Steelman Triathlon - Sprint Distance - Triathlon

Ok, so I started swimming in January of this year. I have only ever done 1 open water swim practice though and my previous Triathlon was a pool swim of 200 yards. This was a half mile swim in a lake. I would also be wearing a wetsuit for only the 2nd time ever. What a sense of safety it brings to you, as when you are wearing it, you practically bob like a cork in the water. So I go to put on this wetsuit to prepare for my swim. I put my left leg in and it is noticably tight which it should be. So i go to put my right leg in and I am having a crazy hard time getting my ankle to go thru the bottom of the leg. I pull on the suit so hard I can't believe it didn't rip. My foot pops thru the bottom and the suit has a strangle hold on my leg. Feels like an anaconda gripping my leg. I just chalk it up to nerves and assume everything is right. I go to pull my suit up to my waist and realize I have my right foot in the right arm of the suit instead of the right leg. I am sure people noticed me doing this but I didn't even dare look up and make eye contact as I felt like an idiot. I get that all straightened out and I'm ready to go. The event leader calls my group to the water. They said to seed the fast swimmers up front and the slow swimmers in the back. I notice that there are a few guys up front and everybody else is about 20 yards behind them. O well, I'm not blazing fast but I am going to head up front where the scrum won't be so bad. The gun sounds and I'm off. Me and 27 of my closest friends all fighting for the same water space heading to the first buoy. Appartenly Mike Tyson signed up for this event because the not so polite gentlemen next to me must have punched me in the head about 3 seperate times as we were all super close together. I got pretty annoyed with that and sped up to pass him. I threw down the hammer and pushed really hard for about 30 seconds, then dialed it back a bit and never saw that guy again. I came up on another group of swimmers after that and got kicked squarely in the neck by one of them that was doing a breast stroke. Got to love that. Over the course of the race I was kicked in the neck, punched in the head, had my legs swam over quite a few times and had my ankle pulled twice. Not fun for a beginner swimmer but I still felt great and totally relaxed. About half way thru the swim I passed 3 people from the wave that started 5 minutes before me. If that isn't an ego boost, I don't know what is. So fastforward to the end of the swim and I get out of the water, looked for my dad as I told him to time me and yell out a time to me when I pass him. Well, I never saw him and that was a theme for the rest of the day. He missed me at every part of the race and every transition. I felt bad as sitting all day just to catch a glimpse of somebody go by is pretty boring, let alone standing around for 90 mins and never even seeing the person at all. But anyway, I crushed the swim (by my standards). Bested my best time in the pool for that distance by over 90 seconds and finished 12th out of 28 people in my age group. Not bad for learning to swim 6 months ago.

NOT A THING !!!!!!!!!! Felt awesome.

Not sure why my T1 times aren't showing up in the final results But I am going to guess this was about 2 mins. WIll update later if I get the times. T1 went pretty smooth. I already had my tri top on under my wetsuit so so all I had to do was take off my suit off, socks and shoes on, helmet on and sunglasses on and I was off and running thru the timing mat.

Speed up. This is still a work in progress

So I run out of T1 and thru the mounthing line and try to run and jump on the bike. I never practice this but it worked last race. I jump on the bike and lose my balance for a bit and hit a pile of mud on the side of the road and crash into the safety fence there. Nothing major, but probably cost me a few seconds. I get my feet clipped in and go about 200 yards before making my first turn and hitting the first hill on this course. This would prove to be a common theme of the day. On the website this hill is listed as "challenging". Ummmmmmm, yea, lets say challenging, or you could call it "the hill that satan created". Ok, maybe not that bad, but after a half mile swim it would be nice to catch a breather before hitting this thing. I get about 3/4 of the way up the hill and notice I still have one more gear left to climb with, so I go to switch gears and I drop my chain. UGH !!!!!!!!!!!! I jump off the bike and not sure why but had a heck of a time trying to get the chain back on. Probably ate up a full minute there. To add to the joy of this, I had to jump on my bike with no momentum and start climbing the hill again. I get done with that hill and hit the exit of the park and turn right and notice the first portion of the bike is downhill. I lay on it pretty good and I am averaging probably mid 20's mph. Feeling good and catching my rythm now. Nothing worth mentioning on the first couple of miles until I hit the turn around and then realize the FUN hill I just sped down, well now I am climbling it. I don't have many hills where I live so these hill climbs are new to me. I get back to the entrance of the park and have to go past it to continue my route. This is where it gets rough. There are two pretty big hills and I remember the first one I hit 36 mph going down it but then remember my legs just screaaaaming when going up the other side. While making my way to the 2nd hill a guy that was flat out flying passed me. He was wearing a helmet and a tiger striped speedo. Thats it. I was cracking up. It takes your mind off of your suffering for a bit at least. So I hit the downhill on the 2nd hill and I am again flirting with 35-36 mph. This hill was big and looooong. The only thing that sucked was that as soon as you get to the bottomw you can't carry your speed because the turn around to head back is right there. So you brake to almost a complete stop and then head back up what I was referring to as "the second hill that Satan created" This one really worked me over. I get over that hill and head back to the park. Although my avg speed was only just about 16mph for the ride, I felt I did pretty good on the bike portion and actually passed quite a few people.

Practice more hills. Maybe put a motor on my bike and cheat

Well, again, I am not sure why my Transition times aren't showing up on the results but this could not have been more than a minute. I don't have specific bike shoes that clip into my bike so I already have my sneakers on,so I jumped off the bike and ran over to rack my bike. Put on my visor and race belt and I was gone

Not much. I did spend a few seconds looking for my dad again but didn't see him. Couldn't look too long. Had to go

So here I go off to what I call "the thing I suck at". It is really pretty frustrating to do amazing well on the swim and do very well on the bike, only to be crushed on the run. If anything, I am consistent. My first triathlon I passed ONE person. Well, add ONE more to that list. I am picking off athletes one at a time on the run.........Literally. I am just not a very good runner. I probably got passed by no less than 70-80 people in a 3 mile stretch. Its very disheartening. When I would pass people on the swim or bike I would get this chip on my should for a bit and push even harder. it is really hard to dig deep and push yourself when you are just not passing ANYBODY. Maybe this is something that I need to learn. Maybe i AM a better runner but I just mentally haven't been able to turn off that switch in my head that allows me to forget about the pain and just RUN. Anyways, all I kept doing on the run was looking around each bend praying that the turnaround would be just up ahead. That type of attitude really made this run hurt. I hit the turn around and had a young 17 year old kid directly behind me for almost the remainder of the last 1.5 miles. He was so cloe behind me I could hear him breathing. He stayed there until about 100 yards left and then he came up next to me and then picked it up for the finish. I kind of felt like I had won my only battle of the run by holding somebody that young from passing me for that long, but in the end, he still got by me. I turned towards the finishing chute and really tried to dig down deep and muster up a sprint, but it was for not. I was totally gassed.

Borrow somebody else's legs?

Ate some pizza, drank some water and some Gatorade. Looked for my dad for a solid 30 minutes before finally catching up with him. He told me that the last time he was me was the swim start and he missed everything else. I felt bad about that, but it happens. We talked about the race and waited for my other buddy to finish.


RUNNING. Althogh I have really only been trianing for triathlons for about 6 months now. I have to remind myself of that


Today I saw two things that really stuck with me even after leaving. When I was just getting done my race I saw a guy headng out on the run course with 1 leg. The other was a prostetic (spelling?). The other was a father son team similar to Dick Hoytt and is son. If you have never heard of them, google them and get some tissues ready because there story is overwhelming. Anyway, this man today had a son that was disabled. he built a float to put him in and then tied a rope and harness to the end and swam the entire portion of the swim while pulling his son in the float. Then they built a custom bike with a seat up front and he put the son in the seat and pedalled him thru the entire bike course including those huge hills. Finally he made a high speed wheelchair that he put him in and then went and pushed him thru the run course. At the finish line, he unbuckled the son and picked him up and supported him while the son took the last few steps across the finish line. Talk about a powerful moment. It was really incredible and the crowd went nuts. When I think of my performance today and see those other people, it just makes me happy that I am able to do what I do and enjoy it. Maybe I'm not the fastest guy in the world, but just being able to wake up each day and train and enjoy these races is what its all about.