Done!. [Wendy]

Goal accomplished! Finished the reverse triathlon! If anything is easier said than done, it applies to this triathlon. It's been a few hours since I finished the race and since then, I have been relaxing at home. Looking back at the triathlon, I definitely learned from a lot of things I should have done and a few things I shouldn't have done. You are probably wondering if I thought I did well. Yes and no. Yes, because finishing feels like such an accomplishment. When you finish the triathlon, you will feel both mentally and physically great. Your body will be pushed to the limit but when you finish, the reward is like completing an extremely tough workout. No, I don't think I did well in the triathlon because of some of the mistakes I made.

The race began with the 5 k flat run around the base. There were about 800 people packed in a very long line behind the starting point. When the race started, everybody began choosing a comfortable pace. These were experienced runners, very little people there were under 18 years old. I expected them to begin walking after the first mile, but surprisingly I did not see any. Eventually, I fell into place among a group of people who were going a comfortable pace with me. I was positioned in the middle front of the entire race (in the beginning). The first mile took longer than expected. As I ran past the first mile mark, a professional timer shouted, "8:30!" I was starting to feel tired at 1.5 miles because I had never really trained past 2 miles consecutively. At this point, I knew that I should slowed down to a more comfortable pace instead of trying to pass more and more runners. At two miles, it was 17:??. This was when everything started going downhill. After another half mile, I started to feel winded. This was past anything I have trained, and I instantly regretted not training a little bit harder. Unfortunately, I stopped and began to walk. The run was actually 3.3 miles, so the last mile really killed me. People began passing me from behind, and the minute I tried to run again, I would eventually slow down to a walk again. Some people would encourage me to keep running, and it helped. I ended up doing what inexperienced runners do: sprint a 100 yards and then walking and then sprinting and then walking. It was the longest mile I have ever traveled in my entire life. My head felt dizzy and dazed, but when I saw the transition area, I felt a sudden rush of relief.

(I never found out my 5k run time, but I DONT WANT TO KNOW!)

Transitioning shouldn't be difficult. All you have to do is mount your bike, put on your helmet, and leave. That's what I thought. Imagine having to do that when your mind and your body are half paralyzed from an excruciating run. After the run, the transition was a million times more difficult than I had ever imagined. Clumsily, I fumbled with my bike and struggled to put my helmet on. At the same time, my shoes were a huge fussle, because the shoelace got stuck on the bike. In an instant of frustration, i made a stupid and rash decision just to save a few seconds of fixing the problem. I threw down my shoe and commenced on my 12 mile bike without shoes and without water. I began to peddle my way through and I kept in mind about pacing myself this time. I did pace myself very well for the bike, but the only problem was: my bike! Mostly everybody had professional bikes: light-weight, large wheels, shoulder handle bars. I was peddling at 3 times the speed some of them were, but they were going the same speed as me! :/ I didn't want to risk trying to change gear's on Yero's bike because I was afraid something could have gone mechanically wrong. So, there I was, biking in socks. It was a relief to bike instead of run, but my mom told me later on that I went back a little bit after the bike ride. I was motivated the entire time to get to the water stand, so I biked my fastest on the last lap.

The bike ride was done! I reached the transition area again, but this time, my legs were dead sticks. I parked my bike and changed into my swim gear. I tried running to the pool, but it was sad because I could no longer physically run! I felt a like a million pounds while my muscles begged not to be used anymore. But then, I spotted the pool, and I knew I would be finished soon. I jumped in the pool and began to swim down the first lane. As I surfaced the water, I expected to fly across the water and reach a sprinting speed to make up for how many people had passed me before. It was the weirdest sensation in the world because, I couldn't! My legs and my arms felt like a ton of weight and no matter how much faster I pulled or kicked, I felt like I was being dragged down. Still, I swam faster than most of the swimmers, but I only managed to pass a few people per lap. When I reached the ending point in the pool, there were lifeguards there to help people out. I have swum in a pool since I was 5, and since then, I have never needed help getting out of a pool. But here, I found myself being grabbed by a lifeguard and being assisted like everybody else. I had finished!

Yes, I did make a lot of mistakes for my first triathlon. I bombed my running and forgot my shoes, but hey, I finished, and that was my goal from the beginning. Of course, I would want to do another triathlon because now, I know how to train for it and how to prepare. I'm sure the next time, I will improve a lot because of the hard-learned lessons from this triathlon: Los Alamitos Race on the Base 1st annual reverse triathlon.

Do you want to know the results? Everybody says results don't matter, just try your best, but a race wouln't be fun without results- just don't expect too much haha. I'll post them when they come out (: