Swam the rookie triathlon in New Braunfels, TX this weekend to
consummate my first six weeks of training.
A few weeks ago I practically died trying to finish a 5k run, but a few
weeks before that I don't think I could've even finished it, so I'm not
complaining. Since the end of March my resting heart rated has dropped
from 72 to 60 and I've put on 5 lbs, which I only wish was fat so that
I could be more buoyant, but somehow my lower body just doesn't want to
stay up when I'm in the water ...
Anyway, the distance was 300m swim, 11.5mi bike, 2mi run. I've been
reading about the sport nonstop, so I think I was as prepared as I
could have been for my first time, but that didn't stop a few mishaps.
Although I'd read about it time and time again, and felt like I was
prepared to NOT panic in the swim, I panicked anyway. I think I was
all ready to go, but then once we got in the water we stood around for
a while and my eyes started to hurt so I took off my goggles. Then
they started counting down immediately after the national anthem, and I
couldn't get a seal because the rubber had come undone, so I had to
quickly try to fix everything, only to wind up with water slowly
filling up my left lens. Then I looked back and noticed nobody was
behind me, and THAT's when I really freaked out.
By the time I got out of the water 10 minutes later, I couldn't move my
legs - not exactly the status I was looking for. We had a little jog
to the transition area, which got my blood flowing again, but then I
couldn't get my shirt on because the carbo gel I'd put in the pocket
had twisted the shirt around. Managed to get my shirt on, but ripped
the number tag in the process, so had to re-pin that and ended up with
a 3:16 transition time.
Still better than it could've been, I suppose - I knew exactly where my
bike was, and had everything laid out the way I wanted it, so like I
say, I think I was as prepared as I could've been, considering I've
never done this before.
I managed to pass a bunch of people on the first hill, but lost my
chain at the top, so had to stop to reset it. I continued to pass
people throughout the rest of the bike, though, and after a grueling
ride I was very happy to have a huge downhill for the last mile where I
think I cleared 30 mph.
Unfortunately, between the over-sweet gatorade and the over-sweet carbo
gel I was so thirsty coming out of T2 that I decided to drink the water
they handed us, only to find it sit like a lump in my stomach. I
managed to ignore it as best I could, and by passing up the water at
the halfway point I felt great for the second mile, managing to finish
the run in 14:40, which I'm very happy with.
Final time was 1:13:30, which was exactly where I was expecting to
finish. The two biggest lessons I think I learned are that I need to
work on my swim even more than I thought (I joined a master's swim
class this morning), and that I need to dilute the gatorade a whole lot
more than I did. Oh, and cage pedals suck.
I did have a good time, and the event was very well organized. I'm
really glad that I had something like this to get me prepared for
what's to come.