I have to say I am proud of myself and that I need to learn how to use the gears on my bike because I'm not sure I was in the right gear for getting the most speed out for the amount of pedaling I was doing. 
1st: I'm proud of myself! I finished the entire thing doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing the entire time. I swam great (and passed a good number of people in the pool - including people who were younger than me and a few on swim teams... the old dog still has some tricks) although it was not one of my "tear up the pool" days, it was still a good one. I biked well and even passed a few people (and admittedly was passed as well), but like I said I need to learn about the gears on my bike because I think if I was in the right gears I may have been able to be more efficient - I had lowered the gears to make it "easier" for pedaling during the race, but I'm not sure that really translated as much as I had hoped to my speed. And I ran the entire 2.3 miles at the end... sometimes a rather slow pace, but I ran it all. But, I know I also ran slower than I should have because at the end I felt like I could have run a good bit longer... and I need to learn how to visually judge distances because when they said that I only had 100 feet left I should have picked up the pace right away but decided to wait and before I knew it I was crossing the finish line without getting to get my final sprint/digging it out in. And, I need to stretch more at the end because my quads are a little stiff and I think it's because I didn't stretch enough because I was too caught up in not having people wait on me and seeing my little girls, my hubby and my parents. I also need to work on my transitions, but I learned a few things that will help with that too.
But, all in all I am very happy with my first triathlon experience although I wish I had been at a normal triathlon that was more organized, etc. That said, there is something about the sheer joy of realizing that you just completed a swim, bike, run in a competition! It feels great! 
Before leaving for Sarasota on Saturday to celebrate my Dad's birthday (as well as being in town for the triathlon), I went to the Team in Training kickoff. Talk about an inspirational experience! In the past 40 years, TNT has raised almost 1 BILLION dollars for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and $600 Million of that has gone to cancer research. So many advances have occurred, but the cure has not yet been found... we need to find a cure for cancer. A young woman (24 years old) got up and spoke about discovering she had the most deadly form of Leukemia at 1 week before her 16th birthday and how if they hadn't gone for the test that day the doctors said she would have been dead in 2 weeks, and she talked about how LLS affected her life and has allowed her not only to survive but to thrive in the life she now has. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house!My TNT training starts tomorrow with our first swim practice, and I am looking forward to it... and I'm happy to say that my race number (175) most likely won't be worn off by then. It's my badge of honor from this race. And Jack (the nice man who set up his stuff next to me and was very encouraging as a seasoned triathlete), thanks for the tips and the encouragement! I hope to see you out there again sometime!
And you never know, Angelfish & Ladybug might be little triathletes themselves one day! They were very excited about Mommy "doing triathlon" and had fun routing for me. They even pretended to swim, bike and run... unfortunately for their shirts they decided to pretend to swim on the ground in the transition area (which was a roped off parking lot), then ride invisible bicycles, and then run like crazy things. I love it!
Now, for a good night's rest!
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