FIRST TRIATHLON!!!!

Well, yesterday I ran my first trialthon at Parvin State Park. It was a sprint distance (1/4 mi swim, 12 mi bike, 5K run), so it was short and fast, but I needed to know what I was getting myself into, both for the transitions and how they work and to see what happened to me physically with the switch between activities.

I was one of the first to arrive at the event, while they were still setting up, so I got to watch quite a bit of what was going on with others. The thing that immediately became apparent was that 90% of the competitors had tri bikes, the remaining had road bikes, and I was one of only 2 hybrids that I saw. And it showed in the race why you don't ride a hybrid bike in these races. More about that later.

After waiting for almost 2 hours to get started, we finally entered the water to ready for the standing start, as I was in the first wave of swimmers (there were 3-4 waves at the start). I hung out near the back of the pack at the start, which turned out to be my first mistake. Things got VERY congested as we all began to swim. I was getting kicked and bumped, and I was kicking and bumping, just by trying to swim ahead with so many bodies in the same place at the same time. It was nearly impossible to get into a consistent stroke, as I spent most of my time looking up and trying to navigate other swimmers, both faster than me and slower. In the end, I was going too fast the entire swim. I am sure the andrenaline was part of it, but so too was an attempt to get past swimmers that were just in my way. I came out of the water at 8:28, near the front of the group. Goal had been 10 mins.

This is where my transition split times got lost, since I wasn't familiar enough with my new watch and the whole thing was so new that I didn't accurately hit the time to record them. First transition went OK (if you forget about tracking the split), although I quickly realized why others had buckets of water at their stations (to rinse the sand off their feet), as I tried wiping sand off my feet (not easy to do quickly). I got out probably in about 2 minutes, but I forgot to strap on my HRM, forgot my sunglasses, and while I was able to grab my bike gloves, I only got one on and ended up holding the other the entire ride. (note to self: consider riding without gloves)

I mentioned earlier that riding a hybrid was a problem and here is part of the reason why: While on my ride of 12 miles, consistenly at a pace of more than 15 mph, 135 riders passed me, including 42 women. Conversations that I have had with friends have told me that just riding a tri bike should give me 3-5 mph, at the same fitness level that I am at right now. 5mph translates into about 9 minutes on a 12 mi bike ride. In the end, I did the bike in about 44 mins (exact time is tough without the official results due to my lack of ability to track my transitions!!!). If I had a tri bike, I might have done it in 35 mins, if what I was told is accurate. The difference that 9 mins makes on this short of a course is significant. Goal was to be under 45 mins.

When I got off the bike and started to move through the transition, I got the jelly legs that everyone talks about. Very weird feeling and it took some concentration to be able to run and not fall over!!! But, I made it through pretty quickly since I only needed to drop off my bike and strap on my HRM and sunglasses (which I remembered this time). I kept up a decent pace considering the jelly legs I started with. I was tracking just over 8:30 for the first mile, improved to just under 8:30 for the second mile, and then just over 8:00 for the last mile, finishing at a time of 25:07 for the run. Goal was 24 minutes, but I wasn't horribly off of that mark.

Overall, my times were about what I expected. The big unknowns for me were around the transition times and how I would do there. My overall goal of 1:30:00 included a lot of time for me to mess up and it is really the transitions that allowed me to handly beat my goal and finish at 1:20:51. Unofficial results said that I placed 208 (total unknown but at least 350 competed) overall and 21 out of 22 in my 35-39 bracket. Not great standings, but I was not racing for that. I was racing for my time goal and to get familiar with how everything works.

After the race, I re-hydrated and felt pretty good. The only soreness or pain that I had was in my butt from sitting on that bike seat! Hours after the race, I was consistenly STARVING. Not hungry...starving! I couldn't eat enough fast enough, which I haven't experienced since I was a teenager. I am sure that it had something to do with the 2000 calories that I burned during the race. I can't imagine how I will feel after burning 8000+ calories during the half ironman! Day after, I have no soreness and minor stiffness. Let's go on to a longer distance!!!! I need to find an Olympic distance...