The Tri for Real Series is a series of 3 olympic length races at Rancho Seco Park (in the shadow of a closed down nuclear plant) south of Sacramento, Ca.

This was my first olympic length tri, so I was pretty nervous.

We got out there early, which was good, since they had lost my preregistration and I had to do raceday reg. This wasn't a big problem, though. The woman in charge was kind enough to believe me and let me sign up without having to pay again. She's going to check their computer and contact me later.

The lake we swam in was well marked and clean. The water was also warmer than I'd expected. I managed to swim my own race and not go out quickly with the pack. So, by the end of the swim I was passing a few people.

T1 went pretty smoothly. I got on my socks, shoes and helmet without much fuss. But I had forgotten to put the second water bottle on my bike. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but we're talking about Sacramento in the summer. It was going to be near 90 degrees by the time we were finished.

The ride is rolling hills on an out and back course. The road isn't closed, but there are a lot of volunteers and Highway Patrol watching to make sure that drivers are being careful and polite.

I was feeling strong up until about 3 miles from the end of the ride. For some reason, I "hit a wall". Suddenly I felt like my legs were lead. I thought I was going to have to stop the bike and sit on the side of the road. I geared WAY down and just kept pedaling slowly. After about a mile I suddenly felt good again and was able to finish the leg well and go on to the run.

T2 was OK except for the fact that the doofus next to me had put his bike up in such a way that there was no room for mine unless I shoved his over. One of the volunteers in Transition told me that a lot of people had had the same problem. Anyway, I slugged down the water that I had forgotten to take on the bike, and headed out.

The run is a popsickle shaped loop. You run along a dirt road for about 1 1/2 miles, then turn into the big loop, and finish back on the dirt road, the way you started. A lot of it was on a single track path that was very well marked. There are 4 or 5 water stations along the way with water, Gu and Gatorade or Cytomax.

By the time I hit the run it was VERY hot. I felt like I was running in molasses. So I just decided to slog on slowly so I could run the whole thing instead of running/walking/running etc.

I had hoped to do the race in 3 1/2 -4 hours, since this was my first oly. About half way through the run I'd resigned myself to 4 hours plus. Much to my surprise, as I crossed the finish line, the clock read 3:20. Since I'm in the last wave, my official time was 2:54. Woohoo!

Just a few more words... I was very impressed with the sponsor, TBF Racing. I've done one of their sprints before. Their races are well planned and organized. The volunteers are friendly and helpful, too.

I doubt I'll be doing the July or August Tri for Real races. Sac is just too hot. If I were to race down there again, I think I'd either wear my camelbak on the bike, or the fannypack style camelbak on the run. I drank 4 bottles of water plus 2 bottles of sugared water after the race and still didn't have to pee for about 3 hours. That's not good. Otherwise, it was a very good day!