Mt First Race

After a year of hard work and a very big struggle to overcome my groin injury, I have had my first competition. The targets I had set out were completely forgotten as I was at the mercy of luck. It all depended on whether I would feel pain or not.

It was either luck or the cold water or even the adrenaline rush in doing such a fun and challenging activity that I felt no pain at all.

I finished my Swim part in 15:07 - a good time for a starter but definitely needs to improve as I had to breathe every 2 strokes instead of 3.

Although I almost tripped in the water before coming out, I managed to get the 3rd best time in transition 1 (28 seconds) from my age group and had a personal best bike split of 37:25; much better than I had ever anticipated.

 The last part, and the part which I usually dislike was running. However, on the day I was so happy with my performance that I just started running and thought of nothing else than having more fun. This is also the part I feel less confident and least trained so the time of 26:20 is definitely the area for major improvement.

I managed to finish in a total of 1:19:52 - a very positive outcome for a complete beginner. Looking at the race in retrospect, I now know better how and where I can reduce my times both with harder and more meaningful training as well as some gear upgrades in the bike portion. With this good result, I am now much more motivated to become better but I also must never forget to have fun - a key area for continuous motivation.

Here are the full results of the Triathlon Series Race 1:
http://www.bkarastjoseph.com/assets/files/Triathlon/Race%20One%20Results%202012%201.pdf

Anatoly