Subject: 10 lessons learned from my first tri I had my first triathlon experience yesterday and I learned a few valuable lessons I thought I'd share with everyone. Most of them you probably already know, but what the hell.
1 ) Lie about your swim time. I put down 7 minutes for my 300m swim, which was a little slower than what I'm doing now but still in the ballpark. Apparently I'm the only person within a minute of me that was even remotely honest. I ended up having to walk certain parts of the pool swim while waiting for a spot to pass slow people who had to be lying about their times. There's no way they were doing 7 minute 300s. If I had put down 6:15 or even 6:30 I probably wouldn't have had as many people to crawl over. So whatever time I do for that distance, if it's a pool swim I'm shaving 20 seconds off my fastest time next race.
2 ) 'On your left' is something only I say anymore. Everyone else just goes on by without making a sound.
3 ) People in my general ability range aren't prepared for hills. AT ALL. The hills weren't that bad on this race (I'd call them rolling hills ) but you would think we were in the Alps and Floyd had stolen all our EPO. I passed more people on the hills than on any flats by far.
4 ) Tri shorts? Not enough padding. Next race I'm strapping a pillow to my butt for the bike portion.
5 ) There's such a thing as ingesting too much Gu.
6 ) It's possible to keep running during dry heaves.
7 ) Dry heaves can become not so dry without warning.
8 ) It's okay to be proud that you beat an 11-year-old girl at something, even when you're a 28-year-old guy.
9 ) Especially when her swim time beat yours.
10 ) And so did her transitions. |