Never riding a rental bike before my first duathlon. Really having never ridden a road bike, let alone a tri-bike!

In my first 2 Olympic distance triathlons, I thought I was tough and didnt' wear a wetsuit in 58 degree water. Buuurrrr, it was freezing. My muscles were frozen and it probably costed me a good 12 minutes overall in slow transitions and I got off to a slow start on the bike. I think I have learned my lesson so I will be in a wetsuit on my next event.

Did my first Sprint Tri without doing ANY swim training prior to the race. Paid a mighty price for that! At least there was still one other competitor in the water when I finally washed up on shore! Then it got fun and was definitely hooked as soon as I crossed the finish line. And happy that I beat the guy that talked me into doing the Tri. (and that was his 9'th one!).

My first race with a wetsuit I thought there was a good possibility that my timing chip might accidentally come off with the wetsuit in T1. So, my plan was to remove the chip, take off the wetsuit, then put the chip back on. Of course, in the rush in T1 I forgot step 3. I noticed my mistake about 1/2 mile down the road. Not wanting a DNF, I turned the bike around and madly pedaled back to transition, sprinted to the rack, found the chip, and ran back out to my bike. I was totally gassed. I believe I had about a 6:00 T1 that day, but still finished the race.

As far as lessons learned, I don't intentionally take off the chip anymore in T1, and I ALWAYS look down to make sure I have my chip when crossing a mat these days. That came in very handy at IMWI, because the wetsuit strippers accidentally took my chip with them, but I noticed it and got a replacement chip before leaving T1.

What an awesome word :D

but of course ;)

that is the first half IM... not the first tri... but very close to the first tri. Can you tell I come from a running background and used to think of the bike as a necessary evil?

As bonus of that race was running into a friend from college and getting back in touch!

Wow my first tri was last year, and I was at that time still in Ecuador my home country...it was a really small race Sprint distance,since triathlon still being discovered in Ecuador...
There I was early in the morning, I showed up without a wetsuit...good thing the cold was not bad...any way...I was so afraid...excited...nervous..,..that as soon as the gun went off...I start trying to paddle my way....I drank so much water...almost gag...my respiration was a mess....almost panic....got kicked in my face...you name it...it was maybe a very tense situation...after that on dry land I enjoyed so much de bike and of course even better the run...since then this sport is part of my life...but the swim will always be a scary part of every race.

Actually this is pretty embarassing, but I like to amuse people. It was my last year of undergrad and I was watching the hawaii IM on tv. I thought to myself I'm going to do that before I go to grad school. My sister calls me and she went and saw IMCDA, she told me a better sign up soon. So I sign up. Never ran a tri in my life. Never really biked before, played football and tennis in high school, but never any endurance. So I ran my first olympic tri that summer and after I was done, I said Oh ****!, what did I get myself into. Did one 1/2 IM in the late fall, and that didn't go to well either. I knew I had to do some serious training. 9 months later I'm at IMCDA, best shape of my life. Swim went well, Bike was going good (right around 20 to 21 mph for the 1st 60 miles) at mile 90 is when it got to me. It was around 100 degrees and my nutrition plan was horrible, powerbars and gatorade. I got off the bike around 100 miles and started vommiting. I couldn't stop for at least an hour. Got back on the bike went 5 more miles to the next rest stop and did it again. I finally finished my bike with 2 hours to spare, but I figured I was to young to die. Probably my biggest defeat in life, but gained valuable experience. I ran 2 other half IM's and ran them in about 5:15 so its getting better. I'm definitely hooked and will do another IM once school is over. My new favorite quote from trifuel, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is try one more time." Thomas Edison

All I had to ride for my first tri was my trusty mountain bike. In T1 I made the decsion to wear my mountain bike gloves on the ride -- I figured it would probably be a long time so might as well take them. After a slow transtion, including the whole tring to get the tight tri-top over the wet body fiasco I decide not to waste time putting the gloves until I am on the bike . Running through the TA I then realize thats not going to work. I stop, and as I am putting on one glove, the other falls to the other side of the bike. Still a little disoriented from the swim, I lean too far over the bike and go down on top of it, blocking the exit. After dragging myself and the bike out of the way, making a number of appoligies to all the people behind me, and finally getting the gloves on, I had a fun ride and a great run.

first sprint. drank so much seawater I had to pee like a racehorse by the middle of the bike ride, which I did, while on the bike.
By the time I got to T2, I didn't know if finishing would be possible.
I finished. I learned to swim better. My mind accepted that finishing was possible.

I went running twice to prepare for my first tri (I was 24). No swimming or biking. Rode my mountain bike with cage pedals...had baggy "skater" shorts, no bike shorts underneath. My butt was raw after about a mile on the bike - I still had 14 to go. It was the longest 15 mile ride of my life. The 30-year-old dudes passed me like I was standing still. Even the 60-year-old chicks were passing me.

I think my discomfort on the bike helped me run faster! I counted 35 people I passed on the 5 mile run, and had the 7th fastest run split of the day, although my 15 mile bike leg took something like 55 minutes.

This is a great thread...if you read it closely it is a wonderful laundry list of things NOT to do and things you should. (like not wearing your tri top for the swim,hateloveschool. Guilty myself...ONCE) I recommend it to all the new folks...

I've done exactly 2 triathlons so I'm still making hysterical mistakes by the minute.

For my first triathlon I rode a Schwinn Varsity 10 speed circa 1970 and that ride was about my 4th in 20+ years. I also had not been running at all.

I placed 9th to last, just in front of a 9 year old and man who was limping and a woman who was easily 50 pounds overweight.

I did the same event last year and had over 50 people behind me and it was a smaller field. Just goes to show, experience and training pay!

Saw an ad in the local paper for a sprint sponsored by the local YMCA. Trained for about 1 month, hadn't been in a pool for 15 years or on a bike for over 10 before that. Never ran in training for this tri other than on a treadmill. Swim was good (7:00 for 1/4 mile), bike was very hilly with 2 mile climb steady right fromt the transition. Did ok on the bike. Run was a brutal 5 k, three huge hills. Never did a brick before, thought I was gonna die on the run. Other than being undertrained, I also figured out the night before I needed a racebelt. Went to every store in my small town looking for something to use, ended up buying a toolbelt at HomeDepot that was about 3 inches wide and made of heavy webbing to accept tool pouches. This was so thick I kept bending the safety pins trying to put my race number on.
After that I was hooked, and then have been spending all my time and money on this crazy sport.

Happens all the time...I reapetedly run into folks at IM's where it's their first triathlon...period. Same at marathons and even met a few people who are running their first ultra...but had never run a marathon.

LOL, great improvisation there with the tool belt!

Before race belts were available, we used to cut the elastic out of a pair of underwear (preferrably men's because of the wider elastic) and safety-pin the race numbers to that. A couple of years ago, I found an old elastic and safety pins still in one of my old transition bags. Ah, the good ol' days :rolleyes:

At my last sprint, I had a hard time clipping into my pedals at the mounting line. The crowd nicely heckled me as it took me about 6 tries to get clipped into one pedal before I even attempted the other one.

At my first two sprints, during the swim, I would hyperventilate every time for the first half of the swim. For some reason, I was unable to make myself spit out water that had been taken in during my turn to breathe. Instead, I would panic and swallow the water(ewww!). Still freaking out, I'd be short of breath, and as I would try to take in another breath, a wave would enter instead of air. It probably took me about 15 mins to calm down and remember how to swim. Luckily, I got this figured out during my next two sprints.

I can't remember which sprint it was, but I learned that I needed to practice sighting a bit more and time it with my strokes when a kayaker had come to get me and alert me that I'd swum way off course.

Yeah, they're probably still talking about my first sprint. Couldn't understand why the rangers in the power boat seemed very concerned about me, then I realized I had swum about twice as far as I had to because I just kept zig-zagging my way through the swim.

On my first tri, it was a sprint in April of 05. I didn't finish last but I think I was in the bottom 20%. Man that was a crap day for SOOO many reasons. I HAD to wear a wetsuit on this one because the air was 37 and the water was 55. So I had on my trusty O’Neill surfer suit. I was so new to the sport I didn't know that I was an embarrassment with every one else in their Orca's and Quintana Roo's. Well I managed to finish the swim with my rock solid month of training but I didn't finish by much. Then I took about 7-9 minutes or so in t1 getting my wetsuit off and getting on all my thermals to ride in the frigid weather. Well then I was off on my MTB getting passed like it was going out of style. My average speed was a neck snapping 13MPH. I was 23 at the time and a nice 60+ year old gentleman told me "don't give up there son push hard" AS HE FLEW BY ME LIKE I WAS STANDING STILL. Well I made it off of the bike and onto the run which I did ok at. I ran the 5k in 22 minutes (which for me at the time wasn't too bad.)

My other good Tri story was in July at an Oly. I had been hit by a car on Friday the 9th and had my bike wadded up nicely. Well I went down to watch the Tri and not race because I had friends there I had just been hit BY A CAR so I couldn’t race. Well we went out to dinner with the timing people and the race director and she was just a cool chick. I told her what happened and she was like "if you change your mind let me know I can get you a bike". I responded with no I need to let my body heal but thank you all the same. Well on the 11th race morning came nice and early and of course I couldn't take sitting on the side line. I told her aight get me a bike and it was done in about 5 minutes. The guy that she got the bike from was the nicest coolest guy however he was 5'2 or so and I'm 6'0 or 6'1. You can imagine I didn't really fit the bike too well but did that stop me HELL NO. The other interesting thing was he had speed play pedals and I was rocking running shoes. I damn near came off of the bike at 35MPH hammering down the hill. It took about 30 minutes to get my heart rate below 400 from that scare. Well the swim went great I had just my jammers on and that was fine. The bike was interesting I had just my jammers on again since I didn’t bring anything else. On the run you guessed it J in just his Jammers. On the swim I felt just fine no pain at all. The bike I could start to feel it and the run almost ended me. I had to be taken away by the EMT’s (I still crossed the finish line thanks to Josh’s never ever ever die attitude  ). My splits were all right my 1000 meter was 20 minutes which is great for me, my bike average speed was 21 and my 10k was 43 minutes with a cracked rib. So my final thought if you have been hit by a car 2 days before SIT IT OUT.

I will never forget that the day before my first tri (that was almost a 1/3IM) i learned that other athletes had a "nutrition" plan for their race. They had some sort of bars (now I know what they were) So I said to myself...if these guys are eating something I should too.

So I went to a regular store and bought some bar shaped regular cookies that had jam on them and other weird stuff. During the bike I decided it was time to have a bite!!! Damn those things were drier than sand. I just couldn't finish them. :D

On the lost in transition note...

I ran by my bike once in a reverse order tri (run bike swim). Of course, I pick a tri that is not-so-early in my tri'ing life. And right in front of the entire gang from my LBS (specializing in tris) that I rode and hung out with. They happily let me know that I probably wanted my bike for the next leg... and continued to remind me for some time after that :rolleyes: