Northeast Triathlon August 17, 2008

So, I am officially a triathlete. On Sunday around 1130am I finished my first triathlon. Just to let you know, if you are reading this and you could really care less about triathlons, then you are about to read more than you would ever want o know about triathlons, so I would not be offended if you just closed out of this now and waited for my next blog.

So, consider that your warning of what is to come :)

This is all of us that competed together. This is actually post race... still look pretty good, eh? From left to right is Chris (Heather's boyfriend), me, David (behind me, John's brother), Shannon, John (behind Shannon looking as if he's choking her... I guess that's ok though because they are married), Heather (shannon's siter), Mr. Jackson (Shannon and Heather's Dad). Go ahead and laugh at my pink bathing suit now. This will be the last time that we talk about it.

Heather did the sprint distance. The rest of us did the Olympic distace which was a 1500 meter swim, 23.5 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. My time was 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 56 seconds (my goal was 3 hours and 30 minutes, so I was pleased). My splits were:

Swim:39:26 (to help you understand my SERIOUS freak out in the water for the first half mile, my send half mile time was about 16 minutes, haha)

T1: 1min. 55 seconds

Bike: 1:25.37

T2: 1min 26 seconds

Run: 55:30

The Swim:

Above is how we started. We kind of treaded water for 2 minutes or so and then some guy on a loud speaker said go. Off the to top left hand corner of the picture is where we were headed. It does not show our turnaround buoy though. It was much farther, haha.I am the one in the pink swim cap. That guy was in my way. Loser. Not really. At this point in the swim, I am really close to shore and about to head to the bike. I was feeling GREAT. Mostly because the front end of my swim was so disasterous. There was no doubt in my mind that I could swim the distance. I had done it many times in the pool. The fear that I had was being eaten by something in the water. Once we started swimming, I honestly thought that I was going to have to quit. I felt like I couldn't make it. The whole first half I never got into my rythm and had to breast stoke and back stroke the entire way. I coudln't put my face in the water long enough to get into a stroke because of my hyperventalating breathing that was going on. After a while though I finally got into a rythm and felt great. If not for my freak out I could have definetly broke 3 hours.

On to transition:

This is me running from the water to the bike. The run to the transition area was actually pretty long, but I liked it in the end. My legs were pretty wobbly getting out of the water, but by the time I got to where my bike was racked, my legs were back to normal. I spent a little bit more time in this transition than Iwould have wanted to because of helmet issues. I put the helmet on and for some reason it was too tight. I tried to fix it but my fingers would not cooperate, so I pulled on my socks, strapped on my bike shoes and left. The middle of my forehead feels like it should have a bruise because of the tightness of my helmet, haha.

T1:

I was certianly not as efficient as some of the more experienced/better triathletes there. I simply ran my bike to the mount and got on and and rode off. Other people had their shoes clipped to their pedals and jumped on their bike and put their shoes on while they were riding. I'm just more old fashioned I guess. :)

The Bike: I actually felt really good on the bike ride, but it was kind of lonely. I really wanted someone to talk to. But I just took in the sites instead. I really could have pushed it much harder on the bike. I found myself zoning out and forgeting I was even racing and instead just enjoying what was around me. Thankfully I did not get a flat (though I finally did learn how to change one). But, the road was actually kind of rough and I passed many of people that had them. The first person that I passed that was changing one I almost stopped to help... then realizing that I was actually racing I gave them the biker's head nod and kept on going. I actually felt kind of bad. I feel ok about my bike time... but I know I could have road harder.

T2: This was a super easy transition for me. I just had to get my bike shoes and helmet off and slip on my running shoes. I think my bungee laces/lace locks were the best investment ever (other than the bike of course, haha). It was so easy just to slip my feet in them and not worry about tightening them or anything. And they held their snugness the whole 6.2. The day before and day of the race I loaded up on Ibuprophen to help ease the inevitable knee and ankle pain that I would be experiencing. I also had some Flexall at my transition station. So, I slabbed some Flexall on my knees, grabbed my pre-peeled orange, and took off running. After exiting the transition area I shoved a couple of orange slices in my mouth. GAG. I chewed and spit. My hands and thus the oranges were COVERED in Flexall. Stupid rookie mistake, haha. So much for that. If you look closely in the picture, you can see that I'm pointing to my legs. I was asking James if I actually still had some because I couldn't really feel them getting off the bike. They were SO shakey.

The Run: Though 8:57 minute miles are not that great, I was really expecting to run 10 minute miles because of coming off such a long bike ride. I felt great the first 3 miles of the run, but then after I passed the turn around, I hit a wall. It became a mental game then. I really think my marathon trained me mentally for this run. I just kept telling myself that it doesn't hurt as bad as the marathon and I need to suck it up and keep going. There was no way I was sprinting across the finish line, but I did manage to throw my hands up in victory. I did not have the same emotional overload that I did after the marathon, but it did feel great to not be moving anymore.

Well, that's my story. It was hard, but I'm so glad I did it. Next Race: Duathlon September 13th, 2008. And the recovery is SO much better than a marathon recovery (for me anyway). It took me just about a week to recover from my marathon. It is now Tuesday and I am recovered (so only 2 days). Even though I felt good today, I still didn't work out. I'm really going to take it easy this week. If anything, my joints need the rest.