Tri the Ridge

I signed up Thursday for today's Tri the Ridge triathlon put on by the Pickens YMCA. I didn't make time to go drive the bike course, so the whole thing was a bit of an unknown. I suspected it would be less professionally run than the Set-Up events I've mostly done in the past, but I was wrong about that. The race shirts were even navy blue technical shirts with mens and women's sizes available.

I was ill-trained but determined to have fun. I got there early, but didn't try to warm up. The swim was 300 yards in a 25 yard pool, so up one side of each lane and down the other side. Too crowded, and people seemed to expect that the person in front would stop if they wanted to pass. The swim ended with a long run down a hill to the transition area, so I don't know how accurate my 7.5 minute swim time prediction was.

The bike was rolling hills and some lovely rural roads. I didn't think the hills were terrible, but they did slow me down. My bike time wasn't the slowest, by 10 minutes or more, but I didn't pass anyone. Bike time for 12.4 miles about 55 minutes

By run time it was hot, but at least most of the run course was shaded. I started out walking, as I knew my legs wouldn't want to run off the bike. By the second mile I was running relatively freely, though I walked the hills and occasional rests. I felt slow, but given how little I have run it went fairly well. Run time for 5 k about 52 minutes.

Overall time 2:05:32. I waited around for the awards, because out of about 150 participants how many were there in the women 55-59 age group? But there were at least three, because they gave two awards to people ahead of me.