Evergreen Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

IT WAS SOOOOO COLD. Oh my gosh cold. And I forgot to use my inhaler before coming down, so I decided my priority was my breathing and if it meant breaststroking the whole thing so I didn't put my face in, so be it. And that's what I did. I tried a little bit of freestyle without my head in the water after watching some of the guys do it, but it felt like I was using a lot of energy and not making a lot of headway. That's when I switched to breaststroke. That's also what I did when swimming in Lake Granby a few days earlier, where the water was equally cold. I'd done about 650m there, all breaststroke, so I knew I could so this.

1. Remember to use my inhaler. 2. Not swim in a lake that cold. 3. Maybe work on a faster head-out-of-the-water breaststroke. :P 4. Honestly, not much other than the inhaler. I never panicked and I never stopped. I was slow but very, very steady. The biggest downside was that being in the cold water that long meant my feet and hands (and the rest of me) were freezing when I got out.

Did I mention the cold feet and hands? I have wussy feet anyhow, so making it into transition with all the little rocks is just slow. But my hands were so cold that it was hard to get my shoes on. I also decided to put on a jacket because my teeth were chattering and the bike wasn't going to warm me up enough, but then I was fumbling with the zipper. I didn't bother running with the bike because um, hello 30-minute swim? The lead male ran into transition with his bike and headed out to the run while I was trying to get my bike out, so it was pretty clear that I was so far behind that little would be gained by a few seconds of running. (And I don't jump on my bike because I would fall over and that would lose a lot more time. Also see the bit about my wussy feet, which means I have to run in my bike shoes.)

It would have been smart to have unzipped the jacket (but I didn't think I'd need the jacket, so there was that). Also, my bike shoes have a habit of velcroing themselves despite the fact that I opened everything.

On the plus side, I remembered to use my inhaler. Better late than never.

Hadn't climbed quite this much in that many miles so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It went really well.

Nothing. It was a good ride considering that I'm not a particularly strong cyclist and didn't know the course.

This transition went well for me. I don't attempt to take off my bike shoes or jump off a moving bike, and I'm pretty finicky about how my running shoes are tied so I do take the time to lace them up properly.

Nothing.

Running's my strongest discipline so this was my best performance. Mile was was severely hindered by the fact that my feet were frozen, between the swim that had made them so cold and the bike. It felt like running on blocks of ice. They didn't fully defrost until I'd finished 2 miles, but that made the third mile more comfortable. I probably could have pushed harder, but that seemed rather pointless given my not-at-all impressive swim and bike times. Running comfortably hard seemed like the ticket.

Stretched out some. Called the children to let them know I survived.


Cold water.


Bottom line: This is a mountain triathlon so conditions are a little more challenging. The lake is usually warmer, but this year was the coldest the lake has been since they started doing it. They were very responsive to swimmers who needed help due to the cold, and I appreciated the careful attention of the kayaks to those of us who were bringing up the rear. Racing Underground does a nice job and this event was no exception.