My first olympic-distance triathlon was super fun. I honestly can't wait until the end of April until my next event. Lauren and I took the bus Saturday afternoon to Gaoxiong (高雄）to meet up with Tommy Chen. Tommy lives in Gaoxiong and was gracious enough to let us stay in his home... well, his parent's home. I had the opportunity to check out the track and transition area as well as feel the water.
As I've grown older I've realized that I have weird phobias. I'm scared of cold water and weed whackers. Weed whackers because when I was young, a weed whacker hit a rock just right and shattered the rear passenger window where I was sitting. I can't figure out why I'm afraid of cold water. Most people can just jump in the water and it doesn't phase them. I have to take my time unless the temperature is adequately comfortable. What can I say, I'm a baby. ANYWAYS, the water was warm so I wasn't nervous.
I had noodles for dinner, plenty of water and sport drink, and went to bed at 11pm.
Waking up early has never been difficult for me. Lauren, however, is not the same (love you Lauren). I was up at 5:30am to eat a bagel and start drinking. Lauren got ready and we left. I had to ride there, but it was only a few kilometers.
After getting inked, I got ready. I've read tons about setting up my stations to get ready for T1 (the first transfer from swimming to cycling) and T2 (the transition from cycling to running). Basically, I set up my station so that the things I wanted to put on first were on top of the pile.
#190. This was with 30 mins to go.
Me and all my gear. My seat is too high to fit under the bar to hang, so this had to do.
I love my Kharma. She had a tire deflate but the trusty guys at the Giant tent helped me out.
After getting on my cap and goggles, I jumped in the water to join the others waiting behind the flagged-rope. Some genius decided it was a good idea to hang onto it to help him stay afloat. Others joined in and it was bad. Everyone was pushing to get to the front before it even started, which made treading water difficult. I got kicked in the nuts twice so I had to bring my knees up which was difficult. Finally the gun went off and we all started, that is, after the douche in front of me pushed off my chest with his feet. The first 150m or so was nuts! It was like a fish hatchery. It was like too many people crammed into a van (Superbad quote). I wasn't thinking and definitely pushed a little too hard and should have remembered to pace myself, but then again I wanted out of that clump.
This is with only about 150m to go. I will humbly admit that I did not prepare well enough for the swimming portion of the triathlon. Sure I have excuses (I've been sick for 2.5 weeks now, I had a cough attack under a bridge during the swim, I only swam three times since October) but I can say, lesson learned! I will be getting in the pool at least twice a week from now on. I had no idea my wife was right there taking photos, but she sure got a great one of me eh?
Like I said, I didn't prepare well. I was super dizzy when I got out of the water. Fortunately, they had giant buckets of water so I dowsed myself. It was cold, but really helped. I barely remember getting from the water to my station. My body was stuck leaning forward, so if I didn't run, I would have fallen over. Awesome!
T1 was uneventful. I've heard that on your first tri you should wear socks on the bike. I did just because I haven't tried these shoes without socks and didn't want any hot spots. My chain fell off because I made a rookie mistake of backpedaling half a rotation to try and get a good push off my already clipped shoe. It only costed me 20 seconds. After I fixed that I was off.
The bike was my strongest of the three disciplines. I felt fantastic and flew through the 40km. I had a line of people following me for a half lap. Someone crashed behind me and only one guy remained. He passed me later haha. My first two laps were 11 minutes a piece (8km per lap) and my last three were at 12 or 13 per.
There I was starting my run with NOTHING left to give. You could say that I pushed too hard on the bike. I think that I ran out of juice because I didn't plan well enough. I hydrated well, but didn't bring any carbs to eat as I did with my marathon. I plan to pick up some gels and try those out for some of my brick workouts.
After struggling through my HOT 10k (it was 89F or 31.6 C for you non-US folks) I ran in with a time of 2:51:44. My last lap was a real struggle. Brick workouts will be a focus before my next tri. My slowest 10k ever took 1 hour and 1 minute.
I was exhausted but so stoked. The only thing I could do was sit down and pour water on my head. I sat here for a good 30 minutes, ate a typical lunch (rice, pork, and veggies), collected my free stuff (two shirts, a sport bottle, a medal, and a lot of pride), and got on my bike to ride back to Tommy's.
Lauren and I forgot to take a post-race photo, so we did it at Tommy's house. Here you go.
Lessons learned:
Do brick workouts.
Swim more.
Eat carbs during the race.
Don't backpedal.
PS. I ran a marathon in the cold with no nipple chafing. Why do my nipples hurt after today? 10k? Honestly.
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