As I entered the transition zone my shadow fell off my pace and I knew where I was going. Our bikes were on the second to last rack on the end. I was hoping by the time I got there all the bikes would be gone. I ran so fast most of the bikes were still there.
I tried to set up my bike and helmet so I would have a quick tranisition and it worked out pretty good. I grabed the helmet put it on and unhooked my bike and started running with it. I didn’t buckle my helmet and as i started running I tried to buckle it one handed. That did work, so I stopped and tried the two handed buckling technique. My hands were shaking from the run and it took me a few tries. I got it and headed for the exit of the transistion zone.
Immediately out of the transition zone was the mounting area (FYI Its not as fun as it sounds). People were backed up here. Many people had the fancy bikes with pedels that required locking in shoes, I had the generic flat pedels and didn’t have this problem. As people stopped in the path and tried to mount their overly complicated bike I found a path through the mess and did a running leg throw mount and I was off and going.
It was three laps on the runway and I felt like I was moving. But I was gettin passed by everyone. As we headed into the wind I changed gears and tucked my head down. Going downwind I sat up and got to my fast gear, I was started moving or i thought I was. I was getting lapped my many of the good triathletes and I was expecting that but I was getting passed by a lot of people on mountan bikes and I felt like I was pedaling my road bike much faster. But at least I was knocking off those miles.
At the end of the second lap after the downwind stretch there was a 90 degree turn on to a taxiway and everyone slowed down for it, but we wanted to carry as much speed as possible.
Well the girl on the Huffy who passed me was carring a little too much speed and went over the side of her bike, sliding to a stop. I would like to know the etiqute on situations like this. She immediately got up as I managed to miss her fallen bike and race staff were running to her aid. Should I have stopped? Keep in mind I wasn’t setting a course record or tring to place but I wanted to try to catch my brother. What should I have done?
After one more lap I was coming back to the transition area and it was time to get mentlally prepared for the swim. I am not a swimmer and I didn’t train at all for the swim. I was just hoping that I would not need help from the lifeguard.