Irago triathlon

a few weeks ago, i participated in my first triathlon. it seemed easy enough. 1km swim 40km bike and 10km run. i trained a bit, but as the day grew closer, i became mor and more nervous. finally it was time. on saturday, my friend naoko and i went to nagoya dome to run in a fun relay with some friends. then we made the couple hour drive to irago to sign in and join in the festivities of the weekend. hiro came and set up his tent next to our hotel.

sunday morning was the day. we got up early. ate. prepared. i was nervous- not knowing what to expect or what i was capable of doing. checking in our bikes and getting our numbers on and setting up our transition area was both fun and terrifying at the same time. it did help to have hiro, naoko and our new friend next to us to take my mind off of the upcoming events.

finally it was time to head to the starting line. i hate fish. i am not a fan of the ocean. and here i was about to swim 1km with 450 other people in the ocean-out kinda deep- with fish. it was the longest kilometer of my life. i got stuck in a pacck of swimmers and couldnt break out of the kicking hitting mess. i thought i'd never finish. but i did. 27 minutes later. i ran to the transition- and was out of there in about a minute. i headed out quickly to make up for lost time.

the bike course was a straight 3.5m lading to an 11km loop (3 times) and back the 3.5. i sped through it. felt great. i was able to maintain 30kph for most of the ride. felt really strong. i finished in 1h29m much better than i had anticipated.

the run. oh the run. i thought i would be a rock star for the run portion. boy was i ever wrong. my heavy legs did not want to move-let alone run up 2 huge hills and back. i decided that my slow jog was slower than walking. so my 10km run was really a quick uphill walk and anytime there was a decline-i sprinted. finally the last kilometer was downhill and i had to give it all i had. hiro met me at the finish line and we ran in together! finishing the run in 1h04min.

total time- 3 hours. i was really happy with the time! i came in 20th out of 60 women. 250th overall (410 finishers-450 entrants) and 1st out of foreign women. (uh lets not think about the fact that i was the only foreign women in the race)

the best part was that i wasnt even really sore after. my body was tired and muscles were tight-but not even comparable to a marathon.

it was a great experience and i really want to try again next year and change up some things!

but now its time to train for marathon season. (so so so not in long dist. running shape! todays 12 miler wore me out!-6 weeks to go!)