Kick off the season!-Cherry Blossom Tri

Well, this is the first year I am old enough to compete in this tri, so I was looking forward to it. I was confident in my ability to perform well, based on how training was going, but was still unsure of how I would do in my first Non-drafting tri race in 2 seasons.  I had the fastest seated swim time going in, so I was the first to start. I swam well, Probably about 1:11’s if you subtract the running down stairs and the time it takes going 15m sideways when moving lanes. I was able to snatch the swim coarse record so I was pleased with that. I got onto the bike and had some trouble with my shoes when the strap came out of its loop hole, I finally got it in part way into the first lap, and was relieved about that. It was a 3 lap bike course and I was trying to maximize my aerodynamics while still not getting too sore. I rode pretty hard, but still wanting to have a ripper run. Oh yah…when I was coming around for my first lap of the bike I almost got hit by a bus that pulled out right in front of me, going 39 km/hr in aero position! I had to swerve into the oncoming traffic lane on the other side of the barricade! Oddly, enough, I was mostly worried about the riders catching from behind, while riding back over the barricade and back into my lane. I got back up to speed and had to think about something else! Thankfully, it only happened once.
When I hit the run, I felt pretty good, besides a sore hip from aero on my little Draft legal tri bars, but I ran hard. On a slightly slow coarse, cause of gravel and such, I was pleased with my time of 16:25 so 3:16 per km. Big shout out to the lead bike who was most helpful throughout the run! I finished in a time of 1:02 and won the race by exactly 2 min. Very pleased with my overall performance and glad to get some learning experiences before bigger ones going up. A few tweaks and I should be ready for the CSG qualifier in 2 weeks time!