After being introduced by my sister-in-law and brother, walked down the aisle by ST’ers, and proclaiming my commitment to the multi-sport way through 5 months of training, I consummated said commitment today by losing my tri virginity in Waynesville, OH.
Prep - My favorite on-the-fly breakfast: instant oatmeal, banana, bagel with peanut butter. Food of the gods.
Swim - 800 m in open water. Water was 64 degress which felt like Awesome. Thanks to a last-minute wetsuit purchase I felt pretty good and managed to make it without resorting to breaststroke, backstroke, or dear-god-please-help-me stroke. I stuck to my plan of starting at the back and giving a 5 second start to the field, and a succeeded in not getting swum over and passed a few people on the way. My over-rotation on my left side/under-rotation right side was killing my straight line. I had to keep adjusting because I was getting off course. I guess this comes with practice in open water and better technique? It was a shallow lake, so some people were actually running the last 100m or so (maybe this was planned into the distance?), but I decided to keep flailing until I got a little closer and ran past those people once I pulled myself out of the water.
No clock???
Transition - not bad, other than the shirt getting stuck partway down.
Bike - 13 miles - I had 3 goals in today’s race: pass at least one Cervelo (on my Mercier Corvus), beat at least one dude with nair-smooth legs, and have fun. I managed to make all three happen during the bike. I was surprised at how fast I managed to keep it moving. I think it had to do with the “commit” factor. 15 seconds from the time your wheels overlap you have to pass the rider, thus you have to really commit to passing them. This was forcing me to really push pass some people that sometimes I might have just stuck with for longer. This made for quite a bit of cat-and-mouse with some people.
The course was mostly rollers and flat with occasional long steady inclines/declines (wait…I think I just described 95% of the terrain on earth) through windy country roads. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and foliage abundant. I felt great through the whole thing, found that I tend to pass on climbs (thanks to my sub-150 lbs?), and finished strong into the downhill finish.
Transition 2: fast! I didn’t go for the moving dismount, but clipped out quickly and swapped shoes without a problem. Felt hungry so yoinked half a gu before jetting out on the 5k.
Run - 5k - “No!!!” my calves protested. But about 1/2 a mile in they silenced themselves, and I felt a bit better. I was not moving fast, but was feeling pretty good. Once I hit mile 1 I was feeling really good and kept moving up and passing a good number of people. The course was being run by a duathlon (2mile, 13 mile, 5k) at the same time, so I think a few of the people were the slower duathlon participants. At about 2.5 my brother, an avid duathlete who nearly died on the swim, caught up to me. We ran for about 200 m, then he moved on. I trailed behind, managing to keep anyone from slipping between us. I finished decently well, coming in right behind my brother which made for a good 1st tri/sentimental family memory photo.
I pulled off 6th in my AG (M 24-29)! I felt pretty good about that for a first tri.
Lessons learned: 1) push harder on the run - there’s a ton left in there; 2) practice swimming in open water; 3) practice swimming!; 4) the gear does not make the athlete - I had pretty low-end stuff out there and was holding my own with Cervelos and aero helmets.
Thanks for the long-distance coaching ST’ers!
