The Main Event

I did it! I finished the 2011 Go Girl Triathlon in 1 hour, 25 minutes, and 47 seconds. This was 208th place out of 467 finishers. Apparently quite a few people didn't finish because when we started the race they said over 600 people had registered. The breakdown of my time was 18 minutes, 58 seconds for the 500 meter swim (450th place); 38 minutes, 21 seconds for the 10 mile bike (262nd place); and 24 minutes, 42 seconds for the 3 mile run (61st place). Clearly, I need to improve my swim time. 1st place in the swim came in at 7 minutes, 53 seconds. That's super fast. I was expecting to finish in about 12 minutes because this was my time trial in the pool. However, I wasn't taking into account the fact that in the pool you have some momentum when you push off the wall. In the open water, this is gone. All you have is your own strength. They started us individually 2 seconds apart to try to avoid people swimming over each other but it still happened. I got kicked in the face and kicked someone in the face a couple times. The chances of this were increased by the fact that you couldn't see anything in the water, including another person. Also, on the way back to the shore, the sun completely blinded me. I couldn't even see which direction I was supposed to be going. At one point, I almost ran into one of the rescue canoes. To get by I had to stop every so often and listen for splashing so I could follow the sound. It felt great getting out of the water because I knew the hardest part was over.

All the bikes were racked in a designated spot based on bib numbers so after getting out of the water I ran to my bike, put on my helmet, gloves, sun glasses, socks, shoes, and race belt and ran my bike out to the start line where I was allowed to jump on. I had a little trouble getting my feet in my toe clips but once I did I was on the move. The route was quite hilly and one downhill/sharp curve combination almost took me out. I underestimated the sharpness of the curve and spun out a little to far. I recovered quickly and after that had a pretty smooth ride. My style of bike (hybrid road bike) definitely affected my time. With a true road bike and clipless pedals (when your shoes snap into the pedals) I'm confident I would have knocked several minutes off my time. I knew this going into it but I wasn't ready to invest that kind of money for my first event. I still stand by my choice.

The transition from bike to run was much easier. I re-racked my bike, took off my helmet and gloves, put on my hat, and took off. The run started with a steady incline which was killer but I felt strong so I just gave it all I got. I was in a zone. My time of 24 minutes, 42 seconds gave me an average of 8 minutes, 14 seconds a mile. This is an improvement of about 3 minutes from my trial run time and probably my fastest 5K time ever. I'll take the personal best. I felt so strong at the end that I was able to do an (almost) all out sprint for the last tenth of a mile. I felt such exhilaration crossing the finish line; especially when I saw Jimmy and Carter cheering me on.

The aftermath has been pretty good too. Usually, my body is hurting after a long running event (e.g. half marathon, marathon) but I felt good after the triathlon. I'm guessing because each portion of the event causes you to use different muscle groups and also the swim and bike are fairly low impact compared to running long distance. Considering I still feel good the day after, I think I'm in the clear. I'll probably go out for a short run tomorrow morning just to keep my muscles loose. I also have a massage scheduled for tomorrow which is definitely needed.

Overall, I loved the complete experience of training for and competing in a triathlon. I can see doing more in the future. It also made me realize that having several different types of exercises in my exercise regime is key to developing the muscles I want in my physique. The swimming really helped strengthen my upper body, the biking helped strengthen my hamstrings and calves, and the running helped everything else, including my abs. I hope to keep these three exercises in my regular workout schedule albeit at a much lower frequency.

On to the next project! I'll keep you posted once I figure out what that is.