It's official! I finished my first triathlon! This one was a sprint with a .25 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and 3 mile run. My time was 1:58:18 - just under my goal of 2:00, so I guess you could call it a success.
I got out of bed at 5:30 am and wondered why it's so much easier to get out of bed for a race than it is for work??? I had packed most everything the night before, so all I really needed to do was brush my teeth, get dressed, and go over the checklist one last time. I had everything I could think of that I would need, so I hit the road at about 5:50 and arrived at Devils Lake State Park at 7:00. The temperature was hovering around 32°F the whole time I was driving, and was 34°F when I arrived at the park. Can you say "shrinkage"?
I found my sister and her husband on my way to the check-in area, so I was already off to a good start. Check-in was a breeze, and we were off to set up our transition areas. My brother-in-law and I were in the same wave (6), so we set up right next to one another. I didn't really have any trouble getting my wetsuit on since I'd practiced several times at home, and it was nice and warm inside. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have anything warm to wear on my bare feet, so they got really cold walking in the wet grass.
Once we got down to the swim start area, I started to get really excited. We looked over the course, and the .25 mile didn't really look too intimidating. As the first 5 waves went out before me, my excitement grew and I started to feel a little nervous too. They called wave 6 to the beach, and then we were off. I started to the outside and in the back in order to be as clear of other swimmers as possible. It was about a 50 yards to the first buoy, and we were able to walk about the first 30 yards or so. Once I started swimming, I realized I wasn't comfortable putting my face in the water for some reason, so I just swam freestyle with my head up, sighting the buoy the entire time. Once we got around the buoy, I was in the back of the wave with about 5-6 other guys. I swam about 25 yards past the buoy and realized I was exhausted! This was MUCH harder than I had expected. I could NOT touch bottom at this point, so I switched over to side stroke, and then breast stroke until I just had to flip over on my back and rest. I was no more the 50 yards past the buoy (about 100 yards into the race), and I was already wondering how in the hell I was ever going to finish the swim. Thank God I had the new wetsuit, because I can guarantee that if I didn't I would NOT have finished the swim. I have a LOT of work to do in this area. Anyway, I continued to alternate between freestyle, side stroke, breast stroke and back float until I was about 30-40 yards from the 2nd buoy (about 350 yards from the starting line), and then I saw my brother-in-law to my left, and he informed me I could touch bottom here! AMEN BROTHER (IN LAW)! I promptly put my feet on the bottom, walked a while, talked to a couple of other guys around me (mostly from wave 7 who had caught me), and then decided to swim another 25 yards or so to get around the last buoy. Once I rounded that buoy, I stood up and headed for shore, stripping my wetsuit down to my waist.
Total swim time: 11:41
My brother-in-law and I were in T1 at the same time and he got out about a minute before I did. I was just happy to be alive and probably celebrated a little too much with some of the other guys in my wave who got there about the same time as we did. I also struggled getting the wetsuit off, which I'll need to work on more before the next tri. I was trying to use my thumb to pull it over my left foot, and after about 3 unsuccessful tries I discovered that I was pulling on the strap for the timing chip! Oops! Anyway, I finally got the suit off, threw on my Under Armour long sleeve compression shirt, my biking jersey, my socks, and my running shoes (you guessed it - I don't have fancy clipless pedals yet). Last, I put on my sunglasses and my helmet, grabbed my bike, and I was OFF like a prom dress. I ran my bike out of T1 to the mounting area and the bike segment had begun.
T1 time: 4:54
The bike was TOUGH! I knew there were some hills, but I was not prepared for these hills. According to the Garmin, we climbed 2219 feet over the course of the 15.3 mile bike course. My bike is not a triple, so I was VERY glad I had bought a 12/27 cassette to replace the 11/23 that came on the bike. There's NO WAY I would have made it up some of those hills with the original cassette. This was the first and only time I really felt like a triple would have come in handy, but I made it up every hill without getting off the bike, and I only got out of the saddle once. (The Garmin says this one had a 30% grade, but that seems a little outrageous. Some of you biker types can tell me if that's even possible, because I'm no expert on grade.) Sure, nearly everyone who passed me did so on the climbs, but I wasn't there to win any awards, so I just said some words of encouragement to each of them and kept pumping. The descents were fun. My max speed was 39MPH, which I'm sure is the fastest I've ever gone on a bike. I was pretty comfortable on the descents, but not in the aero bars. Going that fast, I really only felt comfortable on the hoods, so that's where I stayed. I was probably only in the aero bars about 25% of the ride, mostly on the flats or the small grade rolling hills. My bike felt fast and I really held my own everywhere but the climbs. I passed a TON of wave 3 people during the last 5 miles of the bike. Wave 3 was novice women I believe, and they went off 18 minutes before I did. I drank about 24 ounces of fluids and ate 6 shot blocks while I was on the bike.
Total bike time: 1:09:06 (a whopping average of 13.3 MPH)
T2 was much quicker. After dismounting in front of a huge crowd, I ran the bike to my rack, hung it up, threw my helmet on the ground and put on my running hat, took the Garmin off the bike and put it on my wrist, put on my race number belt and ran out of T2.
T2 time: 2:06
The run was an easy distance for me under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. The bricks I did during my training really prepared me for the feeling coming out of T2. That wasn't the problem. I was just exhausted from the bike, which was much more difficult than my 15 mile training rides. My legs were just spent. I ended up walking at a brisk pace up most of the bigger hills, probably a total of 3 times or so. When I set out on the run, my total time was just under 1:28, and the way I felt I was pretty sure I couldn't run 3 miles in under 32 minutes, so I started talking myself out of my 2 hour goal. Well, the angel one shoulder was more convincing than the devil on the other this time, and she convinced me to keep pushing right to the finish. I pushed as hard as I could to the finish and got in almost 2 minutes under my goal of 2 hours!
Total run time: 30:33
Overall total: 1:58:18
I did it! I finished my first triathlon! I learned a lot, and I had a GREAT time. I'm hooked, and now I know what I need to work on this winter and next spring.
Thanks to everyone who believed in me and supported me. I couldn't have done it without all the extra motivation.
Now I just need to decide if I can actually run a half marathon in 2 weeks when I really haven't trained for it.
Hmmm...
Quick running update. Left Thursday for the vacation, and it's hella hot and humid down here, so all I've done is a couple of 30-minute runs. I've got a half marathon next weekend anyway, so I guess I'm just doing an extended taper.
but i was happy to run it. feeling pretty proud today. 
Seriously, though. Nice work. You should be VERY proud of what you've accomplished.
... Ummmm... not so bad, really. At least for me 
... Ummmm... not so bad, really. At least for me 
AND he ran really fast in the process! I had no idea he had to drive 200 miles prior... wait... on race-day? 
-ing I've been doing (and I didn't really sleep too well again last night- the kid has decided he doesn't want to be swaddled... or at least he wants OUT of the swaddle, but really deep down DOES want to be swaddled. 
... and we went with night #2 of no-swaddle, which was... um... interesting.).
.... 
). Overall time was under 2:50, so the pace was probably about 8:20-25/mile. Sorry, I don't have mile splits. 
The legs were getting kind of mushy at the end (can't imagine why!), especially the quads, but I was still moving good.
I would comment that the true carbo-loading window for a race is about 18-36 hours before, IMO ...so the big meal would be two nights before the race, followed by a good breakfast and snacking the day before.
Do yourself a favor and go to the race website and find out exactly what they'll be serving on the race course. No point trying out gatorade during your next training run if they'll be serving Accelerade instead.And great job on the long run! Where'd you go?
Do yourself a favor and go to the race website and find out exactly what they'll be serving on the race course. No point trying out gatorade during your next training run if they'll be serving Accelerade instead.
I just ran from Marin General along the creek up to Ross, then up to Phoenix Lake, alongside that, and then back again. 
I would comment that the true carbo-loading window for a race is about 18-36 hours before, IMO ...so the big meal would be two nights before the race, followed by a good breakfast and snacking the day before.
