I’d never done a triathlon before, even in training I’d never done much more than use the indoor bike and then go into a run a couple of times just to see how my legs would do, but this was a new challenge that I wanted to take on, and it went a whole lot better than I’d ever though it would.
We spent the week in Huntsville leading up to the race, a town that I’d been through MANY times in my life, but never spent any time in… well… aside from the three hours I spent with a flat tire there about four weeks ago on my way up fishing. We found some great little stores, restaurants, breweries, and bakeries to spend some time at, and just wandered the area.
Friday began the race festivities – we headed over at 2pm for Athlete Check-In and initial packet pickup. They had merch stands, and a few vendors setup ahead of the event, and many people who were responsive to even the dumbest of questions I had to ask, such as ‘which one of these is the bag I drop at the morning clothes bag drop station?’ or the clueless nature of not knowing how the transition zone worked.
Saturday was mandatory bike check – the transition zone opened at 11am for us to drop our stuff, and I frankly had no idea what I was doing, and was trying to find the best place for my number sticker, etc.. A couple of people were nice enough to tell me what’d be a good spot, what wouldn’t be, and really just what to do in the best way. I think they could tell I was clueless and probably wasn’t going to beat them in any measurable way. After we got my bike all checked in, we sat and listened to the quick once over as to how the event would be run, if wetsuits were going to be allowed, and if there were any changes to the posted routes. Wetsuits were a question mark – the water was over 76 degrees that day, but who knew what the weather would be like overnight to either help or hurt that. After the schpeelhad wrapped up, we took a little walk down to the water where the swim start was held. After seeing the start, my only question was about how we’d start – turns out everyone would wade out in the water and get a floating start… not at all what I expected. When we left the arena where this piece was held, we traced out the bike route, and took a drive to see what it’d be like. Hilly, but manageable was the consensus. We went out to dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening, and after getting the race bag packed, I decided it was time to hit the hay around 8:15-8:30.
Sunday morning, race day, I had the alarm set for 3:30 – I was up with the first one, something that’s quite uncommon anymore. I carb-loaded pretty heavy the night before, a seafood pasta dinner with two Muskoka Cream Ale’s (my favorite beer if anyone was wondering), and opted to eat a pretty heavy breakfast that morning too since I had plenty of time to digest before the race – Two Packets of Maple Instant Oatmeal with ½ a Pint of Blueberries, a Banana, and some rolled up Turkey and Swiss Cheese Slices, accompanied by a triple shot of espresso, and my usual jug of water. My initial goal was to get to the transition zone and get setup right when it opened at 5, but with the water temp I decided to wait and see if they posted any updates as to whether or not wetsuits would be legal… they didn’t post anything ahead of time, so I opted to bring it anyways, and we got there about 5:45. I got my gear staged, checked bike tires, loaded by bike bag, laid out gels, and socks, and other necessities, and prepped myself. After talking with someone else, they said that the water had dipped down to being cool enough for wetsuit use but was still at 75 degrees… for someone who’s used to swimming in colder pools than that, I opted to just wear my tri-suit into the water and skip the wetsuit entirely. At 6:20 I decided I was as ready as I’d ever be, grabbed my wave color swim cap, goggles, empty and tagged bag for my clothes, and walked down to the water.
It took 5-10 minutes to get down to the start, but I was still one of the earlier ones there – I generally just prepped like it was a high school swim meet that I was going into… only further than I ever swam back then consecutively… I stood at the side gate near my wave sign in my warmups, and did about 20 mins of static stretching, and just enjoyed the cool air (being only about 52 degrees at that time). 10 mins before the start I got down to the tri suit, and got ready to go with the rest of my wave. The first wave’s starting gun went off at 7, my wave went in immediately after them, we bunched up (I put myself near the front feeling like I was one of the stronger swimmers of the wave), and at 7:05 our wave went at the sound of the buzzer.
The swim was by far my favorite part of the whole event – I started off with a strong, fast front crawl, probably on pace of the leader (who’s time was only 30 minutes), however two things happened that required me to slow down. The first one was wholly in my head, someone grabbed my leg at the same time my goggles fogged over, and I took an influx of water underneath my cap, so I couldn’t hear a thing either. In the dark water of the lake I had a very brief moment of panic where I needed to just keep kicking forward while I got all of that resituated so I could see going forward. That was only about 10 seconds of rolling up the ears of my cap, and wiping out my goggles, and I was all set. Not three minutes after that though, someone’s foot when kicking got underneath my athlete wristband, and detached it from my wrist. Luckily, I saw it floating in front of me and was able to grab it quick enough. With it being my first time, I had no idea if this would be a problem if I lost it, so I grabbed it and spent about 15 seconds trying to figure out where exactly to put it. The only solution that I could come up with on the fly was “Screw it, I was a regional breaststroke champion multiple times… that’s gotta be in there somewhere still!” and decided that I was going to do breaststroke the rest of my swim… which was still at just around a mile at that point. I continued on that stroke up until the last 200 or so yards when I tightly wove the band between my fingers and sprinted freestyle the last stretch… my swim split was just over 38 minutes… my jaw just about hit the floor – 1900-yard, breaststroke averaging about 1:51/100 yards in a stroke I’d barely done in the last few months of training. It was a far-cry from my old race pace, but back then it was nowhere near that distance, and that pace kept me in the top 25% of racers in the swim leg essentially using one hand and kicking, which was more than enough to make me happy.
My first transition was about 5 ½ minutes – I took an extra couple of minutes than I probably needed to dry my feet before putting compression socks on, and to wipe down my bike a bit because of some of the rain that we’d had through the morning… though still catching up from the swim, I didn’t quite realize that it was raining as I was trying to dry off too, so any drying off I did to the bike was a futile effort. I was velcroing my cycling shoes and attempting to get my helmet on while running my bike out of the transition zone and starting to go up the hill to get out of there, and next thing I knew we were off and running on the second leg. It’s amazing how quickly 3 hours and 25 minutes goes by when you’re ripping along on your bike in a long row of other cyclists. From Huntsville to Newholm to Baysville and finally out to Dorset, and then right back along the same route. There were some gnarly hill climbs in a few spots, but what goes up must come down, and next thing I knew I was ripping along at about 60kph down the hills. I had one close call on a downhill where I had three bikes riding in tandem trying to pass me, and they were forcing me over in a section where the road was not in the greatest condition. I hit the bumps in the road going about 40 kph and felt the front wheel slide a little and was terrified I was going over – the previous Sunday I’d laid my bike down on some train tracks, so that fall still felt a bit fresh. Once I’d gotten through that piece, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way back to the transition area, and on to the part I was most afraid of.
My second transition was about a minute and a half faster than the first, I quickly ditched the bike, changed my shoes and started running toward the transition exit, but then decided I wanted to bring a water bottle along, so I doubled back to grab that, and bolted out of the transition area probably a little too fast. I got to the first hill and walked it (as did almost everyoneelse that was around me) – I decided that this was a good timefor another gel, and had one of those and chugged some water while I was moving slow. I felt good when I got to the top of the hill and decided that was the time to start the run, and not three steps in (which coincided with the 2km marker) my whole left leg cramped up, and I mean whole leg – Quad, Thighs, Calves, and Toes all decided to not function. I took a second to stretch, but that only made it worse, after two people stopped to see if I needed medical to stop by and help me, I pushed through to walk it off… which I did for a brief time. I doused my legs in the remaining cool water I had in my bottle which seemed to helpsome, and then when I arrived at the first aid station at about the 2.5km marker I drank a few cups of water and gatorade, alternating between the two. I decided that if this was how my legs were going to be, I was going to need to use the training methodology I’d used early on before I started adding in long distances weekly – the walk-run. At the uphills I’d walk, at the flats I’d run, and at the downhills I’d jog, but let the momentum that I had going into the hill so I was using as little effort as possible.
At 7km I had another cramp in my left leg, but I could tell it was getting better as this time it was only in my thigh, not my calves. I walked the next 2/3 of a km, and when it was gone started running again on the flat which was had an aid station just before the next hill. I did the same thing there as I did in the earlier aid station, this time going a little more overboard with the Gatorade, and only having water to clean the taste of that stuff out of my mouth. I’d continue to Walk-Run the course feeling progressively better through the 13km marker, where the cramps finally subsided, and it was only standard muscle soreness that comes with an intense workout. There had been a few guys that I’d run alongside a few times, and we’d kept intermittently passing each other, I had to have been a km behind the one up front at this point, but when I felt better, I started fully running again and caught up to him. I ran up next to him and said, “oh hey, fancy seeing you again.” He did a double take, because I’m pretty sure he thought he lost me for good at that point, but just said, “damn, you’re looking a lot more chipper than the last time I saw you!”
I had one thought run through my mind at that moment… I’mgoing to run the rest of this thing, and you can bet I’m going to end this with a sprint finish. I felt good the rest of the race, and when I hit that 20km marker, with 1.1km left on the run I decided to kick it into gear and upped my pace significantly… I started to slow it down as I made it to the corral, but someone on the sideline ran up beside me when I hit a jog and said, “you have five people in front of you, I saw you round that turn, you can pass them,” so I went into a full sprint, ran between the two people finishing the race together, around two others, but I pumped the brakes for the person directly in front of me and let her finish first to not ruin the photos. Some idiot that’s hitting a hard sprint in the last seconds of a race that had it’s winner over two hours ago photobombing isn’t a great look. Get your photo finish!
All-in-all this was probably the most fun race I’ve ever done – sure, I knew going in I had no chance, and had no clue what I was doing, so you’re out there for fun with others who enjoy the activity. Now I have an idea of what my ideal goal time should be – being clueless, I estimated between 6 and 7 hours to finish, and I did it at 6:45 which was correct, but now I know what I’m getting into, how to better prepare myself, and what I need to do to be successful… up to and including maybe putting a little superglue or duct tape on my wristband before starting. When I was asked immediately after if I was going to do another one, I was indecisive but even a couple of hours later my answer was a resounding yes. Whether I do this one or different location next year I’m unsure, but I’m definitely looking forward to the next time.
Thanks to my cheer crew, and congrats to my race buddy as well in completing his first event!
Roving On 