However, I ended up with a GREAT coach - Julie Frost - who worked with me individually on the bike portion. She gave me great coaching advice on how to ramp up for the 10 mile bike ride and, more importantly, gave me the mental confidence I needed to believe in myself and do the race.
There were really no surprises with the swimming and running, but it turns out that biking on a stationary bike is COMPLETELY different than biking on a real bike, in nature with real weather and gravity elements. I honestly didn't know if I had it in me to complete the bike ride. Before the day of the race the furthest I had ridden was eight miles. Julie assured me my adrenaline on race day would give me the power I needed.
My goal was to finish the race is 2:10 and I had not taken into account transition times. My planned breakdown was a 12 minute swim (500 meters), 1:10 bike ride (10 miles) and 45 minute run (5K). The actual was a 00:13:30 swim, 50 minute bike ride and 55 minute run. The rolling hills on the bike course did not allow me to stop pedaling. So, I came in much faster than anticipated. However, my legs were shot for the run and I ended up having to walk (slowly) the 5K portion. Of 615 races I was finisher 602. My finish time (with transitions) was 02:13:11.
As my coaches said, better to be a DNF than a DNS. I was a finisher!
