Activity - 6/11/21 (Learning Outcome 1)

 On Sunday, I competed in my second in person sprint triathon. This one took place outside of Fayettville, Arkansas, which is conveniently about an hour away from where I'm staying for the summer. On the day of the race I was extremely nervous, like I always am, but also excited because I was ready for the feeling of accomplishment I knew I would have once I had finished. Although I was excited the race, there were several added challenges that I had not had in my previous race. The first one was the fact that this was the Arkansas state championship meet, meaning the fastest high schoolers from Arkansas would be racing. This meant the competition would likely be tougher. The second challenge was the hills. In Houston there are virtually no hills, so when I come to a new place completely unprepared it makes it extremely difficult. The race had an open water swim, then a bike through the hills, then a run that also had a big hill you had to complete on each of the two loops. While I was racing I was exhausted, but when I finished I suddenly had the "end of race rush" where I was so proud of myself for working and hard and giving it my all, even when I felt like giving up part-way through. 

This activity falls under learning outcome 1, because I realized that I have so much room to improve in all three events, but also especially in terrain. I felt confident in the swim, but as soon as I got to the hills on my bike I began to struggle. Although being in Houston it is difficult to train on hills, while I am in Arkansas for the summer I want to take advantage of it and improve. This training will help me if I ever do another race here, but it was also help me in general to become a stronger biker and continue to improve in my other races.