Yesterday I accomplished the goal I set on New Year's Eve of completing a triathlon! I raced in the Sprint division of the Lake Summerside Triathlon yesterday in south Edmonton. As you may recall, it was
Leif who inspired me to participate in triathlons. Last year he started racing, and when I began swimming in the fall, I secretly decided that I
might surprise him by showing up at a race in the summer. But at New Year's, when we were all writing out our goals for the year, I decided to go public with that goal, hoping that doing so would make it happen. Yesterday, along with Leif and my friend Joel Houston, I reached the culmination of all the training from that point on. It was an amazing feel to cross that finish line, and I'm incredibly proud of accomplishing this goal.
As for the race itself, here's how it went: the day before, Leif and I met up at the lake to go for a practice swim. This was the first time I'd ever tried to really swim in a lake, and also the first time using my wetsuit, and it didn't really go very well. The water was too cold for me to be able to keep my face in the water properly, and so I found myself completely unable to swim anything more than a breaststroke. Furthermore, the arms of my wetsuit filled up with water, and I didn't have the upper-body strength to lift them out of the water. It was a little bit frightening, and certainly didn't build up my confidence for the next day.
However, that night I focused my mind on swimming slowly and easily, flipping onto my back whenever necessary, and just making sure that I completed the swim, no matter how long it took me.
The next morning I was up bright and early, and Leif and I met Joel at the race site around 7:30. I checked in, got body-marked, picked up my timing chip, set up my bike and gear, and began the long wait. My wave (all the Sprint racers) didn't start until 10:00, so there was plenty of time to wait. It was good, though, because I could think through everything, make sure nothing was missed, and get mentally prepared for the race ahead.
Joel and I stood on the beach watching the Olympic racers go before us, and I was encouraged to see a lot of people going very slowly. In fact, we watched a number of people drop out of the race because they couldn't handle the swim, and I was very glad that I had done the practice swim on Saturday. I think that if I hadn't, I probably would have panicked and quit. Instead, I knew I wasn't going to be able to just do a quick, normal swim, and as a result I finished comfortably.
The time came for our race to begin. The horn sounded, and I slowly jogged into the water, letting most people go in front of me. There was some congestion initially, which is impossible to avoid with 91 people starting at once, but nothing too bad, just some bumping. Pretty quickly I found some space, and almost immediately flipped over onto my back. The cold combined with the wetsuit just made me feel too constricted, and I couldn't hold my breath long enough, so I didn't really try. I probably completed about three-quarters of the swim on my back, and a lot of it just chugging along with my legs. Whenever I did flip onto my front I could go a lot faster, but I just couldn't keep it up for long enough. But my emphasis was on finishing the swim, and that's what I did. In the final 250 metres, I picked one guy who I would try to beat, and I did, by about 20 metres. Final swim time: 21:40, 63rd (these places are out of the 80 people who finished the Sprint race).
My transition was horrible. Absolutely horrific. I knew going in that I would have troubles getting my wetsuit over my heels, but hadn't realized how tired my arms would be. It must have taken me 5 minutes to get it off. I'd estimate my transition time at around 7 minutes, which is unacceptable. There is a lot of room for improvement here. Unfortunately this race didn't do separate times for transitions, so I don't know how much of my bike time was taken up in this transition.
I felt really good on the bike. I kept up a good speed the whole time, and passed a lot of people. The bike course was not very well planned, as much of it was on nearly gravel roads, and a lot of people suffered flat tires due to the poor conditions of the roads. There were also some very strong headwinds, which made the ride difficult, but I like to think that my leg strength is my strongest point, and I was able to push past quite a few people. The bike was pretty uneventful, even though it was the longest part of the race. I couldn't feel my feet the whole time, which was weird, as they were still numb from the swim. Leif passed me with about 7 km to go, and it was nice to see him and call out some encouragement. Final bike time (22.4 km, including swim-to-bike transition): 55:40, 37th.
My second transition (T2) was amazing. Because I don't have cycling shoes, all I had to do was rack my bike, pull off my helmet and start running. I think I was probably in and out of the whole transition zone in less than 30 seconds. The announcer called out my name as I started off on the run, which was a pretty cool feeling.
The run was two laps of a loop through the Summerside neighbourhood, including running along a gravel path and over 3 wood bridges. It was overall a very pleasant run, and there were lots of places to pass by runners going in the opposite direction so I could know exactly how my friends were doing. I had, as a bit of a joke, set a goal of finishing my Sprint distance race before Leif finished his Olympic distance race (all distances doubled). Leif had a 30 minute head start, and it turns out that this was actually not a guarantee, given his super-human speed. I passed him going in the other direction as I started out on my 2nd lap and he was finishing his 2nd, so I realized that I just needed to finish my lap before he could do two, which I did, finishing about 5 minutes before Leif did. The first lap of the run was tough, because my legs were very tired. The swimming on my back had been a lot harder on my legs than I had anticipated, so they were starting to cramp up. Also, running after a long bike is a major switch in muscles and doesn't feel very natural at all. I'm certain that my second loop was a lot faster than my first one. I turned on the speed in the final 300 metres, and passed 2 or 3 people so that I could have the finish line all to myself. I came around the corner, heard Jana and our other friends that had come out to watch cheering me on, and sprinted across the finish. I felt so great!! Final run time: 28:08, 38th.
At various points in the buildup to this race, I had set different goals for myself. At one point, I wanted to finish in 1:30. However, I abandoned that goal early on, realizing that it was both way too fast for my abilities and also didn't factor in any flexibility for a longer bike (such as in this race) or race-specific factors (like the headwinds and road conditions on the bike). Later I set a goal of finishing without walking. I abandoned that goal after a heavy workout in the river valley in which I realized that some hills are just too large to run up. But after seeing the racecourse, I re-adopted that goal, and yesterday I achieved it. That is probably what I am the most proud of out of the whole day: I finished the whole triathlon without walking, and pushed as hard as I possibly could.
My final time was 1:44:53, good for 40th overall out of 80 finishers. I am extremely pleased with that result. I was mentally prepared to finish in last place, as long as I finished. To finish in the top half (91 started) is much better than I had expected. There is a lot of room for improvement (especially on my swim and T1), so I find myself in the position where I am now hooked to the sport, and must do more. I've registered for the Lacombe Triathlon in September, and am planning to register for the Coral Springs Triathlon in Calgary in July (in addition to Leif and Joel, I also know that both Laura and my Mom are planning to run their first triathlons that day). I can't wait to get out there and do another one!
By the way, I know that pictures exist of this day, I just don't have them yet. As soon as I have them, I'll post them.