Chili Day Indoor Festival Triathlon

 The race was held in Oklahoma City at the downtown YMCA. It entailed a 300 yd swim, 8 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. When you signed up (at signmeup.com) you were able to pick the time that you wanted to start. Waves were set for every 45 minutes with 8 to a wave. I showed up early so that I could see how the whole thing worked. It turned out to not be nearly as crowed and hectic as I thought an indoor triathlon would be.
After the previous wave had all cleared the bike area you were able to go in and get your bike and transition area (next to your bike) set up.

The pool was 4 lanes wide. With a full wave, two people would share a lane. HOWEVER, when there are only two of you in the wave you get your very own lane! It turned out to be a lot of fun racing against just one other person. We were very evenly matched and it stayed close the entire time. The bike portion of the the race was set up just outside of the pool area, so our swim time ended when we went through the door that separated the two areas. In hindsight I would have just left my towel by the bike and dried off there as opposed to climbing out of the pool, walking to the wall to grab the towel, drying off, then jogging through the door to the bike area. Not very well thought out.   SWIM: 300yds-5:53

The bike portion was on Schwinn spin bikes with VERY friendly computers attached. We were told that the bike portion would be a downhill course, and this became very apparent when I looked down and saw myself  going 28 mph. The volunteers were very helpful (as pictured above) in making sure you were situated on the bike and even chatting about cadence, bike fit, training for road races, etc.  
This is another part of the race that I didn't think out very well ahead of time. The pedals had cages that you could cinch down to your foot to make it a little bit easier. I have taken a lot of spin classes and have dealt with these very cages. For some reason I neglected to get this part of the bike situated when I was setting it up. I ended up having to stop pedaling a few times trying to get this taken care of, but with no success. Most of the 8 miles was done with part of the pedal slapping the ground on each rotation. I realized how much I LOVE my foot being attached to my pedals. 
Bike: 8miles-18:52

Off to the treadmill. Again, should-a-could-a-would-a. The one part that I didn't check out was the treadmills. I didn't realize that they were numbered (duh!) so there was  a little bit of wasted running around trying to find my treadmill. I had done a few bricks when I was getting ready for this, so my legs weren't TOTALLY pissed about what I was putting them through. My lungs on the other hand were fed up with the whole idea.
Run: 2miles-19:37

The race went very smoothly, which is saying a lot since this is the first year for the event. They did a great job putting it together. Results were posted very quickly considering it was a 3 day event. I had a great time doing this race and I think that it was the perfect way to get the season started.

total time: 44:22