In the fall of 2006 I decided to quit smoking and my wife wanted to do a triathlon so I said screw it, I’ll do it with you. It’ll be a good way to get in shape stay motivated. I was an active kid but did pretty much nothing physical at all from age 14 until 25 (age at the first triathlon), apart from a little weight lifting when I was 16-17.
I didn’t train hard enough and it really kicked my butt - there’s a thread about it around here somewhere. There were other factors - I was on a heavy, old, mountain bike with crappy pedals that my feet kept slipping off, I had a broken big toe, etc. - but the bottom line is that I thought my willpower would carry me through and it didn’t. I finished, but at 14 minutes over my goal time of 2 hours. I was happy that I finished, but a little embarassed by my time.
Fast forward to this year. I’ve tried to stay in decent shape since the last one and starting around August I’ve been mountain biking a lot. I tossed around the idea of doing the triathlon again all season, and finally said screw it a few days ago, signed up online, and committed myself (clever bastards made the registration fee non-refundable.)
I felt good this morning and got off to a great start. Was passing people on the swim and still not pushing myself too hard. The only thing that screwed me up a little was I swallowed water a couple times when I came up on someone in front of me too fast and had to slow down. I beat my previous swim time by 1:45.
I knew the bike was going to be my best event and I was looking forward to it. It was hillier than I remembered but I pushed hard and set a new max speed on my bike’s computer on the downhill part - 35.5mph. The course was three loops and I’ll have to check but I know my second loop was faster than my first and I think my third loop was faster than my second. I beat my previous bike time by almost 26 minutes.
On to the run.
I am not a good runner. That’s probably an understatement. Despite being tall and slim, the intricacies of my biomechanics are not ideal for running. Aw, who am I shitting? I just hate it. It bores me to tears and I avoided training it all year. I did maybe 5 or 6 training runs for this event, and only 1 of equal distance to what I ran today. I got off the bike and chugged some gatorade. As I was changing from my cycling shoes to my running shoes, I massaged my calves a little bit. My lungs feel fine when I run; my upper legs feel fine. My calves have a tendency to “lock up”, though, especially after I get off the bike. I think the 30 seconds or so I spent massaging my calves helped, because I got off to a good start. Just before the halfway point my shins were on fire and I had to walk. I walked for awhile - too far - hit two water stations, as I expected I was slightly dehydrated and cramping, and started jogging again just in time to come around a corner and see some of my friends and my brother cheering for me. Let me tell you, if you’ve never done any kind of race it’s hard to imagine how much this helps. My spirits lifted and I got a little extra pep in my step. Finally I could see the finish line and I opened up and sprinted to the end. I had a tough run, but I made it in 8 minutes under my previous run time.
Before the race I had 3 goals: 1) beat my previous time of 2:14 2) beat my original (2006) goal of 2 hours 3) and meet my 2008 goal of 1:48.
I turned in my chip and waited anxiously for my time. The only time I knew at that point was my bike time, from the computer on my bike. My swim, both of my transistions, and my run were unknown.
1:42!
In the back of my mind I had been slightly afraid that 1:48 was an unrealistic number, but I smahed it by 6 minutes. I was only ever racing myself, and I won in a big way. I was on an endorphin high for the next two hours and have just been feeling great ever since. I can’t wait to do the next one.
The course was:
400m swim
20km bike
5km run
