Wednesday, April 02, 2014

My 1st Triathlon

My first triathlon was this weekend and what an experience!  Talk about the gitters before the race, felt like I was in the bathroom for three hours before hand.  I was worried the morning of the race, frankly the entire time training that I would have a problem with my bike the day of the race.  Admittedly, I don't know much about the fixing of bikes or the maintenance, I've been trusting my bike guy in town to fix me up and give me tune up where/when needed.

Well, as luck would have it, we were lining up to begin and getting final instructions and they say  by the way, racer 86 (ME) you bike tire just exploded.  Ever possible four letter word raced through my head at that moment.  As I walked to my bike right before we began I was determined that I would ride a damn flat,I was going to finish my first triathlon come hell or high water (did I mention it was pouring rain).  As I arrived at my bike I was pleased to see that a mobile bike repair team was already fixing my tire, the front tire, which had been giving me trouble inflating that morning, had literally had a hole blow in the tire, not the tube.  They fixed me up with a Michelin tire, yea like the one on your car, said go worry about your race and we can settle up later!  How AWESOME!

Okay, so the first oh crap moment was out of the way before the race started and now to the pool where 160 participants were lining up for the indoor pool swim.  They had originally asked up to submit our 100 swim split times, which I did, I put mine in a few seconds faster than what I had been practicing at as I figured adrenaline would kick in on race day.  They announced that we would line up by on registration number, not swim split times.  I'm not super fast in the pool. But I am extremely comfortable in the water and as I watched number 40-80 go I thought oh crap, some of these folks are gonna hold me up.  Sure enough that happened.  There were two swimmers in each lane making it extremely difficult to pass, the lady in front of me couldn't make it 25 yards without stopping to stand up and rest, and I couldn't pass.  

My initial thought here was dang it lady, I've been training for this and so should have you, now you can even make it one lengthen without burning out.  CRAP!  Turns out I passed four people in the short 250 yard swim but I burned a lot of energy as I had to pass each of them by swimming underneath them, around wasn't an option, although the thought of swimming over them crossed my mind :-)!  I finished the swim in a little over 5 minutes, my training time was around 4:20 so passing and waiting to pass took quite a bit of time.  So I get out of the pool and head to the transition area and as instep out of the pool a guy is starting his run.  Wait what, I thought bike was next.

Sure enough, the bike was next the guy actually won the race in like 30 minutes, a semi pro triathlete with sponsors and all.  So I hop on my newly fixed Schwinn bike, BTW the tire cost just about as much as my entire bike cost, and hit the road after a lengthy transition (gotta work on those).  The bike was quick for me, 25 minute 7 miler, faster than any of my training splits and I averaged about 16 mph on a ladies Schwinn bike.  I can't wait to get a Quintana Roo!  Next came the crappiest part for me, the run.

I had been practicing the run for a while and initially, when I got off he bike and started jogging, my legs were like what the heck are you doing!  I could feel the lactic acid building up and about .3 miles in I had to stop and get some fluids in me.  As I mentioned I a previous post, I despise running and have a ton of room for improvement here,  in high school when I ran cross country to stay in shape for other sports, I ran a sub 8 minute mile.  Not fast, but I would love to get back there.  

So I finished the run, I finished my first triathlon!  55 minutes and change.  My goal next year for this event is 45 minutes, I think I can do it improving on the run and getting a good bike.  My goal was finishing and I did that, but the bug bit me hard and at the end of the race I was a little upset about not placing any higher in my age group.  My wife keeps reminding me this is my first and to race against myself and times,not others it's not like I'm a pro triathlete or anything!

For the race I had two goals and then a pie in the sky goal.  Goal #1, finish my first triathlon, check that one off the list.  Goal #2, come in under an hour, check that too!  Pie in the sky goal, come in under 50 minutes, close but no cigar.  I will get it next time on this super sprint distance.  

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