All smiles pre-race… Long before I put my wetsuit on. After that it was a different story.

Saturday, June 1st, I competed in my first triathlon up in Pawling, NY. What an amazing experience! I haven’t been nervous or anxious about a race in quite some time, but when you’re about to conquer the unknown, the mind will take you to very strange places. I wasn’t worried about the biking or the running, I do those all the time. It was the swimming! The

Quick shot of my transition area before the race.

swim was only 0.3 of a mile, since this was a sprint triathlon, but the buoy looked as though it was a mile out in the middle of the lake. I had played out the swim in my mind zillions of times before the race… But new issues arose, such as: when do I put on my wetsuit? and, when should I put my race belt on? Before I knew it it was time to suit up, all I could think was, “It’s so freaking hot, and I’m sweating, how am I supposed to get this on?”

After the pulling and shimmying to get into my wetsuit it was time for the race to start. I’m sure the look on my face at this point was pure terror. I dove into the water, and couldn’t help but look at all the weeds at the bottom of the lake. By the time I got out to the last buoy I was exhausted. The swim back was pure survival mode. All I could think was “biking is next, I’m good at biking, no, I’m great at biking.” My swim split put me at 303rd place out of the water… Yikes.

Before I knew it I was in and out of T1. Time to hammer on the bike. The temperature was rising fast, it felt like it must’ve been almost 90 degrees by this point. 11 miles later I was cruising back into transition and there was a woman standing close by my bike rack. She said, “The first woman just left transition, go get her!” “Really?”, I thought. It was hot, and

Sprinting to the finish line at Pawling Tri

humid and I was tired, but was she really right there? She was, I could see her. Eventually I caught up to her (Jean Norton, she was the winner of the race last year), and we exchanged some words of encouragement. With less the .5 miles left in the run I passed her, and tried to run as fast I could to the finish line. Two young guys were holding the finish line tape up as I crossed. “Did I win?”, I thought. Even though I was the first female across the line doesn’t essentially mean that I won. There were seven waves of people that went off after my wave, so I knew that everything was based on time. I had no idea what my time was, it didn’t seem to matter to much to me at the time. I was just happy I finished the race!

Finally it was time for the awards. I still hadn’t looked at the results or knew my time, so I assumed I probably just won my age group. I hear the race promoter say “The female winner with a time of 1:12:27…” I was thinking “Wow, that’s a pretty good time.” He then says, “…Competing in her first ever triathlon…” Now I’m like, “Jeez, maybe someone else is doing their first tri today too?” He finishes, “Zuri Wilson!” I look at my mom and was like “Holy cow! That’s me!” I couldn’t believe it, especially with the swim that I had.

Photo Credit: NYTC.org

 Proof that hard work pays! And mind over matter all day everyday.

YOLO

Posing for my mom after winning the Pawling Triathlon.