My First Olympic Triathlon!

This will be a post very similar to the last time I talked about my triathlon experience, and I will just put what I learned this time in here, rather than make a separate post for it again.

Alright here goes, my plans to get to bed early did not work out, neither did my plans to go to sweet tomatoes. I ate a bunch of pasta at home and then just tried to go to bed. Getting everything ready took longer than I thought so I didn't have time to do PM yoga either. That may be the reason I could not fall asleep. I just lay there for an hour or more thinking about the race, and visualizing my triumphant leap through the finish line. Finally I put on a talk from speeches.byu.edu, because those usually put me right out, but it still took lots longer than usual.

When my first alarm went off I turned it off and waited until the second, third, and forth went off. Then I was up, and had "The Final Countdown" in my head (I recommend opening this link in a new tab and listening to the song while you read the post!) while I gathered everything up I had so nicely prepared the night before and at some cereal and a banana. Now I was off. I arrived just on time, that is to say, about an hour early. Which was enough time to look around, stretch, talk to others, and get my body marked, but not way too much time like my first triathlon.

After getting my little transition spot all set up, I put on the ol' wetsuit and got in the water to get acclimated. It wasn't too horrible actually, about 61 degrees with a wetsuit is just fine once your feet go numb, and until you put your face in. They delayed the start for a little while to try to clear a bunch of driftwood out of the way of the course, but let's just say they didn't get it all...

When they announced we would be starting in "3...2...1..." I scrambled to get to the back of the group so I didn't get killed and then jumped in and started swimming. I immediately realized why it is important to have anti-fog drops for your goggles, because even with them it is really hard to see the buoy that you are supposed to swim to. At first I tried to just swim with everyone else, elbows, legs, hands and everything flailing all around me... Then it got less crowded, which was nice. I guess I figured everyone had just kind of found an equilibrium with their surroundings, but I was wondering why I kept hearing a whistle blowing and someone yelling "right, swimmer!" I guess I just figured it was someone else's problem, until I stopped and looked around to see that I was way off course! I tried to re-correct my direction and the next time I checked I was off again! It is terribly difficult to swim in a straight line in a lake when the water is moving, the water is cloudy, and there is no line on the bottom to follow. It was all I could do to try to stay with the "herd" but even this didn't always workout, since some of them would stray off too. (See diagram below)

I was already tired and only a sixth into it, and I knew there was only one way to keep my cool: pretend I was not in a triathlon. I would stop for a couple seconds and say hello to the lifeguards, or tell them good morning, just as if I was out on a beautiful summer day for a leisurely dip. When I ran into someone I would politely say "excuse me" and keep going. Last time I could afford to be a little competitive in the swim and committed myself to doing only freestyle stroke. This time, anything was fair game. I would switch to breast every now and then to get my bearings and look for the buoys, then I would do backstroke when I got tired and then I would slap someone on accident and switch back to freestyle, only to find that I had been going completely off course. If swimming straight in a lake is hard, backstroke is 10 times worse! At one point I switched to backstroke after rounding a buoy and when I got my bearings again I found out I had actually been going backwards. And even when I could get myself moving forwards, the buoys seemed to be swimming away from me. Oye ve.

The good news is, even though you may think it is not an admirable trait to swim all skiwompus in crazy loops and zig zags, consider the fact that I probably swam farther than anyone else in that lake. So there, I bet I did a half-ironman distance swim, actually. But while I'm speaking of skiwompusness, there was one guy who I think made it his personal mission to swim in a crazy floating zig zag pattern specifically designed to block my progress. Oh well.

Anyway, a few more collisions with people and driftwood as well as a few swallows of lake water to keep hydrated, I made it out of the lake in one piece. I must have been one of the last ones because there were hardly any bikes in the transition area! One glance backwards confirmed my suspicions. I think there were only 2 or 3 Olympic distance swimmers left in the lake, and one was a girl! (they start several minutes after the men). Oh well, at least my bike was easy to find.

I admit it, I was too tired to do a really fast transition, so I took my sweet time, and was a little nervous in getting on the bike because my legs were already sore due to the variety of strokes I had to use to stay alive in the lake, and my arms were so sore that I could hardly support my torso by holding on to the handlebars! I managed to get up and going though, this time not so gung-ho about passing everyone, even though I did a few, of course. Then my morale took another hit when the first place kid came zooming in on his bike shortly after I got on mine.

26 miles is a long way, and it feels even longer when the first half of the bike leg is all uphill. I was happy to have a long downhill stretch to look forward to though. I tried my first GU packet at this point, and it wasn't bad, I just hoped it helped me get back some energy because people were passing me, which is unacceptable, even though most of them were sprint distance people, so they had half the distance to go. Ultimately, I think everyone passed me except for one blessed soul though. He was my motivation to keep going strong, to keep me safe from last place! I beat him to the top of the hill and turned around for the downhill half, only to feel a gust of wind in my face. Terrific. But I was still doing good, until I noticed a girl with a flat tire. As I went by I yelled out, "do you have everything you need?" and she said, "um... yeah..." Not a good sign. So I turned around and biked back to her only to find out she had no clue how to change a flat. I had kept telling myself I just wanted to finish, and not worry about the time, so I helped her. As I did, that other guy zoomed by. Oh well. Once she was good to go, I got back on course and she was close behind me the whole time, but I never let her pass me. Until the run, at least...

As I biked into the transition area, I passed people who had finished and were heading home. I knew most of them were sprinters, but it was still a little disheartening. But then I saw my 3 friends Amber, Lisa, and Tosh walking and cheered that they came and they cheered for me. That renewed my zeal as I got off my bike, slipped my shoes on with my new rubber laces I had just bought (which are fabulous by the way) and grabbed a GU packet and took off running.

The transition wasn't too bad, thanks to the brick workouts I've been doing, but I couldn't finish the GU packet because it made me thirsty so I just ran with it and it got all over me! (but I didn't want to litter!) I passed my friends again who were in the middle of making signs, my favorite was an unfinished one that Tosh read aloud as I ran by, "You are doing GREAT, keep..." it was quite funny. It wasn't long after that when the girl who I helped with her bike ran past me, and for the remainder of the run I was left to battle it out for last place with this woman twice my age. I kind of set my pace to hers, and she started taking little walking breaks so I caught up with her, we were neck and neck for a mile or two, and made it through the first lap, still fighting for second-to-last place.

This part was torture! I think it is unfair to have to run 2 laps because then you know what is ahead and that is no fun, because then I just dread the hills! But to make matters worse, the second lap starts about 10 feet from the finish line, to be right there and then have to run away again, oh... pure psychological torture. I think that is one reason I ended up "hitting the wall" (as they say) a little later and had to take a walking break. Fortunately, I can walk pretty fast because of my long legs, and she would walk periodically too so we were still close. Eventually though, she pulled away from me and I kept run/walking after her. I got my 6th or 7th wind (I think I used up my second one in the swim) as I got close to the finish line, and was able to run the rest of the way there. My friends were there cheering me on, and I ran up to the finish line and mustered all the energy I could to "leap" through it like I had pictured myself doing, but with the way my legs were, I'm sure it was more of pathetic hop, than a triumphant leap.

But I finished! That is the cool thing, and despite pretty much everyone else being done before me, I still got a time that I was okay with, around 3 1/2 hours. And even better news: I found out I wasn't last! There was at least 2 people behind me somewhere. One person who apparently had gotten lost during the run when they took a wrong turn, and an old grandma lady. Bless their hearts.

Then I had learned that Amber won a gift certificate (that she gave to me) for being the most supportive fan there, and even cheering for everyone else too. My friends are the best! They even shaded and fanned me as I lay on the ground and as I stretched. Not to mention that they got me a whole quart of chocolate milk that I drank on the way home. I doubt they will ever know how much it meant to me to have them there cheering me on. And especially to have them there to give me and my bike a ride back to my car because there is no way I had another 3 miles left in me to get back to it myself!

During the ride home my feet were so sore it hurt to even just have shoes on, and for some reason even my fingers were sore. But man, was it nice to shower and take a nice long nap when I got home...

THE END