login
 Swim
Comments: I parted with my brother at this point, as he was in the 3rd wave and I was in the 4th and last (slowest) wave. I had done exactly zero open water swims for my training, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect here. It did not go that well, let me tell you. I'd say for about the first 100m or so I had a pretty good freestyle stroke going, but I knew from my (lack of) training that I was going to be hacking it for the most part. It was difficult to get in any sort of groove with people kicking and bumping into me all the time. I rounded the buoy OK and then brute forced my way back, relying on quite a bit of bad form breast stroke and flailing-arm freestyle. Despite this, I exited the water about middle of the pack for my wave. What would you do differently?: I would train more. That is going to be a common theme here. I also need to do more open water swimming, as the pool just can't compare to what you get out in a lake. With that said, swimming was the portion I was most concerned with coming into the race. I did take a few swim lessons beforehand, and I knew from my time in the pool that I was going to struggle. Obviously I'm no Michael Phelps, and I have a lot of work left to do, but just being able to complete this leg in a reasonable time was kind of an achievement for me.  Transition 1
Comments: I took off my cap and goggles and threw on my shirt, socks, and running shoes. I couldn't get my laces right on my shoes so I re-tied them like 3 times. What would you do differently?: Learn how to tie my shoes better. Oh and I forgot to bring a towel. Oops.  Bike
Comments: So now that we got that nasty swim out of the way, on to the bike, and time to rock this course, right? WRONG. So very, very wrong. The bike leg was a complete disaster for me. I'm not sure if it was being worn out from the swim, inadequate training, or the fact I was using a mountain bike instead of a road bike, but I sucked hardcore here. Probably a combination of those factors. The leg started with a lengthy hill (always fun), but the rest of the ride was fairly tame, with some rolling ups and downs. I felt like I had nothing in my legs and people kept passing me. Towards the end it was getting very lonely as I think the whole field was pretty much ahead of me at that point. It didn't help that at the very end, I could see some of the runners already finishing the entire race. Ugh. This was a very short bike section and I just completely blew it. What would you do differently?: Surely having a road bike would have helped. I put road tires on my mountain bike but I imagine that can only help to a certain extent. Obviously I need to do more biking too. I sort of overlooked this portion of the race and focused more on the swimming (because any schmuck can ride a bike, right?) and I didn't train nearly enough and it showed. By far the most disappointing leg of the race for me. Transition 2
Comments: I pretty much just rolled my bike over to the stand and took my helmet off. And drank some delicious xxx vitamin water. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Transition #2 was my best performance of the race. Ha.  Run
Comments: Alright, well I'm off the bike now, and being an experienced runner this is where I can really shine, right? WRONG AGAIN!!! I can now safely say that running a 5K after swimming/biking is not comparable to running a 5K under normal conditions. My legs were shot. Oh and did I mention the giant hills in this leg. Yeah, great. The first mile or so I was going real slow, because I was about ready to die. When the downhill portion came, I strengthened a bit, and I even passed a few people, although at this point mostly everyone else had finished. By the time the giant hill at the end came, I was about ready to cry. I stopped to walk for a few seconds a few times, which I have never done in a road race, EVER. But I did pass some more people on the hill (mostly women though so it didn't reflect in my overall standing) and I crossed the finish line strong, thinking "THANK GOD THIS DAMNED RACE IS OVER!" What would you do differently?: I have been a little lackadaisical with my running lately, in order to make room for the biking and the swimming. Gee, I wonder if I should maybe train some more? Post race
Warm down: After the race I met up my brother (who ran a very good race by the way, finishing in about 54 minutes and the top half of his age group). They had the post-race food in a big barn, which was kind of cool. We chowed down on some bagels, orange slices, and bananas. We traded a few stories from the race. Apparently my brother nearly got taken down when a biker ahead of him wiped out and wound up in the lake (scary!) We walked back to the beach area to get our bikes, and then ironically we had to ride them back up that giant hill to get back to the car. We just couldn't escape that damn hill! What limited your ability to perform faster: The fact that I am incredibly slow at swimming, biking, and running. Seriously though, this was a good learning experience to see where I'm at. Next time I will do things a lot differently. First off, I will show up much earlier because scrambling around before the race is stressful! I need to improve my speed and endurance in both swimming and biking, which is going to take more practice. Event comments: The race was very well organized and I can't say enough about the volunteers who were easy to recognize, plentiful, friendly, and helpful. This was a great race for a beginner like me and with better preparation, I think I could do much better if I tried it again next year. Which I would definitely like to do to erase the memories from this experience. But I guess everyone has to start somewhere...and now I can officially call myself a triathlete :) Last updated: 2009-08-09 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
New London Hospital
75F / 24C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 102/109
Age Group = 19-29
Age Group Rank = 23/23
This was my first triathlon, and boy was it ever a learning experience! This race report will probably read like a list of things NOT to do, but certainly it was a fun time, and for me there is obviously a lot of room for improvement. First of all, this race almost didn't happen for me. My brother and I arrived at about 8:30 for the 9:00 race. My brother had to replace the tube for his bike and fill it up with air, so we did that in the parking lot, and we didn't get over to the registration booth to pick up our bibs until about 8:50. Well guess what, they were closed, and even though we had pre-registered, they told us we could not race. My reaction was something like this: WHAT?! WHAT??!! NOOOOOOO!! Apparently they were setting up the computer for our timing chips and they said it was too late for us to get them without screwing up the system. I understood we were late, but I didn't realize just how late. We just stood there shocked until finally one of the volunteers apparently had a change of heart (god bless her!) and scrambled to get us our bibs and put the numbers on our bikes. She told us to book it down to the start area, being careful to avoid going over one of the timing mats. I was just thinking, we get to race after all, halleluiah!
Once we got to the beach/transition area, I immediately talked to a volunteer and he noted that they were running a little behind anyway and we still had 10 minutes until the race started. Well, then. I set up my bike in the transition area and then encountered problem #2: my (required) swim cap was gone. In the rush at the registration booth I had shoved it in my pocket and it must have fallen out on the bike ride over to the beach. Oh crap. I scrambled around again like a chicken with my head cut off, talking with the officials and trying to find another swim cap. Everyone told me that I needed to find Jesse Levine. After wandering around the beach a little, I finally found Ms. Levine, and explained my situation. This is when stroke of luck #2 occurred: apparently one of the spectators had found my swim cap. Somehow in the crowd of hundreds of people we were able to quickly locate the gentleman and I was able to avert another disaster. Phew!