After several months of training, my triathlon season finally started this morning.
My alarm started buzzing at 6am but it didn't matter, I was tossing and turning since 2. I bundled up in the clothes I laid out the night before, tossed a yogurt in my bag, and hopped on my bike to ride that mile and a half to the start of the race at Colorado School of Mines. Before this morning I never rode with temps below 60f but when I headed out the door at 6:30 it was 36f, and the temp staid at 36f throughout the entire race.
Upon arrival I knew that this was going to be different from the races I'd done before, and not just because it was a pool swim. There were no assigned spots for the bikes, there were no timing chips, and I somehow ended up with number 2. Being number 2 made me nervous because the low numbers are usually for the elites and I'm far from an elite racer!
Swim-400yds-7:40
The swim was a 400yd swim/8 times down and back. The swim was in heats by age and I was in the second heat, I guess the average triathlete is older than I thought? As I was busy being nervous about being number 2 and in an early heat it turned out that number 1 was facing the same crisis. We found each other and shared our woes, and it turned out that we were assigned to share a lane. This really helped me to calm down and get my bearings.
I originally thought it was going to be warmer out but the cold threw me for a loop. Instead of swimming in my new tri gear and freezing for the rest of the race, I decided to swim in tight running shorts and a sports bra covered with a tank top.
The start of the swim was a little confusing but once I made it into the pool I was off and strong. My breathing was consistent and strong, my turn-around (I don't do flip turns) at the end of the pool was seamless, and my weaker right arm held up to the test. Unfortunately, I had it in my head that it was an 800yd swim and was expecting to do 16 times down and back so I was surprised when a volunteer was trying to get my attention to get out of the pool at the end of lap 8. I lost a couple seconds there and was mad at myself because I would have worked harder if I realized that it was only half the distance that I thought. But there wasn't time to be mad for long. I towel dried myself before running back out into the cold.
T1-6:56
I spent almost as long in the transition area as in the pool? Oops. But it was time well spent because I dried off before I went outside and put on dry shorts and a top before taking off on the bike. The cold was a shock, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. At this point I was glad that they didn't reverse the race.
I quickly stripped off the tank and wet shorts (yes, I did race this one with underwear, I wasn't about to wear those wet shorts for the bike and run!). I wished that I had a looser pair of pants as I struggled with my running tights but it was worth it. For top layers ended up going with just a turtleneck sports top and an unzipped fleece jacket. I pulled on my socks, strapped on my cleats, put on my helmet and took off to start the ride.
Bike-8 miles-32:05
I was pleasantly surprised that I was not cold for the entire 8 miles.
The course was incredibly boring, 13 loops in a residential area. The upside was that there was a bit of a hill in the middle of it but the hill, coupled with the constant turns, meant that I spent nearly zero time in "aero" (the preferable position for triathletes, when you have bars off the end of your handle bars that you lean down on, it's more aerodynamic but I'm so slow that I'm sure it doesn't help much).
Bikers were everywhere, passing on the left and right without warning. I almost hocked a loogie on one. As I went around and around and around I wished that I had a counter of some sort, all I could think of the whole time was "I finished lap 1, 12 to go, 1, 1, 1, 1, okay, that was the end of lap 2, 11 to go, 2, 2, 2, 2..." I think I did exactly 13 laps but it's entirely possible that I lost count somewhere in there. With the heats in the pool and now the loops I gave up on making any estimate for how I was actually doing (I don't wear a watch when I race, though this one made me think that I should go get one asap).
T2-3:06
As I crossed back into the transition area it was time for the million dollar question, do I keep on the jacket or do I lose it and just run in the turtle neck? I mulled it over as I tied my shoes, grabbed my pack of cliff blocks (basically fruit snacks for adults), and chugged some Gatorade. "Ditch it." I decided and I was off.
Run-3.1miles-32:53
Ditching the jacket was the right choice. The run started off with a downhill, which I couldn't fully enjoy because I knew that two and a half miles later I'd be climbing back up it. The rest of the course was on a bike/running path that I run regularly. Because of the heats in the swim it wasn't too congested. I didn't pass anyone but no one passed me. There were few enough runners that everyone was encouraging each other as we chugged along (I love that about triathlons). The course was out and back so I was very excited when I saw the volunteer and knew that it was time to turn around. I ran strong, monitoring my breathing closely as I chugged up the final hill to the finish. Almost 33 minutes is a bit slower than I hoped but the course included a few brutal hills, including the last leg to the finish, so I'm happy with the pace overall.
The End
The finish was anti-climatic. Maybe it was the dreary weather or the few spectators or maybe the mom-and-pop nature of the race itself. I felt like I could have raced harder but now that it's about 4 hours later I'm starting to crash so that might have been the adrenaline talking. Regardless, I'm ready to get back to training so I can be even stronger at my next race.
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