My First Triathlon

On  July 10, 2015, I wrote a blog post titled Fitness Trends I will never be a part of.  On that list was doing a triathlon. I never had any desire to do it. Perhaps I should revisit that list see what else I put on it.

In May of this year, I got an email about some upcoming races in my area. I skimmed through it like I usually do and started reading about this Triathlon. I was intrigued because this race was offering a mini distance AND the swim portion was being held in a HEATED pool.  I really don’t know why this interested me. I guess maybe I was looking for something different to do this summer.  So I signed up.  I signed my mom up too. She is always a good sport and goes along with my crazy plans..

    Saturday I embarked on my first Triathlon!

When I registered for the race, I was asked to submit a time for the swim portion.  Before registering, I had never swam laps before so I had no idea what my time would be. I left it blank. Usually in a road race if you do not submit a time, you are placed in the last corral or wave. That’s exactly what I was hoping would happen with me for the swim part.  Except that plan backfired. I ended up being the first swimmer in the pool for the mini tri.  

This made me nervous because I was worried about all the faster swimmers behind me passing me. I didn’t care if they passed me, but I was just worried about fast swimmers bumping into me, getting a face full of water, and just struggling to catch my breath. I was thinking the worse!  

Luckily none of this ever happened and I did just fine on the swimming portion.  The pool was heated and it was only 5 feet at the deepest end. This was the leg I worried most about and dare I say this is the part I enjoyed the most!

Next up was the bike portion.  There was a pretty long chute (parking lot and grassy runway) between the pool and the bike area. 

We were allowed to set up our transition area anywhere in between. I chose to put my things right outside the pool. I put on my socks, shoes, race belt, and watch and then ran through the chute to get my bike (where I had my helmet already hanging on my handle bars).  I hopped on my bike without incident and I was feeling pretty good!  Since I was the first of the mini triathletes to be on the bike, I was on the road for quite a while by myself. There were volunteers at every turn directing us which way to go, but there were times I questioned if I was going the wrong way.  Eventually I started meeting up with bikers who were doing the full triathlon distance.  I know I was most worried about the swimming, but I will say that the bike portion was THE hardest part for me.  I was NOT expecting as many hills as there was. They would just NOT stop.  I just kept telling myself  “keep going, DON’T get off this bike” even though I was tempted to get off and walk it up several hills.  I  was huffing and puffing like I was an air conditioner that was going berserk! Every time I came to a hill I thought “my mom is going to kill me”.  I was dying on these hills. I can only imagine how much she was going to struggle too.  It was my own fault for not incorporating hills into my bike training. The only time I rode up a hill was when I was returning home to my neighborhood which is situated on a large hill. But that was it. I was suddenly glad that I rode my neighborhood hill all those times instead of pushing my bike up the hill.

Anyway, I was starting to panic a little because I was more than half way done with the bike portion and I was in the middle of no where. I was expecting to see the turn around point and it never came. I thought for sure I had somehow gotten on the path for the full triathlon.  Eventually I came out a side street that lead me right back to the transition area. I was never so happy to get off my bike! I saw my dad in the transition area as I got of my bike and with what little breath I had left I just mumbled “Mom’s going to kill me”, as I ran by!

Okay, here came the running part. I was good now, I was home free! I ran through the grassy transition area again and to the parking lot where I crossed a timing mat. I guess this is where the run portion actually started, although I was told the running part started on the hill (yes another hill) behind the pavilion where packet pick up was.  I saw people walking up the hill and for some reason I thought there would be another timing mat up there ( I don’t know why I thought that except for the fact that all the runners in front of me were walking and taking their good old time getting there).  I started to walk up the hill too, until I thought maybe This Was IT, I was already being timed for the running portion.   Just when I thought that was the only hill, then came another one, and of course it was an out and back, So I had to do those hills over again.  

As I was coming down the last hill, I saw my dad waiting on the side lines. I was so excited to see him.  Even with starting my Garmin late, I ended up measuring this course longer than it should have been.  I was really happy with my running effort during training and was surprising myself with better paces, but today I did not hit those paces. It wasn’t bad, it just was what it was.  

When I finished, they were just putting out refreshments under the pavilion so I had a banana and then later a slice of pizza.  I walked with my dad back over to the hill as we watched for my mom to finish.

We did not get medals and there were no age group awards but we got this great shirts!  I really hit the race shirt jackpot this year because all the shirts I've got were made out of that Really soft cotton and this was no different!

Even though this was only a mini distance Triathlon, I still swam, biked, and ran, and I am pretty proud of my efforts and so proud of my mom too. This is something that I never aspired to do but am glad I did it. I don’t think I will do this particular race again because I did not care for all the hills on the course, but if I can find a similar race that uses the heated pool for the swim portion, I may consider it!  I told my sister she should do this race next year so I think she’s putting it on her list! -M

We are linking up with Wendy and Holly for their Weekly Wrap!