Triathlon dress rehearsal

Yesterday I did the full-length triathlon. Two also-competing friends, Beth and Carrie, joined me, although Beth had to run along to the airport instead of running the 5K. So, two of us did the whole thing. And I lived to tell the tale, although not on the day I did it. Yesterday I was busy putting a Bluestem-shaped sweaty mark on my floor.

So it was supposed to hit 87 degrees. The plan was "get it over before the heat really gets going." Uh. Not entirely successful on that front. We started at 7 am (as my Sunday paper waited, sadly yet patiently, on the driveway) by biking to the gym (3 miles). We used the one lock one of us (hint: not me) managed to remember to lock up our bikes. Swam half a mile. Got out, biked another 11 miles, ending at our houses. Ran the 5K. I started running with Carrie but couldn't keep up, and finished the rest at my pace.

The whole thing, er, took, um, *cough* three hours. But! There were very long transition times. So that's my excuse. Plus it was hot. Oh, and Carrie had to nurse her baby before the run. So, actually, seriously, it was a pretty decent time, considering all that. I'm not entirely sure, but the swim was roughly 24 minutes, the bike a little over an hour, and the run 40 minutes. Had I been doing it alone I think I could have biked it in 55 minutes. I'm thinking my previous guess of two hours is not going to happen.

So. The other important component of this dry run was figuring out What to Wear, which sounds girly but is dead serious. I've elected not to buy a trisuit (hint: $$$), so this is a big deal.

Here's what I wore:

• Land's End tankini, as it must be a two piece (I don't have that exact one, but I'm sure someone out there doesn't know what a tankini is. And he's German and knows a lot about crystals.)
• Champion sports bra
• Biking shorts bought at Performance at least 12 years ago
• Dri-Fit tanktop

This is how it works. Start off with tankini, with jog bra on under it. Add biking shorts and tanktop, since we were biking to the pool. At pool, remove shorts and tank. Wear tankini and jog bra for the swim. After swim, take off tankini top, add tank and shorts back on over wet jog bra and swimsuit bottom. Do rest of race with that combo of items. Notice that at no point does one need a changing room for public decency! Clever, no?

Everything worked out great, except I wanted pockets, so on future training runs I'll wear a biking top, since they always have pockets in the back. For the actual race I probably don't need to carry my phone and Kleenex and such, so it won't matter.

Three weeks until we do it for real.