After months of training and and entire week or stressing
about it. I finally finished my first triathlon!
The Capital of Texas Triathlon has two events the Olympic
and Sprint. I did the sprint distance. The only drawback to
that was that it starts two hours after the Olympic start.
I'm in the 35-39 age group so I was the second to last
group. Our weather here in Austin has been in the mid 80's
until last week it started to get warm. Yesterday they
predicted 100 and it was already in the upper 80's with high
humidity by the time I started. Needless to say, even though
I tried to drink as much as I could I still felt dehydrated
before I got into the water. (Wow, did that cold water feel
good even under the wetsuit)
The Swim: Once the race started I got a huge boost of
energy. After all the stories I've heard about people
getting kicked in the head and other injuries I decided to
start in the back of the pack. I settled in at a comfortable
pace and noticed that I was actually passing people. After
making the turnaround I zeroed in on some swimmers in front
of me who I could draft behind. The swim went much faster
then I thought. (guess after all those boring laps in the
pool it seemed faster)
The Bike: Thankfully there were people helping us out of the
water because I was a little shaky in the knees. After I
collected my thoughts I started to jog to my bike which
helped me start thinking ahead to what I needed to do when I
got to my bike. I had a little trouble getting my sleeves
off, but didn't waste too much time with it. Got my socks
and cycling shoes pretty easily, but forgot one of my steps
(PUT THE HELMET ON FIRST). Got my helmet on and grabbed the
bike. It's about 100 yards to the bike start area so I had
to job/walk with the cycling shoes on. The sand helped keep
my footing so I was able to get there a little faster. I had
no idea how hard to push in the bike race since my computer
wasn't working so I took it easy on the first loop and then
pushed a little harder on the second loop. The entire time I
was stressing about getting a flat tire. (saw 5 or 6 people
walking there bikes to the transition area) The bike was
pretty uneventful, just trying to pace myself.
The Run: After I jogged back to my rack with the bike I
changed shoes and pulled up my race number belt and put my
hat on. After grabbing a cup of water ( really needed
Gatorade), I drank half of it and splashed the other half
on my head. I got a good start, but began to fade fast
after running about a half a mile with no shade and
temperatures in the 90's. I've run in heat before, but not
in this high humidity. I stopped at every aid station for
Gatorade, but by the second mile I was completely
dehydrated. I jogged / walked the entire way knowing that
all I had to do now was finish.
After it was over I promised myself I would never do another
triathlon where I had to wait so long for the start. Even
after a terrible run I still placed 16th out of 63 which is
better then I thought I would do. My wife took my bag and
walked my bike to the car. As I was loading it into the car
I noticed the front tire was flat. I was so glad that didn't
happen on the course!
Thanks for all the suggestions and help I received from the
people on this newsgroup!
Carlton.