Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon

On Saturday I did my first sprint triathlon! It was an awesome experience and I cannot wait to do another one! We rented a cabin at Bear Lake and got a really good deal and I am SO happy we did! It had a full kitchen, a jetted tub, balconies it was perfect.

The view from the balcony in our bedroom.

On Friday night we went to a first timers triathlon meeting. They went over the course and what to expect and triathlon etiquette. I'm really glad we went. The temperature was going to be pretty cool the next morning so they weren't sure if they were going to delay the start time a bit. 

We woke up the next morning about 530 ate a muffin, took a caffeine pill,  got some hydration and headed out. The place where the triathlon was held was Rendezvous Beach. It was only about 15 minutes away from the cabin where we stayed so that was really nice. 

Once we arrived we went over and did the body marking. They do your race bib number on both of your arms and then your age on one calf and whether or not you were doing the sprint (S) or the olympic (O) on the other calf. 

It was freezing that morning!!! I put my wetsuit on early to keep warm.

 Then it was pretty much just waiting for our waves to start. Ben had decided not to swim. He hadn't really trained at all for the swim and didn't feel safe doing it. 

My parents had volunteered and they were in charge of the bike/transition area. We hung out with them for a bit and it was cool to see the really fast people come out from swimming and jump on their bikes. 

Around 8am I headed down to the water and they were getting wave 6 pink caps ready to go so I walked out to the starting point. About 10 minutes later we were off! The water actually wasn't bad and I'm really happy I had the wetsuit however, next time I'm going to get a different wetsuit because the one I rented was kind of bulky and I don't really think it was made for swimming but thats OK. I wasn't in this to win it (this time). My goal was to finish and be safe. The current was really strong and thats the one thing I regret and knew I would regret it was to train in open water because it is so different. We swam in a triangle. The 2nd leg of the swim was the hardest because you were swimming horizontally with the current and so it felt like I swam twice the distance because it kept dragging me out. Then I was done with the swim! Wahoo! I was feeling amazing!!! To get from the beach to the transition area though was about 1/8 mile that we had to walk. 

Me after the swim :)

Because Ben didn't swim he waited for me and helped me get my wetsuit off and change my shirt to get ready for the bike. He hopped on his bike then and was off and I was close behind but soon he was way ahead of me. The bike ride was awesome!! It was a gorgeous morning and a beautiful ride. I had special biking shorts on (I call them butt shorts) but I didn't feel like they were cushioning my behind at all. Other than that it felt great. I am glad I put a running jacket on though because I think it would have been too cold after the swim. 

As soon as I got off the bike to transition to the run my legs felt crazy! Another thing I regret is not  hydrating enough. I brought a little lunch box to put nutrition in and I did really well from the swim to the bike but from the bike to the run I took like a little sip of gatorade. I felt dehydrated the rest of the day and didn't pee for over 12 hours. My legs weren't necessarily tired it was just like they weren't in the mode of running they couldn't transition very well from biking to running. I finished strong though coming across the finish line and made sure to sprint! They gave me my medal and took my picture and Ben was there to greet me as well. We said bye to my parents and grabbed our papers with our unofficial results and headed back to the cabin to enjoy a relaxing rest of the day and a good soak in the jetted tub. 

It was such an amazing experience and so much fun! I'm excited to do more I'm already trying to decide on the next one to do.