I did it! Today I just competed in my first triathlon! It was so much fun and I highly recommend it to anyone who might be thinking about it. It's been awhile since I've competed and I loved feeling the familiar sensation of the butterflies rustling around in my stomach. There's something so addicting about that :) When the atheltes arrived they wrote our bib numbers all over our bodies. I had 3362 written down each arm, across each thigh, on a bracelet around my wrist, on my bike, on my helmet, a bib on my shirt...I guess they didn't want to lose us. The first thing I did when after I had been marked was set up my transition station. There are all sorts of tips and tricks to setting it up, so believe me I watched all the videos on YouTube I could before I got there. I was able to warm up a little in the Schuylkill before the race got started but then all I could do was wait. I hate waiting. It's the worst part. Luckily the girls I was waiting next to were super friendly and did a good job of keeping me excited; it was their first tri too. The race coordinators divided up the start according to age and gender so that not all 1800 participants jumped in the water at the same time. I ended up in the third wave, so at least I didn't have long before it was my turn.
When the swim started, my main focus was not getting dunked by another swimmer or accidentally swimming over someone else. That was kind of tricky since you can only see two feet in front of you in that brown water (but hey, I didn't run in any dead animals so the river was at least pretty clean). I felt really good as I got going. All those years on swim team really paid off and I soon found myself in a nice rhythm just enjoying myself. Before I knew it, I was right up there with the group that started ahead of me. Awesome! Then before the end of the swim I was starting to creep up on the first group. Even better! My .9k swim time was 13:48. 
I jumped out of the water and started running to my transition station to get on my bike. The wetsuit was remarkably easy to take off. The hard part was putting on my bike jersey, I fussed with that for a little bit before I got it on. I threw on my helmet and ran out to the road. I was worried that since I haven't had a lot of experience in biking that this leg would kill me. But that wasn't the case. I was so pumped about the swim that I just started going for it. Jeremy and I had driven part of the course the day before so I knew a little of what to expect. We biked in the Strawberry Mansion part of Philly and it is gorgeous up there. Fields, trees, old restored houses, baseball fields...what a great ride. About 1/3 of the way into my ride I realized that I was passing a lot more people than were passing me. The ones that were passing me were total bikers with their speed bikes and crazy alien helmets, and even better, none of them had the age 20-24 written on their calf. The 24k bike was over before I knew it and my time was 50:36. The only problem I had with the bike was the dismount. My shoes clip into my pedals and I'm still working out all the kinks. I had unclipped to get off my bike, but when I went to step off my bike my shoe clipped back in. All of my body weight was leaning over to that side so there were nothing I could do. I fell down into two other athletes who were also getting off their bikes, as well as in front of all of the spectators. People said encouraging things like, "Way to get up." "Keep going." But it was still super embarrassing.
I traded my bike shoes for my running shoes for the final leg. I felt great on my bike and swim but by the time I got to the run I couldn't believe how spent I was. I expected my legs to feel like rubber, but I didn't expect my arms to be completely dead. I never realized how much I use those to pump me through the run. I just started running and held on. It was only a 5k. I kept telling myself that I can fake a 5k, but it was hard. I took some of the GU offered just to hopefully get me to the end of the race. I was so excited when I saw the end. I had been running at the same pace as another girl and when we saw the finish line we booked it. Timing mats had been placed along the race course to get all of your splits from off your timing clip. We ran over what we thought was the last one and stopped. The crowd started yelling, "Keep going!" We both looked up and saw that we had another 25 feet to go until we were done. Oops. We picked it up and finished in a time of 23:07. Not bad I guess. I was just thrilled to be done.
Meeting me at the finish line were Jeremy, Cambrie, Jordan, and Melissa. They had come to cheer me on and the girls had brought a sweet poster that their kids helped create. It was awesome having a cheering section. (Luckily they didn't see my fall). 
I finally had a chance to check out the wound on my knee from the fall and saw that there were flies on it. Gross! I was just going to leave it alone because I didn't think it was that bad, but after I saw the flies I headed straight to the First Aid tent to get some gauze on it. 
I went to check out my final time before we left and was shocked to see the results. My final time was 1:32.15. My goal was 1:45, so I was pretty excited. But the part that was really exciting was my placing...I finished third in my age group! Hurray! I didn't think I would get anywhere close to the top but I surprised myself. There were 47 women that were 20-24-years-old competing, and I finished third (the second place girl passed me on the run...oh well). I also finished 97th overall out of approximately 1800 participants. Sign me up again. That was awesome!
That's right. Expect baby #2 to show up at the Rogers' house around January 17th! We can't wait!
