Ballard's Blog: Midwest Mayhem!!!

(WAAAYYY Overdue post.......)

Well we did it!!!! Our FIRST triathlon....Midwest Mayhem at Lonestar Lake.

It...Was...Awesome!!!
Steph and I are for sure hooked on these things. We had such a good time and it was soooo different than marathons and half marathons!

My brother was the one to convince us to try one and he was training with us the first month or so, untill.....he tore his ACL! UGGGHHH!!! Not a happy camper, but he was there to support us the whole way!!

Minus standing in your swim suit with tons of people you don't know, everything else was pretty natural.

Mom started out with us at 5AM to get the the race and setup and then we were just introduced to everything we needed to do. We set up our bikes, layed out each piece of gear as we would use it and then just waited!

The swim was in 8 waves. The Long course started first men and women and then we got lined up. I was in wave 7 and Steph was in 8, according to age groups.

I was definitely nervous for the 500 meter swim considering we really only started a month & half before the race and only rode the bike like 3 times before the race! But everything went really well. I felt pretty good during the swim and even passed some men in the waves before me! Got out of the water and you had to run up a sandy hill to get to the bikes. I got my helmet, shoes and shorts and was off on the bike. The 11.4 mile bike ride was really pretty and REALLY hilly! All in all it wasn't bad, but there were some points I didn't know if my legs would pedal any faster. It was fun though! The last leg was from bike to run and by far the HARDEST part. You have to dismount your bike in a certain area or you are disqualified, so once I hit the spot, I got off and "tried" running to mount the bike in the rack and get running. It was the weirdest feeling getting off the bike, I was just really wobbly. Once I racked the bike and started off for the run, it only took me a quarter to half mile to get my legs really under me and then I was good to go. The run was "my thing" so I felt pretty confident. Considering it was like 105 degrees out at that point, there was no comfort in the weather. The swim wasn't even refreshing b/c it was like bath water. But my 5K run was one of my best in a while even with 2 legs of competition before it!

I ended up coming in as the 4th overall female, 37th overall athlete, 1st in my age group and my total time was 1:18.59. 13:57 for swim, 39:17 for bike, and 22:44 for run.

Steph did AWESOME tooo!! We never saw eachother, even though I know we passed on bike at some point, but its hard to concentrate when you're zooming by. She did great in her swim, bike and run, which I got to see her finish up on and was flying into the finish!!! We have to get some more training in before we do another....it takes up LOTS of time, and we'll have to start thinking of bikes to borrow or maybe purchase soon, but we'll be back on the triathlon kick again! We hope to get Brett B. and Brett T. with us next time!!!!