Okay, I feel like I was struck by a truck. Here’s my race report…This will probably seem really slow to all of you experienced folks, but remember I am a newbie. This was the Lifetime Fitness Tri in Minneapolis.
Showed up Friday afternoon to check into the hotel and run to the expo to pick up my packet and registration info. Did that, bought a nice Tri bag that was on sale, as my little backpack was not quite big enough for everything. Back to the hotel and went out to the tri site to walk through and see where transition was and look at the swim…HOLY FCKING BAT SHT…That scared me…I asked one of the race officials who was there if he was sure that was only a mile…he laughed and said “yeah, this must be your first one, you’ll be fine” …WHATEVER…anyway, my friend who regularly races these gave me some tips and back to the hotel…Well, some genius figured we should all meet as a team (team in training) with one of the cancer survivors we were racing for…at 8pm…I wondered about the wisdom of such a late meal…but figured that it might help to carbo load…we talked about meeting to go to the race in am…we needed to be there by 430am…HUH??? 430…WTF??? Having a wife and baby, that meant getting up at three…didn’t even get back to the hotel until 1030pm from dinner…again NICE…but I felt good with nervous anticipation upon awakening…didn’t feel tired at all.
On to the race…show up at 420am…go to body marking and check in with the TNT peeps…then onto transition…set my stuff up…rather small area, but at least I was right next to dumpster…which was a good thing. There were 3700 athletes competing here, and having a landmark would prove to be helpful in transition. Got everything set up, and then my friend comes over, shakes his head and straightens out a few things…grabbed my swim stuff and went to eat a bagel…it was rather cold…had a long sleeve shirt on and was pretty cold…Onto the TNT pep rally…RAH RAH…whatever, I hate rah rah speeches, I don’t need nor want motivation. I have all I need…I have a lot of nervous energy at the moment…I go and hold my daughter.
7am…go for a practice swim about 300 meters…feels really good. The new goggles work perfectly…(my old ones were cheapos and fogged up so bad that I could barely see after about 200 meters). Decide to get out to watch the pros…they’re off, and swimming so fast I can’t believe it. The leader finishes the mile in about 16:45, and the announcer notes that the next group is rather slow at about 19 minutes…SLOW…WTF??? They absolutely FLY through transition…then the women pros are racing…AHHHHH…Samantha McClone, I am in love…nevermind that she doesn’t know my name…or that I am a fat larda*s squeezed into a too tight tri outfit…she is HOT.
7:58 am, supposed to start now, but they are a little behind…8:10, uh-oh. now it’s time to go. The guy behind me is joking about what the hell is wrong with all of us, we could be at home sleeping and getting ready for a barbecue…I laugh, so does everyone else. Get up to the start, and instead of a wave start, it’s a 3 second per athlete start, guy in front of me goes, guy holds his hand up, drops and I’m off, I hit the water fast, dive in and start to swim…I keep thinking “this is a REALLY long swim by appearances, slow and steady…don’t start to fast and bonk” I keep repeating this mantra…everyone…and I mean EVERYONE passes me…I saw a dog pass me I think…some old guy like in his 70’s told me to “get the hell out of the way” Jeepers, I knew I wasn’t the fastest swimmer, but I didn’t think I was this slow. It’s kind of unnerving, feeling hands touching your feet and legs, and bumping into things…round the first bouy, then the second bouy, and then BANG…hit my head into something…stop and look and I had swam right into a bouy…embarassed I swim around and hope no one saw…finally I see the beach…but every stroke seems to take forever, and I keep thinking I’ll reach it any second…but nope. Finally out of the water and up the beach…I run pissed that I lost so much time on the swim…but next up is the bike…YES…finally, my strength.
Through transition and onto the bike…about mile two I reach back to eat…SH*T, I was in such a hurry and so pissed about losing time on the swim that I left all the gels and the powerbar and the bananna at transition…At least I have two bottles, one water, and one powerade…I feel good, and I am angry…I am flying…I pass countless numbers of people…I fly past my friend, and he says Jesus, and tries to keep up…doing great, and feeling awesome…until mile 17…then the cramps start…first in my right hamstring, and then in my left…mild at first, they really start to worsen by mile 19…I drink all my powerade, and then start on the water…I have to slow up, as my hamstrings feel like they are going to seize up completely…by mile 23 they feel better, but now I am even more angry, I was still passing people, but I lost at least 5-7 minutes because of my own stupidity.
Into T-2, and I eat three gels and grab the powerbar, another bottle of powerade and the bananna. I start running…my legs feel really weird, I’ve done a dozen bricks or so, but I guess I never pushed myself enough practicing them, anyway, I keep running, and look down, COOL, I’m keeping about an 8:30 minute/mile pace…not fast, but fast for me. I am running next to a dentist who thinks it is so cool I am running for my B-I-L who died of Leukemia a few years ago, I had his picture pinned to the back of my jersey…UH-OH…cramps again, this time only in the left hamstring…BAM…I seize up, I can’t even stand, I lay on the grass, FUMING…start to stretch it out…OUCH…OUCH…OUUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHH. After about two minutes I stand, but can’t run…I start to walk, and pick up the pace…after about another mile, I start running again…but the cramps start again…I have now eaten everything, drank all my electrolyte stuff…(YES, I know Powerade isn’t the greatest), and I keep taking powerade at all of the drink stations. Alas, I can only run about a mile, CRAMP, and then walk about a half mile, and then repeat. It really ticked me off cause my heart and lungs didn’t feel taxed at all, I mean I was sweating, but I wasn’t dying. I enter the last two miles and decide to finish strong and push through the pain…I keep thinking of my daughter…as I start down the last row, the cramps are getting worse, I start to limp…I cross the finish line looking like I might die and limping as the pain was pretty bad, but I RAN across the line…I see my wife and smile…I get an ice water soaked towel…OH HEAVEN…I’m done, I give my daughter a big hug and a kiss.
Anyway, end result was :
Triathlon Results - Olympic Course
Finish Time: 3:20:26.1
Category Place: 105 out of 114 Men 35 to 39 finishers
Overall Place: 891 out of 1089 Olympic Course finishers
Gender Overall Plc: 643 out of 736 Male finishers
Triathlon Splits
Swim 1.5K
Time: 44:49.7
Pace: 2:59 /100m
Category Place: 114
Overall Place: 1000
Gender Overall Plc: 683
Transition #1
Time: 4:15.9
Category Place: 91
Overall Place: 855
Gender Overall Plc: 581
Bike 40K
Time: 1:15:16.9
Pace: 19.8MPH
Category Place: 52
Overall Place: 295
Gender Overall Plc: 280
Bike Split 1: 18:40.7
Bike Split 2: 57:52.9
Transition #2
Time: 3:37.5
Category Place: 98
Overall Place: 955
Gender Overall Plc: 655
Run 10K
Time: 1:12:26.0
Pace: 11:40/M
Category Place: 111
Overall Place: 1012
Gender Overall Plc: 699
Run Split 1: 36:43.1
Anyway, LOVED it, and am definitely hooked on tri’s…Can’t wait for the next one…
I learned A TON…which is what it is all about on the first one I guess.
