Third Tri -- Not the Charm

So I did my third triathlon yesterday. I finished, which is the good thing, but it was NOT a fun race. It was REALLY windy, which made it much harder than the other two I have done. The swim was difficult because the water was very choppy. It was hard to make progress swimming and every time I tried to breath I got a mouthful of water. I heard that the lifeguards actually had to rescue someone during the swim! The bike was no better than the swim - biking into the wind most of the course. It was hard to get going in the wind. Once I made it about 10 miles into the bike I thought I was doing ok, then I hit 2 HUGE hills. I had to get off the bike and walk up the hills because they were so big and because it was at the end of the course! Especially bad because the course description said that the entire bike course was "flat and fast." Not quite. The run was not as bad, but at least half of the run was through the grass - which was up to about my mid calf and which was muddy from the rain the 3 days prior to the race. All in all not so fun, but at least I finished it!

Swim - 38 minutes 53 seconds
Transition 1 - 3 minutes 35 seconds
Bike - 53 minutes 53 seconds
Transition 2 - 1 minute 58 seconds
Run - 38 minutes 56 seconds

When I finished they gave me a first place plaque. I thought it was a fluke because there was NO WAY! I got the results today and it was an error - I was second in my division. There were three people total in the division and one did not finish. Oh well. All in all, I only beat 7 people in the entire race, but I wasn't last. No more triathlons for me this year. We will have to see what next year brings as far as triathlons. If I continue to do them, I will definitely need some better swim training and I would like to learn more about cycling.