iTRYathlon: Women’s and Youth Triathlon

I finished my first triathlon at this event! It was quite small with about 500 participants total, but it was actually pretty fun. The reason that I picked this one is because the distances seemed very do-​able. I believe the standard sprint distance is about a 500m swim, 12mi bike, and 3.1 mi run. This one was 200m swim, 9mi bike, and 3.1mi run. Like a fool, I didn’t really train for this event. But I don’t think I did too shabby. Many other people here were also first time triathletes.
This event was a reverse triathlon, so instead of swimming, biking, and running, in that order, this one was running, biking, and then swimming. I’m not quite sure why they do this, but it’s a pretty terrible idea. I definitely felt my muscles giving out while swimming. I previously thought that the swim would be the easiest portion, but it’s very difficult to do when your legs are dead and your heart is racing like a million beats per minute.
I thought it was a pretty well organized event, and liked that they had timing chips for each portion of the race. There is a transition area for the race where you store your bike and all your other gear. I had imagined a more private area, but it’s basically just a coned off area outside. There’s hundreds of spectators so it’s not exactly a place you want to be changing. Since this is located at a school, I also assumed there would be lots of bathrooms, but they only allowed us to use two porta-​potties. Are you kidding me!!! Don’t they understand how much water racers drink??? Minus one star for this alone.
Other than that, I thought it was a good event to encourage people to be more active. It’s a great beginner triathlon and it’s totally do-​able for even the non athletes. Everyone here were different shapes, sizes, and ages. So no need to be intimidated. They give you 2 ½ hours to finish which is ample time, even if you go at a leisurely pace.