race. Even though that doesn't sound like a great experience, I loved it and signed up for my second sprint 2 weeks after the first one.

The second one went well. The swim was on, so I was really able to get a good warmup. My navigation wasn't bad at all. I got a couple of kicks and slaps, but nothing bad. A guy decided to grab my ankle and pulled, but I was able to get away and stay calm...In T2, someone decided that my spot on the rack was his (it was the first and nicest spot on the rack), and I juggled with my bike and lost a couple of seconds squeezing my bike in.
Expect the unexpected, remember that a lot of things can happen, enjoy your day and keep smiling! :o)

signed up as a relay with the best swimmer in my school and the best XC runner. Both of them cancelled at the last minute and I was stuck. I decided to rise to the challenge and the next day I tried to swim at a local pool and it was ugly. The race went something like this:

swim: was 2nd to last out of the water. stood up at the finish and got the worst head rush ever.

T1: took me about 10 minutes to get my wetsuit off. put on a drifit shirt and was off on the bike.

Bike: my HR was so high that I could barely ride. I calmed down by mile 10

run: pretty uneventful. thought my legs were going to fall off though.

I finished in 1:45. I'm excited to do the race again next year!