RiverWinds Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

There was a thread on this site for this particular race and people were posting in that thread discussing the race. I found out my bib number was 100 for race day, so I posted it in that thread and told everybody it was an easy number to remember, so if they see me, feel free to say hi and talk for a bit as it would probably calm my nerves. Wouldn't you know it, first person I run into at the pool was from this site. He noticed my 100 number on my arm and we made some small talk. Definitely helped calm me down. The swim was a pool swim, 200 meters and up until 3 months ago, I didn't even know how to swim. I put in a ton of time in the pool and it really showed. It was a running start into the pool (no diving). I jumped in and started my swim. Of course my right eye goggle didn't seal all the way and it started to leak. I waited til I hit the shallow end of the pool and stood up quickly and resealed it. Pushed off the wall and swam hard. I ended up passing two people in front of me and couldn't get around a 3rd person. Not bad for 8 laps in the pool. They started people every 10 seconds, so I ended up catching somebody that started 30 seconds ahead of me. It was probably the fastest swim I have ever done. I get out of the pool and hit the doorway to Transition one and the timer is at the door and it reads 3:34. Holy crap, that was fast for me. My best time prior to that was 3:35 and that was with nobody in front of me and not adding another few extra seconds getting out of the pool and running to the door. At this point I am super happy with my start. Adrenaline has kicked in and I am ready for Transition one

Maybe seed myself even a bit faster than I had guessed. I probably lost 1 second resealing my goggles and another 4-5 seconds trying to get around the 3rd person that I caught, but hey I can't complain. I was super happy with my swim time

T1 went pretty ok. I had practiced a few times at home so I was familiar with what order I wanted to do things in. Biggest thing was that in my house I was dry and I knew that coming out of the pool I didn't want to waste a lot of time drying off and knew that putting on socks and a shirt while wet was going to be different. I put on my socks first, no problems, I put on my shirt next and had an issue. I had used safety pins to put the bib number on my shirt and when I put my shirt on it stretched and two of the safety pins on the left side went flying off. Didn't have time to fix it, gotta go gotta go. It took me about 6 or 7 extra seconds to put on my shirt. Every try and put on a skin tight compression top when soaking wet??? It's not fun. Anyway, get my gear on and grab my bike and run to the exit. I look over and my dad is there cheering me on. Gave me a little bit of an extra boost. Now for a flying mount onto the bike. Haven't even practiced them yet, but hey, lets go for it. I ran and jumped onto the bike no problems and I was off.

Maybe get a race belt for my bib number. Probably dry myself off a bit better to get the compression top on as well

Well, first thing to mention, the two safety pins that popped off on the left side of my bib number on my shirt, well it left my number hanging off to the side of my shirt and the wind was catching it and it was flapping like crazy. Pretty annoying, but didn't have time to fix it. I got behind a female biker and had another male biker behind me. We weren't drafting but I was definitely using her to pace myself. I looked down and was carrying about 18-19 mph. Must faster than my practice pace. Usually high 16's to low 17's. I felt good though, and we kept together for about 4 miles. After that I decided I was going to go out on my own. I passed the girl in front of me and pulled out to about 100 yard lead on them. Then came one of the long uphill climbs. It wasn't big, but it lasted about a quarter mile. The two bikers behind me caught me and passed me and I never saw them again. I need to work on my hill climbs. I still felt good and knew I was above my average pace. I kept seeing people in front of me and tried to pick up the pace a bit to catch them. My game plan was to just bike my own race and not worry about trying to pass other people. Well, I got caught up in the moment and my competitive side came out and I pushed a bit harder than normal. I probably passed about 15 or so people and only got passed 4 times. Coming in from the bike I saw my dad again and I had told him I was setting a high goal of 33 minutes for my bike. As I went passed him, he looked at his watch and yelled out "33". I know exactly what he meant. He had timed me and I hit my goal. I had never practiced a running dismount on the bike but hey, why not try it, things are going great so far. Get my foot out of the cages and swing my right leg over to the left side of the bike so both legs are on the left side. Slow down to a running pace and jump off the bike and go running thru the timing area. Final pace was 18.5 mph, I blew away my training pace. Wow, things are going just great right now.

Not much. Probably try not to get caught up in passing or catching people and just riding my own race.

Since I don't have clip on shoes, I just ride with my running shoes on already. I ran thru the timing area and my bike rack was the first one on the left. All I had to do was take off my helmet and rack my bike and I was off to the run. This couldn't have went any better. By T2 I had the 35th best time out of 324 people. :)

Nothing. Went perfect

Well, as people that do "bricks" know, when you are training and you come off a bike your legs feel like rubber and its is really difficult to get your "run legs" going. Well, all of my training sessions I have ridden the bike hard and then get to my house and put the bike out back and get a drink and then head out. Well those 3 or 4 minutes make a huge difference. I never went from biking to immediately running. Holy crap. This was by far the breaking point in the race for me. Everything was great up until now but I just feel like my legs are not going to cooperate now and I still have 3 miles to go. Ok, I told myself "you've trained for this, nothing is going to go perfect on race day. This is your moment, suck it up, push on, thing about the hours you put in, the days getting up at 3am to train. Are you really going to let this stop you now". I went thru the timing mat and I was off on the final 5k of my first triathlon. I was well behind my training pace. I had forgotten my timing device so I had no sense of how fast I was going until an older lady with a number 54 on her calf passed me. Did that just say "54"????? She is 54 years old and she passed me like she was Usain Bolt. This is ridiculous. Ok, my legs were now getting better but my breathing was a bit eratic. I had never pushed this hard in training and I knew that my swim and bike were way faster than I had planned. Maybe this was my body starting to shut me down? I kept a very slow pace and people were passing me continuously. I had the temptation to try and speed up and catch them, but couldn't risk it. Had to stay slow and steady. I get about 2.5 miles in and I was still going slow and my breathing now had a hint of weezing to it. Weird, never happened before, but I still push on. Up to this point I had not passed a single person on the run. I look up and I am gaining on somebody. I get closer and we are about a half mile from the finish and I see a "40" written on his calf. Ohhhhhh, he's in my age group. This is it, I can probably only pass one person on the run and his in my age group. Push it Rich, push it now....... I kick it up a gear and go flying by him. Feels great. I near the finish line and my training buddy who finished earlier is shouting my name telling me to go go go. I take the final turn and push a bit harder. I see my dad at the finish line with his camera. There are hundreds of people around me cheering everybody on. I cross the finish line and the sense of accomplishment is huge. Today I am a triathlete. Before the race I had set a goal of 1:10 for the race. I finished it in 1:09:29. 31 seconds faster than I had planned. Wow, so proud of myself. I ended up 96th out of 324 competitors. I couldn't be happier.

After the race, my breathing was still not right. I thought it was maybe from just pushing too hard. It lasted thru the day and the next morning (today) I work up kind of sick. I got fluid in my chest that is causing me to weeze when I breathe and a runny nose. Maybe that is why my run was so bad. Its hard to say. I definitely pushed my limits on the swim and bike so I am sure that had a lot to do with it, but I am normally a much better runner. There are no excuses made on race day though. Could I have done better if that wasn't effecting me? Who knows. I am still thrilled with my time.

Drank a bottle of water and ate a few pieces of pizza


Maybe the beginning of catching a cold?


Overall, this was an amazing experience. Seeing people of all shapes, sizes and ages completing this event was awesome. Youngest person I saw was a girl who I think was 15 years old, there was another person doing a duathlon who was 80 years old. It's pretty awesome and every time I passed somebody or was being passed, people would yell over encouragement "way too go" "keep pushing" "your doing awesome". It's really a pretty cool experience. Am I hooked on this sport now? Unfortunately for my my wife, I think I am. This was a blast and I am in the best shape I have been in for the past 20+ years. Time to get a wet suit and practice some swimming in the lake. I think my next Triathlon will be an olympic distance. I can't wait