
I did the sprint distance, which was a 750 meter swim, 12.5 mile (20km) bike, and a 3.1 mile (5km) run. The swim stage went surprisingly well for me. I played down my expectations for it and expected to finish in the upper-mid pack and just wanted to relax. But I guess all my training paid off, because I was actually the second one out of the water. It was pretty disorienting coming out of the water, but I managed. The bike stage was pretty easy. There were a *ton* of people on the course because they had a staged start (small groups of athletes started at 5 minute intervals). I did pretty well and I passed a ton of people, and only got passed by maybe a dozen others. By the time I got to the run stage though, I was tired, I was dehydrated, and I was over heating. The sun had come out by then and it was incredibly hot in Austin today (I think we set a record high). I ran the slowest 5K of my life by a large margin and it felt horrible until I sprinted in the last 400 meters or so.
All in all, it was really fun and more difficult than I thought it would be. Best of all, when the final results came out, I found that I won 1st place in my age division. Not bad for my first triathlon, eh?

