On Sunday I competed in my first triathlon. Awesome! The first ever triathlon club at my school camped at the lake and participated mainly in the mountainbike race.I did the Olympic distance race. There was even an article about us in the Salinas Californian newspaper! I pretty much self coached myself for 16 weeks, and it was still by far the hardest thing I have ever done. The whole atmosphere at the races on Saturday and on Sunday was inspiring and nerve-racking. On raceday morning it was beautiful but it got hot on the run, luckily I started early, 3rd wave (M24&Under). The water was cold but I wasn't bothered by it after the first few minutes, too busy trying not to run into people. During the swim I passed a few college girls from the wave ahead of me and even one college guy from the wave ahead of that but I was passed by what felt like almost all of the wave behind me and I even one or two from the wave behind that. When I finally got out of the water my watch said around 32 minutes, which I thought was quite good for me. T1 was difficult, as I was trying to get my wetsuit off it seemed as if the world was spinning all around,I had to sit down to get my suit off. the bike was the funnest part for me. Lynch Hill wasn't very hard and I passed lots of college kids from the first two waves on the bike. Some of the older, faster guys from the waves behind me went zooming by on their Tri bikes but overall i passed more people than passed me. :D T2 was a snap, I did not use bike shoes, and i started my run. The run was really tough after about 3 miles, it was hot on the road and I think I gave too much on the bike, and I took a couple of short walking breaks after realizing I was not wearing my chip anymore. I was mad and sad that I would show up as a DNF. But I joined up with really nice guy from SF who helped me run the last 2 miles. So down Lynch Hill I ran and across the finish line without my name being called out by the announcer. I stopped my watch as I crossed the finish line at 2:47:51, I was glad that a lady in the transition said to wear it. I am very happy with my time, as my goal was 3 hrs without any real knowledge of how long it would take me. After drinking many cups of water and gatorade and a few pictures with my family i was told by a volunteer that I might actually be able to become an official finisher. So I go look for my chip in the transition and find it stuck inside the leg of my wetsuit, which I then turn -in and fill out a form at the info booth explaining that I lost my chip in T1..... and i also gave them them time from my watch. So to wrap it up they took my time and made it official and I ended up getting 5th in my age group(17-19) and 403 overall. My first triathlon experience was great and I cannot wait for my next one. Sorry for the novel guys. :) P.S. I ended up beating my club leader by 5 minutes.