I finished! I have been training (I use this term loosely) for the Fishers Area Sprint Triathlon (FAST) since about mid-June. I was faithfully swimming one to two times a week, but the pool I was using closed down for the summer. Bummer! I had kept up with my running, and began biking about mid-August. I run every other day if not more, but the bike was only a once or twice a week thing. I did do quite a few "brick" work outs. A "brick" is when you bike, and then run. I wanted to get used to the feeling of not quite having my legs at normal capacity.
Most of you that know me well, know that I'm a person that needs to prepare for big events like this. I need to have a sort of "dress rehearsal" in my head if you will, so I don't feel overwhelmed come race day. That's something that is hard to do if you don't have a pool handy. So, I decided to stop putting so much pressure on myself to do well, and to just go out, and at least finish the race (God willing). If anything, I would have a benchmark if I wanted to attempt another sprint tri, or I would have the experience of doing the race under my belt, and no regrets. At least, that is what I telling myself.
Now, on to race day, TODAY! I can't believe how fast it came. I felt so unprepared. My nerves were shot. I literally could not think or act for myself when we first got to the transition area. I looked to Jake to show me how to do EVERYTHING. When I asked him where to put my shoes, his eyebrows shot up, and he said, "really? put them on the ground." I think I was thrown out of whack by the fact that it was sprinkling-I hadn't counted on all of my stuff getting wet while I was inside swimming. Then, a huge rainbow appeared in the sky-a full complete rainbow. A sense of calm washed over me. I thought to myself, "this is going to be OK-you will be okay."
My biggest fear in the swim-was the swim itself. I'm not a fantastic swimmer-but I registered with a pretty fast swim time (thanks, honey!). Jake started at #198 and I started at #153. He assured me that I would be able to fall back and start with him, and he was right. It made a world of difference knowing that he was the one starting just behind me in the pool. He was going to be the first person to pass me, or swim over top of me or whatever. As strange as it may sound, this sort of relieved me a bit. He passed me (as did about 10 or so others), but he was still with in 1 lane in front of me, so I saw him the entire time in the pool (thanks to his bright red tri-shorts). I was so happy to get out of the water. I ran out of the building, and was messing with my watch, and nearly ran right into a crowd of bystanders-embarrassing. Hello, I'm a rookie here. We should have painted that on my forehead. Swim time: 12:33.2
I took an insanely long amount of time in my first transition. It had to be a hysterical site to see me trying to yank on my biking shorts over my wet body and swimsuit. I should have just said forget it, but I was committed by the time I reached that point. It would have been just as hard to get them back off. Also, I remembered to put my helmet on-whew! I was so worried I would forget and get a penalty or DQ. I have this weird habit of worrying about not forgetting something for a long time, and then when it's time to actually do, or get whatever that something is-I forget about it. Happens all the time. 1st Transition time: 3:52.6
So on to the bike....the freakin' bike. I have issues with biking. I feel like I'm always fighting against my bike. Almost as if, it was holding me back on purpose or something. Now, it's not a bad bike. It's rather cute, yellow, comfort bike-with big, wide, tires. You can tell this bike isn't designed for racing events, because the number would barely fit on the thing (oh, and did I mention it's a comfort bike). Anyhoo-the first two miles on the bike weren't bad. The person that started on her bike right in front of me, stayed in front of me through about mile three. She had bright pink shorts on, and I referred to her as "Pink Shorts" in my head throughout the entire race. Pink shorts really kept me going. I passed her at about mile two, and she passed me back at about mile three. She was in front of me the rest of the time. Her bike was a bit better than mine, but still a "fat tire" bike. I just kept telling myself to keep Pink Shorts in my sight, so that I could catch her and PASS her in the run. I was pretty confident in my running abilities. I felt so defeated on that dang bike though. People were passing me all over the place, and they looked like they were making little to no effort what so ever. One encouraging person must have felt bad for me and my struggle because she yelled, "You and do it mountain bike!" as she sped by me. Seriously-as if my bike didn't standout enough on it's own, you have to yell it out? Really though, her encouragement did pick me up for about the next quarter mile. If I do this again, I will get skinny, road bike tires for sure! It's worth the investment. I have learned from previous road race experience to never judge a person's ability by their body type-or appearance, but I know in my heart there are some people that whizzed right by me today, that only beat me because of their bike. (Maybe also because I passed about a third of them on the run-you should have seen their faces! They were probably thinking-what??? yellow bike girl is passing me?). Bike: 42:41.4 (14.1 mph).
Transition 2- better than the first transition. Only, as soon as I got off of the bike, I ran the wrong freaking way (about 10 feet) in the transition area. (once again-Rookie!!). Transition 2: 1:38.7
The Run. Finally, my moment to shine (cue the ahhhh, music). There was a water stand (with warm-ew-water) right outside of the transition area. I took one sip, and I'm thankful that was all. As soon as I started running, it was apparent that all the water I drank in the pool (oh yeah, forgot to mention I think I took on a liter of water in the pool) was sloshing around in my stomach. Not good for running. Also, I had a cramp in my shoulder-which has happened a lot during races lately. Hmmm.. Anyhow-I was still determined to catch Pink Shorts and show her-dang it. Poor girl, all she did was pass me. I had to find something to strive for though. I caught her and passed her in the first half mile-she was walking. I also caught up to my neighbor at this time-which surprised me because she started in the heat before me. She is the one that got me started with the tri, and gave me tons of support and encouragement. It gave me a boost to see her. The run was good. First mile was 8:21, second mile was 7:40 something, and last mile was 8:01. (those are off the top of my head). I just kept telling myself, that I made it through everything else, but this was it-this was my time to do what I knew how, and no little sloshy stomach or shoulder cramp was going to keep me down. With about a quarter of a mile or less to go, I felt the urge to vomit-I literally had to will it down. Then I passed some oranges that had been ran over, and looked like vomit, and that urge got stronger. I was able to fight it off, and sprint it in. Jake was there cheering me on, along with Todd, one of our neighbors. Run: 24:04.2 (8:01/mile)
Overall-it was a great experience. I learned a lot of things, and there are a lot of things I would do differently. My attitude about the event changed 100% by the time it was over. I'm already thinking of better ways to train for next time...and how to improve that dang bike! I'm extremely happy with my final time (1:24:50.1). I think it's a great starting point. Also-if you are ever considering some kind of endurance event-I would recommend a sprint tri-there is something for everyone. There are all kinds of abilities, body types, and ages. I can't speak about all races, but the other participants were friendly and encouraging. I feel so lucky to have done this with friends and family, too. It was a real bonding experience.
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