So, my first tri is officially over. I should retire; I’ve set my fastest time ever, why risk going slower? Overall, it was OK. A lot of, um, learnings there.
After a brutal night with around 5 wakings from KDA & TAZ, I made it with what I thought was a lot of time. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize they were closing the transition area at 6:45, so I thought I had at least another 20 minutes to orient myself. Lesson 1: get there earlier. If I had, I would have spent more time scoping the layout and figuring out where things are. That would bite me later.
I set up my bike, got my gear out and proceeded to break my swim goggles. Lesson 2: redundancy is a good thing. Luckily, I had another pair, which, while tighter and not the greatest, would do the job. I would proceed to break them coming out of the water and taking them off, so guess I’ll be getting new goggles again.
I waddled to the water area wearing my wetsuit for only the second time (the first being a demo to my kids in the living room). I stuck my head in the water like a duck with his fins sticking in the air to see how the goggles would work; luckily, they kept the water out. Looking around, I was surprised to see a fair number of people around me that I figured would be slower than me. My plan — starting out last in my wave so as not to get thrashed by others in the swim — seemed a little off. So, I found a pack of like-minded slow dudes and hung around them while the elite wave came out of the water. That was a depressing way to start my swim — look, Jilani, that’s how your supposed to do it…. GO!…. gurgle, kick, owie, gulp, WTF am I doing here?.
In general, the swim was absolutely miserable. There was more than one time that I thought about going to the closest kayak, throwing the ref off and paddling to shore. Figured there were too many people looking. I ate my share of kicks as I pulled up to people without realizing it only to have a mouthful of heel. I bumped left and right in my struggles to go straight - at one point, one of the kayakers pointed out to me that I should probably start turning towards the buoys again. All thoughts about form and technique — you know, all the stuff I read about and watched on YouTube without actually practicing — went out the window. It wasn’t until the final 200 or so meters that I felt like I had a rhythm going; the guy next to me, however, may not have thought so as I kept bumping into him as we tried to steer to the exit.
As I pulled out of the water, I have to admit that I was extremely psyched to have gotten that over with; I was sucking some pretty serious wind and even though I was happy to have not resorted to a breast stroke during the swim, it really wasn’t great.
The wetsuit came off easier than I expected, although I broke my goggles in the process. The transition to bike was fine, with nothing eventful. Even though a lot of stuff I had read said to put the sunglasses on after mounting the bike, I think I’ll put them on in the transition area next time. Once on the bike, it was pretty uneventful. I passed a fair number of people, three of which were in TT bikes, which made me giggle. I definitely should have drunk a little more on the bike. In general, I felt about as good as I thought I would in that phase, although my heart-rate was through the roof at the start. I suspect I was still reeling from the swim, although that subsided about 3-4 minutes into the bike ride.
Then came the dismount. I had decided to try a shoe-less dismount; basically, get my feet out of my shoes as we pulled in and leave them clipped to the bike. The first shoe came off w/o a hitch; I pedaled a couple times and reached for the other side. The velcro straps came off easily, and I reached into the heel to pull my foot out… only to end up with my shoe in my hands. I’m sure KAZ was impressed as this was the first time she & the kids saw me come through. It made the dismount a little entertaining, although I didn’t take a dive, which was my biggest fear. Running over to the transition spot (shoe in hand), I had few issues racking the bike, getting my running shoes on and leaving my spot. Lesson 3: a bottle of Gatorade in the transition spot isn’t a bad idea; it may have slowed my down, but I appreciated having it after the swim and the bike.
As I ran to the main thoroughfare, I was confused as to where the run started from. A couple of people helpfully pointed it out. I ran out the transition and started the course, and managed to pass some people from the start. Something, however, didn’t feel right. I started feeling my head. (*@#&$)(*!@#)(!*@#! In my infinite transition wisdom, I’d forgotten to take off my helmet and was running the course with my damn bike helmet on. It was right out of There’s Something About Mary. I took it off and toyed with tossing it by the side of the road to pick up after the race, only to decide to run with it in hand (not sure why; wasn’t actually that heavy). Wasn’t the highlight of my race; only one wise ass decided to comment on it, saying "You know you don’t need that anymore" as I passed him.
I guess the most amusing thing was that photographers took an instant interest in me; the course was packed with what seemed like official photographers taking random pictures - during the run, there was definitely an increased interest in me. You know, the jackass with the bicycle helmet in his hands. KAZ swears it’ll be on the cover of the Seattle Times tomorrow. I think she’s a little too excited to have me embarrassed… :)
So, a learning experience. It was entertaining to say the least, and psyched that the kids and KAZ were there. Overall, I think my most important lesson was to spend more time in the water… we’ll see where I go from there with that. (Final time was 1:22, w/ a 17min swim, 38 min bike and 22 min run).