St. Anthony’s was my first triathlon ever. Here are my results:
PLACE OVR’L NAME AG CITY ST RANK SWIM T1 RANK BIKE T2 RANK RUN RANK FINISH
27 346 Eric Hollins 26 Austin TX 42 28:32 1:54 17 1:04:50 1:29 55 48:13 27 2:24:56
My goal was to finish in 2:30:00 since I thought that that would be a good time for my first triathlon ever. It would make me a FOP and I would place somewhere in the high 30’s compared to last year’s results. It was a goal that I thought was challenging, but doable. I had no freaking clue that I was capable of shattering that goal by over 5 minutes. I was telling people that if I get 2:30, it would be by maybe 1 minute or 1:30.
So, here is my shortened race report. I was a freaking nervous wreck the morning of the race. I tried to stay calm, but my stomach was doing somersaults. I got my wetsuit on about 15 minutes before the swim start, swam a bit, got used to the water and stuff. Lined up in the chute and waited. I was actually fairly calm during the final two minutes. The gun went off and I took my first step toward my first triathlon. I got into the water and about 50 meters into the water, I freaked. Totally. Fucking. Freaked. Out. I was wondering what the hell I got myself into and why was I doing this. All I know was that I wanted to get the hell out of the water right away. But I had to swim another 1450 meters. The first leg was by far the worst. Second wasn’t so bad, and third was better. I finally got into a rhythm somewhat, but I was in near panic attack mode the entire time. I just put my head down and put one arm in front of the other and kept going. I think I swallowed about a gallon of sea water, too.
Got out of the water and I wanted to puke. I actually should have puked. I looked at my HRM and my time was 28ish. Not that bad considering what I went through. T1 sucked because I wanted to do it under 1:30. I had trouble getting my wetsuit off and I wasn’t running that fast because I was still dizzy. Got on the bike and I took off.
The bike rocked. Finished 17th in my age group. I knew it was my strongest discipline and it showed. I kept my heart rate in the 155-160 range for about 95% of the ride. Wind wasn’t bad at all and I got used to riding with others without blocking or drafting, but it was tough. My stomach was upset because of the salt water that I drank on the swim. I wanted to puke so bad and I was figuring out if I could puke and ride at the same time and what that would look like to the guy behind me, but that didn’t happen. I was riding with this guy named Marco Hintz who was in my age group. We chatted a bit during the bike and stuff. He encouraged me a lot because we was saying that I was kicking ass for my first race. Marco and I entered T2 together and we were right by the wreck that occurred by the dismount line. Went into T2 and Marco and I left T2 together.
Started the run. My coaches tried to tell me to start off slow and I tried. It didn’t go so well because my heart rate was 170+ right away and I usually run in the high 160’s. After about 3 minutes, I told Marco that I was running my race and for him to go on. I ended up slowing and walking for a bit. Actually, I ended up stopping and walking about 4 times. The first 5K was fine. The second 5K was a lot more painful. There were no mile markers after Mile 4 which gave me no clue as to what pace I was going. I finally turned down the last straight away. I was freaking excited. My pace was going well even though my heart rate was pegged at 180 ever since Mile 1. I had stuff left in me and I wasn’t hitting any walls. Going down the last stretch, I was high fiving people. My TNT group was at the last left turn before the finish line. They cheered me on like crazy which gave me a boost. Turned down the last 20 yards and I was living it up. I slowed down to a slow jog, high fiving people, and telling the crowd to scream. It was such a great feeling to have about 500+ people screaming at the top of their lungs because you were about to cross the finish line. I crossed the line, made a pose for the camera guy, and stopped my watch. It read 2:24:53. I saw Marco at the finish line, thanked him and found out that he finished maybe 2 minutes ahead of me.
I started walking around and let’s just say that I became a wreck for awhile. I was completely overwhelmed that I finished this race and did so well in it. Once I calmed down a bit, I found the rest of my Team In Training group and cheered on the rest of my team.
I was really happy with the race. I thought it was well run, but this is my first race. There was drafting a lot. I tried hard not to draft. There was one incident where there was a pack in front of me. I wanted to pass them but they were riding 3 or 4 wide and it was ridiculous. At that point, a drafting marshall pulled up behind the guys on a motorcycle and started writing numbers down. There were probably 10 penalties from that group alone. Well, the group was slowing down my progress and they were crowding the lane. There was maybe 4 feet between the farthest left cyclist and the motorcycle. i built up some speed, yelled “ON! YOUR! LEFT!”. The leftmost cyclist still didn’t move over much and I had about 1 foot between him and the motorcycle on each side of me. It probably was dangerous, but I was sitting behind that pack for awhile and I wanted to pass them. I saw many other groups drafting as well. There were over 200 penalties assessed during the race.
Overall, I had a fantastic time and I’m really glad that I am now a triathlete.