700 meter swim, 20k bike and 5k run.....
I woke up at 4:30am on Sunday for our first and only true practice triathlon race, so that meant no drinking on Saturday night....St. Pat's day :(...that is two years in a row now.
I went through my usual morning preparations, double and triple checking I had all my gear for the tri, eating my banana and English muffin with peanut butter on it...and getting all my bottles filled with water and/or electrolyte solutions.
I headed out the door at 5:20 am and got to the starting / transition area on Fiesta Island a few minutes past 5:30. Wow, as soon as I got out of the car and saw people getting their transition areas ready, flashlights abound, coach running around everywhere, I realized this is really like a race and the butterflies set in.
Fast forward through my own setup, stretching, chatting and now it was about 6:30...we were starting in 15 minutes. I head down to the dreaded stagnant bay water where we are doing our swim....also known as enchanted cove.....ya freaking right, there is nothing enchanted about it at all. Any ways, I walk into the slosh of the nasty dirt/mud/sand and make my way into the water for a warm up. Let me describe the water some more for all of you that do not know what mission bay is like. The water was about 12 degrees warmer than the ocean, which it gets is source from, so this tells me one thing.....stagnant water, no current...nasty. Oh ya, the water is a dark brown, clarity is probably less than a foot, also a film on the surface and about twice as salty as the ocean. All of this is horrible enough, but it gets worse, trust me. So Bill and I start swimming around to warm up and I feel something over and over again on my hands when I paddle. What the heck is that, is it seaweed coming up from the bottom? nope...is it just chunks of seaweed floating around? nope...what is it? It is gelatinous, yes I said gelatinous....no it could not be....fake breast implants....yea I am in heaven. No they were jelly fish, big round clear disc-like jelly fish....but no tentacles to sting you. What the heck are these and why are they here....why are there thousands of them....with every stroke you hit 3-4 of them.....thoroughly disgusting and a sense of panic overwhelms you.
So we get out of the water, tell a few others about the darn jelly fish and then walk over with the rest of the team to the other side of the "enchanted cove" for a picture and then before you know it we are off.
Everyone is jockeying for position, elbows flying, legs kicking, fists punching....I manage to avoid most of the panicked groups flying appendages and make my way out the path to buoy, which is 350 meters out and back...for a total swim of 700 meters, just short of half of the distance in Hawaii. I start swimming, horrible form, breathing erratic as a fish out of water, and I am all over the place. I try to calm myself down, try to just get some form going and concentrate on the stroke.......glide principles I have been instilling in myself from day one....5 months ago. Well none of that worked, I could not even see the feet of the person in front of me until they kicked in the face. Oh ya, the jellyfish...they were everywhere, they did not go away....I was about 100 meters from the first buoy and I was a wreck. I was starting to hyperventilate and decided to take a huge breath of air to try and then slow my breathing down.....horrible idea. As I took the massive breath my mouth was about half in and half out of the water....and yep, I sucked a jellyfish into my mouth and before I knew it, I took a bite and immediately stopped swimming and spit it out and was completely freaked out. I took about 10 seconds to try and gain my composure, honestly even thinking to call for a lifeguard since I had never experienced this type of panic before in my life. Then my competitiveness kicked in and told me to suck it up and keep going. So I put my head back down, kept my mouth shut as long as I possibly could and kept swimming. Although I never got in any type of rhythm I did finish and got the heck out of the water a good distance back from the front-runners.....thank freaking goodness that was over.
Now I was out of the water, pulled my wetsuit top off and kept my bib john on until I hit the transition area, so I could limit the amount of sand all over my body. I got in and out of the transition in a pretty good time, about 1:30 I believe. Getting on my bike was a bit cumbersome, but within a few seconds I was on and trying to make up ground. I had no idea how far back I was from the top 7 or 8, but I knew I was back. I just got in the aero position and tried to keep a high cadence to get my legs warm and dry off a bit. About half way around the island on my first loop (I had to do 3 total) I tried to drink some water but my throat was burning so bad from the all the salt water I drank...and jelly i ate that I just gargled it and spit it out. I did end up eating a pack of gu and managed to get some water down and drink a little bit of my electrolyte drink from my aero bottle, but not nearly as much as I would have in a real race.
I buckled down, got into the aero position and hammered most of the ride. I do not know my time yet, or average MPH, but I did pass about 4-5 people who were in front of me. As I came into the transition area....to a bunch of people cheering (so nice that was) I saw Greg and Brian right in front of me....we are all pretty close to the same ability, but in my head I feel like I am a stronger runner!!! So with that I felt pretty darn good. I came into the transition area a bit frigid still from the bike ride, since all I have on is shoes with no socks, spandex tri shorts and a tri top....I throw on my running shoes, running hat (already have the shades on) and grab my water bottle and I am off.
Greg and Brian are running in parallel about 150 yards in front of me, so I used them to pace my run for about the first mile or so and then when I can finally feel my feet again I pick up the pace and run by them with the thought that I am not going to look back. I feel strong, legs feel good, no real soreness in my back or legs from being sick earlier in the week....now this is more what I thought a tri would be...challenging yet fulfilling at the same time. As I approach the water station, which is also the turnaround, I see 4 people spread out on their way back....yep the leaders. Nuno was leading the pack, followed by Ryan on his heels, then a short way back was Lamine and then Paul another short way back. That was it, the 4 people who I know are faster then me in all the events we in front of me....a sigh of relief, and also a pushing point for me.
I woke up at 4:30am on Sunday for our first and only true practice triathlon race, so that meant no drinking on Saturday night....St. Pat's day :(...that is two years in a row now.
I went through my usual morning preparations, double and triple checking I had all my gear for the tri, eating my banana and English muffin with peanut butter on it...and getting all my bottles filled with water and/or electrolyte solutions.
I headed out the door at 5:20 am and got to the starting / transition area on Fiesta Island a few minutes past 5:30. Wow, as soon as I got out of the car and saw people getting their transition areas ready, flashlights abound, coach running around everywhere, I realized this is really like a race and the butterflies set in.
Fast forward through my own setup, stretching, chatting and now it was about 6:30...we were starting in 15 minutes. I head down to the dreaded stagnant bay water where we are doing our swim....also known as enchanted cove.....ya freaking right, there is nothing enchanted about it at all. Any ways, I walk into the slosh of the nasty dirt/mud/sand and make my way into the water for a warm up. Let me describe the water some more for all of you that do not know what mission bay is like. The water was about 12 degrees warmer than the ocean, which it gets is source from, so this tells me one thing.....stagnant water, no current...nasty. Oh ya, the water is a dark brown, clarity is probably less than a foot, also a film on the surface and about twice as salty as the ocean. All of this is horrible enough, but it gets worse, trust me. So Bill and I start swimming around to warm up and I feel something over and over again on my hands when I paddle. What the heck is that, is it seaweed coming up from the bottom? nope...is it just chunks of seaweed floating around? nope...what is it? It is gelatinous, yes I said gelatinous....no it could not be....fake breast implants....yea I am in heaven. No they were jelly fish, big round clear disc-like jelly fish....but no tentacles to sting you. What the heck are these and why are they here....why are there thousands of them....with every stroke you hit 3-4 of them.....thoroughly disgusting and a sense of panic overwhelms you.
So we get out of the water, tell a few others about the darn jelly fish and then walk over with the rest of the team to the other side of the "enchanted cove" for a picture and then before you know it we are off.
Everyone is jockeying for position, elbows flying, legs kicking, fists punching....I manage to avoid most of the panicked groups flying appendages and make my way out the path to buoy, which is 350 meters out and back...for a total swim of 700 meters, just short of half of the distance in Hawaii. I start swimming, horrible form, breathing erratic as a fish out of water, and I am all over the place. I try to calm myself down, try to just get some form going and concentrate on the stroke.......glide principles I have been instilling in myself from day one....5 months ago. Well none of that worked, I could not even see the feet of the person in front of me until they kicked in the face. Oh ya, the jellyfish...they were everywhere, they did not go away....I was about 100 meters from the first buoy and I was a wreck. I was starting to hyperventilate and decided to take a huge breath of air to try and then slow my breathing down.....horrible idea. As I took the massive breath my mouth was about half in and half out of the water....and yep, I sucked a jellyfish into my mouth and before I knew it, I took a bite and immediately stopped swimming and spit it out and was completely freaked out. I took about 10 seconds to try and gain my composure, honestly even thinking to call for a lifeguard since I had never experienced this type of panic before in my life. Then my competitiveness kicked in and told me to suck it up and keep going. So I put my head back down, kept my mouth shut as long as I possibly could and kept swimming. Although I never got in any type of rhythm I did finish and got the heck out of the water a good distance back from the front-runners.....thank freaking goodness that was over.
Now I was out of the water, pulled my wetsuit top off and kept my bib john on until I hit the transition area, so I could limit the amount of sand all over my body. I got in and out of the transition in a pretty good time, about 1:30 I believe. Getting on my bike was a bit cumbersome, but within a few seconds I was on and trying to make up ground. I had no idea how far back I was from the top 7 or 8, but I knew I was back. I just got in the aero position and tried to keep a high cadence to get my legs warm and dry off a bit. About half way around the island on my first loop (I had to do 3 total) I tried to drink some water but my throat was burning so bad from the all the salt water I drank...and jelly i ate that I just gargled it and spit it out. I did end up eating a pack of gu and managed to get some water down and drink a little bit of my electrolyte drink from my aero bottle, but not nearly as much as I would have in a real race.
I buckled down, got into the aero position and hammered most of the ride. I do not know my time yet, or average MPH, but I did pass about 4-5 people who were in front of me. As I came into the transition area....to a bunch of people cheering (so nice that was) I saw Greg and Brian right in front of me....we are all pretty close to the same ability, but in my head I feel like I am a stronger runner!!! So with that I felt pretty darn good. I came into the transition area a bit frigid still from the bike ride, since all I have on is shoes with no socks, spandex tri shorts and a tri top....I throw on my running shoes, running hat (already have the shades on) and grab my water bottle and I am off.Greg and Brian are running in parallel about 150 yards in front of me, so I used them to pace my run for about the first mile or so and then when I can finally feel my feet again I pick up the pace and run by them with the thought that I am not going to look back. I feel strong, legs feel good, no real soreness in my back or legs from being sick earlier in the week....now this is more what I thought a tri would be...challenging yet fulfilling at the same time. As I approach the water station, which is also the turnaround, I see 4 people spread out on their way back....yep the leaders. Nuno was leading the pack, followed by Ryan on his heels, then a short way back was Lamine and then Paul another short way back. That was it, the 4 people who I know are faster then me in all the events we in front of me....a sigh of relief, and also a pushing point for me.
I speed up my pace a bit, but also relax and focus on foot strike even more, thanks to reading Chi Running. As I come around the corner with about a mile to go I can see the 4 of them a pretty fair distance ahead of me and know I have no chance at all of catching them, so I settle into a strong yet relaxed stride, knowing that if I feel anyone coming up from behind, that I could turn it on. Greg was not too far behind me, but after I did a quick glance over my shoulder, I knew I had him and just finished off strong.. So great to have teammates push you, yet at the same time, if they pass you, you root them on. This is the blend of competitiveness and selflessness that is new to me, and yet I love it. I think my final time was 1:10:29........
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2 comments:
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