C'mon and share your first tri experiance!

Triathlon Forum
1

Ok so Im planning my first indoor tri which happens in a few weeks and as such have been talking to a bunch of people who have never done a tri before and are scared and worried and its gotten me thinking about the first tri I ever did and how many mistakes I made. SO I thought it would be fun for us to share our first memories and reflect a bit on how far we have come!

I got talked into my first tri back in '99, 2 weeks before it happened. It was a sprint in Ormond beach run by the LBS there. I worked at another LBS in the area so I knew all the guys at the shop. They talked me into doing it and b/c they knew I was a poor college student comped my race fee. They told me to show up by 6:30 b/c the race started at 7:30. Well I was always one to be punctual so I showed up at 6:15 and casually strolled up to get checked in. It did concern me that I didnt see anyone but thought whatever. Well my friend was wrong. The start time was 6:30 and everyone was at the beach waiting to go. I PANICKED! Got marked racked my bike and stripped down to my speedo (which I had bought about 4 days earlier) looked through the bag saw some random things swimcap, black strappy thing, and thought that I needed to go. So I booked over to the beach and found my wave. I noticed that everyone in my wave and all the waves for that matter were wearing the swimcap that was in the bag. Hmmm I guess thats what that was for and not just a nice present. Oh well, no time to go back for it now!

The Swim (1/4 mile ocean)
Ok I had never swam in the ocean before. EVER! and I had not really swam at all EVER! SO this was quite the first for me. I started and tried to keep a pace but I was all over the place. Everytime I went to breath I took a mouth full of water and started feeling sick. I spent a lot of time just floating and getting freaked out about the fact that sharks are the oceans trashmen and that they dont go after the strong swimmer NOOOOOOOOOO they go after the weak little hurt one thats off the back and flailing about, just like me. Because I was 20, I was in the first and fastest wave. I got caught and passed by all the waves EXCEPT for the oldest female wave. I barely made it out of the water before them. The guys in the water were real nice. Kept asking if I was ok. Did I need to quite, all that jazz.

Total time in the ocean. A little over 30 minutes of pure HELL as I recal.

T1
When I got to the beach I started walking over to transition. As I passed the first mat they asked where my chip was. I was like WHA? Then they explained to me what a timing chip was and why everyone else was wearing one. Oh right I remember seeing that thing in my bag now. whoops!

got to my bike and found my chip and put that on. put my shoes on. dried off a little and then found my number. I had not thought aobut the fact that I really didnt have anywhere to “pin” a number too. SO I folded it up and tucked it into the speedo. Figured if someone wanted it I could show them.

Bike (11-12 miles I think)
I knew I needed one thing for the bike that I didnt currently have. Aerobars b/c triathletes ride with aerobars. I had one set that I had gotten years ago. They were the old profile style that were all one piece basically. Well I got them off nashbar for like 9 bucks b/c they were like 8 or 10 inches wide. I had since broken out the pipe cutter and cut out that middle section and made them much narrower. Well I had not used them in awhile and the pads had fallen off and gotten lost and another guy at the shop told me I couldnt race with those bars unless they had plugs in the end. SO I threw some bar plugs in but they were too small so I used some electrical tape and taped them down. the bike was not long at all but I was so sick from a belly full of saltwater that it was slow going. At least it was flat and pretty. But my position was far from comfortable and far from ideal.

T2
got back from the bike ok. I had been riding so that was my strongest area. Racked the bike. Took off my shoes, put on my trainers and then I said a little prayer.

Run (5k)
A year earlier I had broken my femur in half. This was the first time I was attempting to run at all. Looking back this was like the dumbest thing in the world. I was in so much pain it was not even funny. My leg hurt so much and I ran at the slowest pace imaginable. It was just brutal and I could not wait for this dumb thing to be over.

total time was something in the 2 hour 7-8 min range.

Near the end of the run I thought to myself. “I aint never doing this again!”

But it turned out I was hooked. came back a few months later and did the 3rd race of that series that was twice as long and got a time of like 2:04 SO I felt like that was a good improvment!

Looking back I cant believe how dumb I was but I survived and have gone on to do even stupider things!

SO how bout it, who else wants to share!

2

MY first tri was a HIM, I had no idea what I was doing, by race morning, I had never swam in open water, never used a wetsuit, never done a brick workout. I didn’t even have an aerobar. I zigzagged all over the swim, spent 3 hours in the drops on my roadbike, thats right 3 hours, I was worried about going too fast because I had to run afterwords so I just sat there at 17.5 mph for the whole ride then jogged a slow 2:10 13.1 miles to the finish right around 6 hours. I ws hooked.

3

I was headed to Israel with Soldier of Fortune magazine to do a story and parachute jump with the Israeli IDF (i’m not kidding). A conflict started that cancelled the trip. I had nothing to do, and a pocket full of cash. I was a kid looking for adventure. Still am.

I saw a flier in the window of a running shoe store in Ann Arbor, Michigan for “The Big 10 Triathlon” in Lansing, Michigan. The race featured “Ironman Dave Scott”. I had seen an Ironman competition somewhere and recalled a long ocean swim, riding a 10 speed race bike and then running. I seem to remember that people were stopping along the way to get weighed, and that if they lost too much weight in the event, they were disqualified. The Big 10 is a “mini triathlon” with a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. I had worked in a bike shop as a kid and had a ten speed. I also had running shoes and was in fighting shape. This would be easy.

I finished 2nd to last of about 150 people (148th) after walking a loot of the run. There was a woman there named Karen McKeachie who won and, of course, Dave Scott, The Ironman, won ahead of a local fellow named Dave Evans from Ann Arbor.

During the run, when I was barely moving, A friendly, soft spoken fellow on a nice bike pulled up next to me and asked, “How are you doing? Doing OK?” I look over and it is none other than The Ironman, Dave Scott.

I was hooked.

4

swim: went ok, mid pack
t1: got on mah bike
bike: rode my trek 1000 road bike ok, got chicked a few times
t2: put mah shoes one, took a big swig of water
run: went out fast and enthusiastic, water was sloshing around in me, blew up about 1/4 mile in and was walk/jogging the rest of the way

fun times
.

5

My first was a long sprint (700m/30k/8k), I obssesed over every detail for 10 months and had a great race.
The attention to detail from that race is still paying off 6 years later.

6

I did what was basically an Olympic distance tri in the mid 80’s as my first race. It was the summer after I graduated from college. I’d swam in college and been a distance swimmer to boot so the swim would be a walk in the park. I’d been biking for a while and gotten more serious about it that summer so I was feeling pretty good about that too. The problem was that other than gym class in high school, I had never done any running so 8 weeks out I started my training. The week before the race I ran 5 miles which was my longest run ever. By race day I had about 75 life time miles of running under my belt. The last leg of the triathlon would be my first 10K

It was a mass start, no waves. I was first out of the water by 1:30, and about 5 minutes ahead first group of swimmers who hadn’t been on my high school swim team. The picture in the local paper the next morning was me coming out of the water.

I did OK on the bike, finishing 7th overall about 2 minutes behind the leader, but that had much more to do with the hurt I had put on the field in the swim than any bike skills.

The run was brutal. I’m sure lots of triathletes over the years have turned in 1 hour 10Ks in Olympic distance races. They just haven’t done it from the front of the field. I got passed by an average of one person every 2 minutes. Most of these folks were running at a pace at least 3 minutes per mile faster than I was going. There was enough of a speed differential that it bordered on being dangerous. I think a few people actually yelled “on your left.”

It was fun though. Unfortunately over the years, I have just gotten a lot slower in the water and not much faster on the run.

7

That is an impressive 7:30 min per 100m on the swim. I think that might be a record.

First was a sprint last year. First time Open water swimming with a 1,000 other people in addition to lake weeds that were worse than any sea weed I’ve encountered growing up. Got cramps on the swim, threw up once, swam over/into more people than I can count. It was the longest 650m of my life. Swim was terrible.

I left T1…forgot to strap my helmet…strapped it but forgot to hold onto my bike. It fell over & my bottle’s top came off and spilled all over the place.

The rest was fine. Finished my sprint in 1:21:xx. That was last year…I’ve worked hard over the winter & I’m ready to get back on it. Couple Sprints, an Olympic, a Half Mary and August 70.3 on the docket for this year.

I’m building my first road bike & want a set of race wheels. I can tell I’m hooked when I pay off my credit card every month. Shit is an expensive hobby.

8

first actual tri was a mini-sprint. 500m swim, 12 mi bike, 2.5 mi run. At the time I was marathon training and had been a runner for all of 5 months, but was coming off of a good riding background from college. The race went well and I felt good about it, even though the run was much rougher then I thought it would be (I seriously underestimated the importance of core strength).

A few months later, I got to run my A race… an X-terra (Iron Creek in Spearfish SD). I went into the race cocky from my last and had my ass handed to me on a platter. I actually ended up placing in my age group, but it was the most brutal race I’ve ever done. You know it’s a hard race, when you have people offering you free beer at the end and you turn them down.

9

I did my first try when I was 33. I hadn’t started running until I was 28 and wasn’t much of a biker. Swimming of course never happened. Leading up to the race I did all of my training on an old schwin 10 speed (which had a broken axel). I practiced swimming in a 16 yard pool and never swam farther than 2/3 of a mile before the race.

Well I got to Kona and picked up my new used bike from my brother in law. Rode it maybe once before the race. Had barely any idea what geometry was. I was 5th to last out of the water. It took me 60 minutes to swim 1.2 miles. I then got on the bike and was managing 19ish in the heat (I’m from Seattle and the race was in May) which impressed me since I had done zero workouts in anything over 70 degrees. It was only about 100 that day. Just 3ish miles short of the bike finish I flatted. Since I didn’t have a spare tube nor the skills to change the tire I started walking the bike (very slowly). 30 to 45 minutes later the bike fixer folks came by and after 15 minutes of fighting with my rev x spynergys I was able to ride in. I then hit the run expecting to do sub 1:50 as I had only once ran a half marathon over 1:40. I hit the Pit and melted like butter on a frying pan. Finished in 6:45. I tried numerous times to break 6 hours there but only managed once. No matter what the heat killed me.

I love staying in shape and trying though. That was 12 years ago.

10

I did an Olympic distance for my first tri. It was finally a good reason sorta to get a road bike. Well I ordered well before the tri, came in, in the wrong color. The only reason I ordered the bike was to get the color I wanted. So I had to wait even longer to get my bike. I finally got it the week before the tri, so I had 1 week to get use to a clipless system and all that jazz. I didn’t want to invest in a good swim wetsuit or too many extras like aerobars, incase I didn’t like triathlons.

Swim
I had no idea what to expect so I sat in the back of the pack on the start. I had no idea how hard to go out so I just went out hard to get in front of the pack and then eased back. I knew that after the swim was the only part I was going to excel at. My swim was ok I came out of the water in a good postion, 26 min for 1.5k.

Bike
Wasn’t in great bike condition, and pretty much you could say I only got passed from this point on. It was not too big of deal since some of the people passing me had full disk wheels and aerobars, I figure they shoulda been passing me. I found myself intrigued watching to see what kinda bike people were riding. I think my split was around 1h 17mins. At this point I was feeling good having a grand old time, having never competed in any cycling races, it was cool riding on the road knowing cars wouldn’t run you off or down.

Run
This is where the tri went from being awesome to this is worst thing ever. The hurt, I had had a bit of a cliff bar and I think that gave me stomach cramps. Worse yet both my ankles hurt and my knee was sore. All I could think about was when will this pain end. I wanted to walk but thought Id look like wuss if I did so I just slugged it out. It may have been even more demoralizing that I only passed two people on the run and they weren’t in age group or in my wave. I had people passing me left and right.

Finished in 2:40 goal was 2:45 or under so that was cool.

The take away, the run is an important aspect of the tri.

11

25 years ago. Rain, 57 degrees, 7AM. No wetsuits-not legal. Wore two wool jerseys during the ride and was still shivering when I got off. Finished close to the front. Still get cold thinking of it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I could have that same Colnago back.

12

25 years ago (yeah, I’m old) I did the first ever Clermont Triathlon. A 1 mile swim, 22 bike and a 7.4 mile run (once around the lake). A friend told me about this triathlon thing. I knew I could swim a mile, how hard could a mile be (yeah, right) so all I needed was to find a bike since I was already doing some running. I did it with a month of pool swimming, 10 miles total on a $300 Nishiki 10 speed with a skateboarding helmet and some department store shoes. I lived.

Soon after was the Siesta Key Sprint (still a great race!). About 100 yds into the swim I found why everyone was wearing goggles (Gulf saltwater). I lived.

That lead to many, many more, then producing them, then a couple of IM’s and some coaching. Still alive.

13

Was doing a local tri that had an indoor pool swim. 500 yard pool swim, a 15 mile bike and a 3 mile run. One of the race volunteers was counting for me for the swim. As a college swimmer I was in great shape and so I swam a conservative 500 but I was still well ahead of everyone. In fact I had lapped everyone who had started with me most of them twice. Anyway when I got out of the pool I was yelled at by the race referee that I hadn’t finished my laps… My counter (a volunteer who was also an age group swimmer was yelling that I had) instead of joining the argument or getting disqualified I jumped back in and swam another 50.
I still won the swim… got to my bike and took off. The volunteer at the first turn was sitting in his car to stay warm (apparently unaware that race had started… I found out later that someone forgot to radio the volunteers) so I missed the first turn. (Oh yeah… Since I had just got the bike a couple of days before I was riding in baskets and I didn’t know about tri suits, tops or arm warmers, Instead I was rocking the speedo.) I eventually heard the volunteer yelling at me and I turned around, needless to say I was no longer in 1st. By the end of the bike my lips were way blue and I was freezing.
On the run I was passed and passed and passed. It was awful. I am proof of the stereo type that says swimmers can’t run. Near the finnish I got scorched by some one for the last place on the age group podium (and the podium was 5 deep) as he went by me he shouted “that was an awesome swim man”.
Ouch.
The race was pretty much awful but I loved it anyway. I could have been and maybe should have been upset, but instead I realized that racing hard and being competitive did not necessarily have to go together. At that time I was still thinking about my chosen profession and I was questioning it a lot. For some reason something that day clicked. It was a really cool experience and I was hooked. Did my first half iron later that year.

14

First tri was a comedy of errors. Local area “long” sprint 750-30-7.5. Finished 237th out of 311, 2nd last in AG. Rode an old steel 12 sp without aero bars. Showed up with a 7mm scuba suit because somebody told me triathletes wear wetsuits. Couldn’t find bike at T1. Forgot to fill water bottle. Got beat by wife who was also doing her first tri. Was supposed to be a one time experience but we both were hooked. Seven years later I finally won my AG at this tri. Only took my wife three attempts.

15

First tri was a longish sprint that wasn’t my idea in 2003. Was about 3 - 3.5 months off a shattered collarbone. I was conned into doing the tri, “You used to be a swimmer, good Little 5 rider and anyone can run…” Sounded like a decent idea at the time. Didn’t really train - was in great shape when I snapped the bone - did some running, some riding, nothing major.

Race day was hilarious. Me and my Trek 1000, no idea what was going on. Friend said: “Swim here. Go out fast, get ahead of them, stay there. Ride like hell (it was fairly short - maybe 15mi) and just stay steady. Survive the run (4mi).” Weather was beautiful, I was cheery to people, totally inspired by the encouragement for/from everyone (only later to realize that they really WERE concerned I was dying on the run). I wasn’t sure I’d do too many more, but I had fun and figured it was a decent way to stay in shape.

Over 20 tris later and still under 30, everything from IM to a super sprint, I’m still hooked. It’s still a hobby and I’ll never be great, but I occasionally bring home AG hardware. I can still pop out of the water quicker than most and still run slower than most. I love the big, chaotic races where there’s all these new kids that have no idea what’s going on, scared to death and being the person that tells them to just relax, have fun, tell someon good job and someone else that they can do it, do what they can do and enjoy the day. I FINALLY learned how to make it hurt and race it last year. I anticipate this year might have a little more pain during racing and gritting it out. I can’t wait.

And that first race? I’ve only had one run split faster and that was a Turkey Trot, 2 weeks after Silverman. Thank God I can swim fast.

16

Grand Blanc (Mich.) Youth Triathlon: 200yd/10K/3K, August 1988.

Before, I devoured everything I could read on triathlon, like a year’s worth of Triathlete magazines. And this is a year after a family vacation where I saw the finish line in Kona and decided I’d do one of those things someday. “Someday” came when I was 14 years old.

Spent most of the summer riding and running to get ready for high school cross country, so my swim was mediocre (Thank goodness for three years of AG swimming, and thus my technique, such as it was). The run came next, though, and I burned that MF. Passed some dudes and got on my bike, an old Fuji touring ride I bought from my sister for $150 (Hey, she had just graduated from college and needed money). Again, I went all out and did one of those flying finishes. I was hooked even before learning I finished second among 14-year-olds and won a medal.

Top 14-year-old that day? Future Notre Dame runner and triathlon pro Mike Smedley. Top 8-year-old that day? Future Olympic rower Jeff Smoke.

17

well…I signed up for an olympic distance as my first tri. I am a collegiate swimmer, which means I am like a fish out of water. Honestly, I went on 4-5 bike rides before (fell over at least 4 times because of the clip in pedal thing). Ran maybe 3-4 times before.
Swam the 1.5k in 17 minutes something…spent 4 minutes in T1
biked the 40k in 1:08 with a crappy giant road bike.
spent another 3 minutes in T2
proceeded to run a 47 minute 10k and nearly died at the end…should add up to 2:18(official time) or so, which I was told isnt to bad for first try.
I havent done one since, but I am excited to do better this year.

18

MY STORY:
1994 or so, the Hooters Sprint Triathlon at Callaway Gardens. We’re all leaving transition heading to the start. My wife looks around at all the adandoned bikes, shoes, towels and says, “Hey, you want any of this stuff. I don’t think anyone will know.”

FRIEND’s STORY

Back in the 80’s Tinley, Scott and others were at Stone Mountain GA Sprint Triathlon. My friend, who was a nationally ranked college swim sprinter - and about 190 lbs, was first out of the water. He finished 167th. Scott, Tinlet, or one of the pros comes up to him after and say, “You don’t bike or run much do you?”