1st triathlon for 2011 completed!

Mark and I just got home from a whirlwind trip down to Miami University to do the year's first triathlon!  In less than 24 hours, we drove for about 4.5 hours down and 4.5 hours back, completed a sprint triathlon, and had fun despite the rainy weather.  Mark, unfortunately, is still recuperating from his achilles surgery in February, so he had to watch this year, which was tough, as last year he came in 4th overall (out of about 650 participants).  But he came down anyway to cheer me on and it was great having him there with me.  I had a good race, but not as good as last years.  Last year, I was training for the ironman, so was in pretty good shape.  This year, although I'm keeping a base going, I haven't really been doing any serious training.  My time was about 4 minutes slower than last year, and it was pretty evenly split - 1 minute slower on the swim, 2 minutes slower on the bike, and the rest due to slower transitions.  My run was pretty much the same.  So, I guess I've learned that I can't slack off on the swim and bike and expect to race the same.  I've only swam in the pool twice since September!  Now, that's taking a break.  And I haven't ridden outside since the PVG ride in October.  Anyway - time to get serious if I'm going to do well at September's half ironman.
The swim part of the Miami triathlon is my favorite swim out of most triathlons (except Mirror Lake at Lake Placid!).  They changed the bike course this year, and it was a nicer, more scenic course and not as hilly as previous years - more of a rolling course, but no big climbs.  The run was the same, except for a slight variation at the beginning due to all the rain/mud.  Yes, it started raining during the bike this year and continued thru the end of the race.  But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I had been worrying all week about racing in the cold/wind/rain.  And even though it was chilly (about 52), wet, and windy at times, all in all, the weather was pretty good for racing.
It felt good to be racing outside again.  It's a sign that spring is finally here.  Now, we just have to get Mark healed so he can be out there running, biking and swimming with me.