Last Saturday, October 11, I participated in the Mesa Sprint Triathlon and my first triathlon of all time. My day would consist of a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. For anyone who knows me, I was not looking forward to this. The joke had been, "my first triathlon would be my last triathlon"; swimming in general had been something difficult for me to really enjoy doing. I'm also a bit scared to ride in traffic on the bike during training so I tend to shy away from it for that reason. I couldn't imagine how I was going to like this, but I needed to overcome whatever was holding me back. Fear, pessimism, lack of confidence? My best friend was doing it too - not her first triathlon, but something she started within the past year or so - and she has the power to basically get me to sign up for almost anything.
The swim was easily the most chaotic event of the day, but thankfully it doesn't last long and it is out of the way first. All of the training I had put in to trying to swim well with good form, didn't matter so much come race day. Swimmers entered the water at 10 second intervals based on how long we thought it would take to finish (fastest swimmers first). The reality is, there are so many of you in the pool, and people are either overestimating their speed, underestimating their speed, or stopping for reasons unknown to me... People get bunched up and you can't really just swim your heart out with good form. At least for me, I constantly had my eye on other people because I didn't want to get kicked in the head or something. Some of these people were really flailing around. (For a lot of us it was our first triathlon - a plus, overall - but scary in the water.) What I thought would take me 10 minutes, took 12 minutes, but a small chunk of my overall day.
I have no idea how long the transition is supposed to take from swim to bike, but it felt like it took forever to dry my feet off, put shoes on, and put my helmet on. I guess I'll have to put some more thought into that if I do another one. Having the tri suit helped so I didn't have to change clothes.
The bike portion is next and consisted of 3 loops of a 4 mile city block (1 mi each direction). Looking back on this, I underestimated the importance of training here and just assumed if I know how to ride a bike, I would do okay. I did do okay, but it was my worst event compared to other athletes. I was 28 of 36 in my age group on the course. For me it was a personal best (54:13 vs my one duathlon at 59:10). Some people are telling me it's the bike, I think it's the cyclist. I just bought a new road bike in August which was leaps and bounds above the mountain bike I had been sporting since age 13. I think the area needing work is the cyclist, not the bicycle. :) I'll need to get over my fear of traffic and/or get up early enough to drive to some of the good local biking trails to get more training in. A training partner to hold me accountable would probably help. Thankfully I know a few.
The second transition only involved racking my bike, taking my helmet off and traipsing off with my energy gel in hand. I think it was 1:11 and like 5th in my age group. I'm not sure what everyone else was doing during that time.
At least I killed it on the run. 5k time 30:05, not a PR but I passed a lot of people that passed me on the bike, so at least I was able to make up some time somewhere. But I knew going into it, if I could survive long enough to get to run, I would be golden. A lot of people walk this part, which is 1) a huge relief! and 2) a section of the race I should be able to do well at, even if the other two are a little stinky.
And then, when I finished, I let out a huge sigh. My total time was 1:40:57, significantly better than what I thought I'd do (I estimated my total time would be about 2 hours solid). My best friend's brother (basically, my brother) met me at the finish. I felt pretty darn good all things considered. So I said, "I guess I'll do another one."
Then, my best friend found out, and called me out on Facebook for reneging on my hate for triathlons. So, Heather, this is for you! :P
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| Photo Credit to L Ellis |
I have no idea how long the transition is supposed to take from swim to bike, but it felt like it took forever to dry my feet off, put shoes on, and put my helmet on. I guess I'll have to put some more thought into that if I do another one. Having the tri suit helped so I didn't have to change clothes.
The bike portion is next and consisted of 3 loops of a 4 mile city block (1 mi each direction). Looking back on this, I underestimated the importance of training here and just assumed if I know how to ride a bike, I would do okay. I did do okay, but it was my worst event compared to other athletes. I was 28 of 36 in my age group on the course. For me it was a personal best (54:13 vs my one duathlon at 59:10). Some people are telling me it's the bike, I think it's the cyclist. I just bought a new road bike in August which was leaps and bounds above the mountain bike I had been sporting since age 13. I think the area needing work is the cyclist, not the bicycle. :) I'll need to get over my fear of traffic and/or get up early enough to drive to some of the good local biking trails to get more training in. A training partner to hold me accountable would probably help. Thankfully I know a few.
The second transition only involved racking my bike, taking my helmet off and traipsing off with my energy gel in hand. I think it was 1:11 and like 5th in my age group. I'm not sure what everyone else was doing during that time.
At least I killed it on the run. 5k time 30:05, not a PR but I passed a lot of people that passed me on the bike, so at least I was able to make up some time somewhere. But I knew going into it, if I could survive long enough to get to run, I would be golden. A lot of people walk this part, which is 1) a huge relief! and 2) a section of the race I should be able to do well at, even if the other two are a little stinky.
And then, when I finished, I let out a huge sigh. My total time was 1:40:57, significantly better than what I thought I'd do (I estimated my total time would be about 2 hours solid). My best friend's brother (basically, my brother) met me at the finish. I felt pretty darn good all things considered. So I said, "I guess I'll do another one."
Then, my best friend found out, and called me out on Facebook for reneging on my hate for triathlons. So, Heather, this is for you! :P
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