If I had a bucket list (which I don't) I don't really think a triathalon of any distance would have been on it. It's probably safe to say nothing particularly physical would have been on it. And yet, today I found myself doing a super sprint triathalon organized by a co-worker.
The course: 300 yard swim, ~8 mile bike, ~2 mile run.
As we drove into the neighborhood, part of which the bike and run would cover, I mentally and verbally cursed the hills on which we drove.
The contestants: Mostly co-workers, of varying athletic ability. Three did the event as a relay with the runner being the wife of a co-worker. The non-coworkers in the group consisted of spouses of co-workers and kids of co-workers. By the way, one of the spouses is a big runner and has even competed in a full-length Ironman Triathalon. His wife (my co-worker) also does a lot of running and biking and does shorter triathalons.
As predicted, the swim was my weakest event. I don't have a stroke. At all. I ended up resorting to a modified backstroke. I was out of the pool last. By a lot. At least I didn't drown :-)
Now the bike. My legs were shaky coming out of the pool. By the time I got on the bike, the shaking had stopped. And off I went. And as anticipated, the hills sucked. Big time. At some point as I was on my bike, I saw tri-guy running on the back half of the run. No big shocker. I managed to stay on my bike almost all the way through the course. I did have to get off my bike and push it on the last big hill. But I got back on and rode it in. I think everyone was done by that point (boy the swim killed me), but I still had the run to go.
More jelly legs. Now, if all I had to do today was run, it would have been NO problem. Today, I had to run following the large, un-trained challenges of swimming and running. So I walked the first half of the race course. On the way back, I mostly ran slowly aside from a couple of hills, which I walked. But I ran it in from the last turn until the end.
I did it! Dead last! (By the way, the kids in the race did not do the full distances, so I don't feel bad losing to them.) But I knew before I started I wasn't going to win it. Or come in second. Or third. I'm going to hurt tomorrow, but I already have a massage scheduled. And I'm going to try to go out and do a light walk/run tomorrow to work out the kinks and set my self up properly for the week.
After a fabulous cookout and awards ceremony (I won the 33 yo division! And I'm not even 33 yo! (Everyone had a division of one :-))), we all went for a dip in the pool.
What are the stats? I think I finished in a little over 2 hours. I don't remember the exact time, which wasn't really the point. Finishing was. The run took me 30 minutes and a distance of ~2.3 miles. The temperature was tolerable.
What have I learned? If I ever want to do a triathalon again (especially something other than the Tin Man), I should probably do some swimming lessons. And I need to do some more biking, but that's already on the list. Gatorade is terrible. It is just too sweet, full-sugar or artificial sweetener.
What's next? I still have two more weeks of my running program left. After that, I'm going to start alternating running days with biking days. I need to get my biking legs for the MS Cox Atlanta ride at Callaway Gardens in September. You can still donate here: www.causeofcarol.com. Click through to the Callaway Gardens team and click my name there. We've got a great team.
After that? I have some thoughts. Nothing solid But I like having goals. Good motivation.
Thank you so much to my family for all of their support! Both in my general running plan and for the Tin Man. It means a lot to me.
And thank you to all those who have given my positive feedback, both in person and written. I don't necessarily think what I'm doing is inspiration-worthy and that certainly isn't why I do it. I feel I've come a long way since I started. And while I hoped to do better today, I realize that I didn't do anything to prepare for the swim or the bike. Ten weeks ago, I know I wouldn't have been able to run for 20 minutes straight and wouldn't have even contemplated doing a triathalon. And now I can run for 20 minutes and have done a triathalon. So I know I'll be able to do the Callaway Gardens ride in September because I'm going to start training for that in a couple of weeks.
Onward and upward!
