What better way to celebrate your 27th birthday than with your first triathlon?

Went down the day before nice and early, bought 2 bikes from a guy through Craigslist (his and hers with cargo bags and 3 bike computers) so my girlfriend can start riding with me, and dropped them off at her mom's house. Went a really ridiculous route to the race site to pick up the packet and check out the road.

Oh, man... you could lose a VW Beetle in some of those pot-holes. But other than that the roads were ok: flat with no major hills to speak of. The water was warmer than the air, so I figure "ok, this should be good. No need to panic."

Went to our tiny little hotel room a few towns over and while I'm "checking out the bathroom" my girlfriend comments that the bed was pretty hard. I come out and I'm like how hard can it be and jumped on. I think I may have bruised a rib. It was like the mattress was made of concrete. Just what I need for a good night's sleep.

The alarm goes off in the AM and I have one arm still asleep and nearly refusing to get up. Next time I'm packing an air mattress just in case. Yeesh. From there we pack up the room and head to the site. We were lucky we got there early enough that we didn't have to park in the extra lot 5 miles down the road. The guy parked next to us was doing his first race ever too, so I felt a bit more comfortable. Got to my rack in the TA and the guys who got there first left just enough room for my bike, but took up way too much space with their towels. Oh well. They won't mind if they get pushed over. I was hoping it would be warmer so I could rock the Trifuel shirt and meet up with people pre-race. No such luck; ended up wearing my jacket the whole time. Got marked and yanked the wetsuit on, hung around some guys in my AG who thought there were going to drown too. Quick meeting and its time to line up.

I hang back in the third wave with the other drowners and I start off pretty strong, passing a few people. I can't find a breathing rhythm though and tire out and start to panic when I see someone behind doing the back stroke. Lightbulb. I flip over and start paddling like a row boat and I'm on my way. Passed a few more people before getting to the part that was so shallow it was faster to stand up and walk it, then back to the backstroke. The next wave is catching up and the fast females are blowing right by me. By the time we get back to land I'm behind most of the female waves, I can't feel my feet, and I can't walk/see/think straight. I see my girl cheering and holding the "Happy Birthday" sign and I figure I can at least make it to the TA. I yank off the suit and drop on my towel and try my best to get the sand off my feet before putting on socks and my bike shoes. I almost fall over a few times standing back up so I take a moment and drink a bit till I can keep going. Out of T1 and run through more sand to the beginning of the bike.

Swim: .5 miles in 20:05
T1: 5:30

The bike starts and I've got my jacket on I'm so cold. Feet are numb so I figure "at least I won't be able to tell if my feet hurt..." I start out strong enough, holding back a bit since I've never ridden this long/far before. I'm actually feeling pretty good once I'm moving and I figure I'll do just fine. I take a gulp of my Gatorade+salt (i sweat really salty) every 10 minutes to keep hydrated... about 3 times. At 33 minutes in, I take a gulp and as I'm putting the bottle back it slips out of my fingers. In the split second it takes me to think "crap, I'll have to stop and pick it up now," I run right over it blowing the top off and all the liquid out. At this point my brain is reeling with trying to figure out what I'm going to do, but at the end I figure "well, I've come this far, just dial it back a bit more and don't die." Its a very long bike with no liquids. I felt ok, though and was moving pretty well. The only other part that sucked was I would get passed by these women on their aerobars and they'd get in front of me, then die on the tiny hills. I'd say 2/3 times when passed, I'd end up passing them back because they couldn't handle the tiny hills. Saw the carnage of the race from the back and I'm glad its not me with injuries/flats. Turn back in to the park, unclip, and wait a minute.. I thought I had legs? No? Just jell-o? Well... its going to have to do. One more run in the sand to the TA. Quick swap of shoes, put on a headband (for all the sweat I ran out of) and number belt and I'm off for the run.

Bike: 29 miles in 1:52:55
T2: 2:58

The run starts and as soon as I'm out of sight of the finish line and spectators, I begin my walk,shuffle,walk,jog cycle. Thankfully they had a water table along the route otherwise I probably would have passed out on the side of the road. Around mile 2.5 I started to feel my feet again and I wished they'd go back to being numb. Half a mile to go and the volunteer at the beginning of the sand trail asks "You going to be ok?" I replied, "Sure, in half a mile." I save whatever juice I had left in a pocket somewhere for the finish and I'm done. Like DONE done. Nearly took out my girlfriend when she hugged me.

Run: 4 miles in 55:40
Total time: 3:17:07 - a new PR! ;-P

At this point I'm so tired, I pack up and we go to the Stewart's up the road where my girl buys me my b-day present: a cheese-steak, chili cheese fries, corn dogs, root beer floats and its the best tasting food EVAR!

My ass is sore, my brain is fried, and I can't wait for the next one!