Hopefully ... I Have Tri'd

Well, it's Monday.  And if all went well over the weekend, once you read this post I will have completed my first ever outdoor triathlon.

Hopefully, anyway. 

I say hopefully because I'm writing this post on Thursday afternoon and scheduling it to publish Monday morning.  So I'm trying not to jinx myself. 

And also, I'm trying not to have a pre-swim panic attack.

As you know, I've been working up to doing a "real" triathlon for quite some time.  In addition to attending indoor swim classes now for ... what, close to two years maybe, I dunno ... back in February I raced and indoor tri called the Tri-U-Mah and pretty much nailed it.  No, I don't mean I was fast-fast, but I did well considering it was my first ever tri ... and I kept a 30mph pace on the bike, so there's that. 

Anyway, as soon as I completed Tri-U-Mah, I knew I was ready to transition into outdoor tri racing.  In preparation for what was to come, I did some wetsuit shopping, bought some open water swim gear and I started contemplating races.  And in fact, I had a race all picked out and was waiting to get in some open water swim practice before I registered ... but then, dang.  I realized it was the same weekend as a trip I had agreed to take with my husband, and we had already paid for a hotel, etc.  Shoot.

Back to square one and looking for a new race, a few months ago I started researching tris all around the area.  In my searching, initially I came across the "Chase the Police" tri and thought it looked interesting.  But, I wanted to weigh my other options.  So, I himmed and hawed through all sorts of races, with Chase the Police always sitting in the back of my head. 

OK fine.  Let's be real.  You know as soon as I read the course description, I was sold on Chase the Police.  I really had no intention of doing anything else:

"The course starts in the charming Walker City Park, where police, EMS, and military personnel will start the race by chasing the ceremonial doughnut into Leech Lake. Once the police and EMS personnel are on their way with their “head start,” the racers will then start the race and “chase” the police, attempting to catch up to them and finish the race before them."

Before I had truly admitted to myself that I was doing Chase the Police, though, I still continued to review my options.  Factoring in a multitude of other personal commitments (meaning I had a limited amount of open weekends when I could actually race a tri), and the reality that I wouldn't be in shape for anything more than a sprint distance in 2015 simply due to lack of training time, I had essentially filtered down my race requirements to a sprint distance race the weekend of July 25-26. 

So, up until about 2-3 weeks ago, I was seriously considering both the Chase the Police and the Shell Lake tri (Shell Lake, Wisconsin), which were both scheduled to happen the same day.

But Shell Lake, dog!  What were you thinking?! 

Shell Lake - 0.33 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. 
Chase the Police - 0.25 mile swim, 17 mile bike, 2.8 mile run.

Knowing my swim is my weakest sport and biking is my strongest (for now anyway, which isn't saying much), comparing Shell Lake to Chase the Police was a no brainer.  Not only did Shell Lake make me swim and run further, it cut the bike down by 2 miles - where I was likely to do the best, it was shorter.  Boo! 

That meant, not too long ago, I was posting this:

So ... that's where I stand.  A premise to my first ever tri and a suggestion to pee in my wet suit.  Heh.

That's all I got for now.  You'll just have to sit tight for the official recap, which like all my race recaps, will be published Wednesday.