Yesterday I finished my first Triathlon (Chicago’s Sprint Distance Tri), an achievement I’m very proud of. As I look forward to my next feat in life, I thought I’d share some thoughts I sent to a friend on it in a recent e-mail.
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So the tri is over…and it’s been a whirlwind of emotions for the past 48 hours. I never responded to your text about if it was fun because that’s kind of a loaded question. I can’t say that I had ‘fun’, but I can’t exactly say it wasn’t fun either. It is a fun event. It’s a fun process for the day before and day of the tri. I can say I did enjoy it though. And I guess the main thought I’ve had for the last 24 hours is when can I do another one.
The expo/ packet pickup the day before was exciting I think. You feel pretty cool about yourself and it’s fun to get all those samples and see all the stuff there. It’s fun to get marked and get chips and shirts and caps and all that cool stuff.
Unfortunately, we struggled getting to go to bed early enough the night before. Our goal was 8pm, but packing bags and eating we ended up in bed around 10pm. When I laid down I thought, okay 5.5 hours of sleep ain’t bad. At 11pm I thought 4.5 hours ain’t bad….at 12am I thought okay at least get 3.5 hours and at 1am I thought, I’m screwed. I think I was just way to anxious to do my first tri and thinking about all the little things that go into a tri that I couldn’t sleep. My guess is I slept for 45minutes tops that night. Anxiety plus not really getting on a better sleeping schedule for the weeks before having to do a 6:50am tri did me in.
Getting ready at transition in the morning and all those things was exciting. It’s crazy being out there with all those people in the dark at 5am. I haven’t been that nervous since high school sports or the last time I was on a roller coaster. It was a good nervous though. I felt semi-confident and looked forward to the event. I was nervous about the wetsuit though, and I think next time I’ll go sleeveless if possible, because I can never get my arms to feel right in it.
Jumping into the cold water at the start of the swim felt great. It was really exciting. Getting kicked in my private parts when the race started wasn’t exciting, but I think my wetsuit protected me pretty well and I just started swimming. For me the swim was the most exciting part of the whole tri. I felt pretty good the whole time and I kind of enjoyed the chaos of everyone around me and weaving through people from our wave and the slow people from the previous waves. Getting kicked in the face a few times sucked, but I didn’t really care. It was all part of the moment for me. Before I knew it I was close to the finish buoy and I powered through the last 50yds. I swam up to the stairs and someone started grabbing my arms and pushing me up the stairs.
Running down the mats away from the stairs is when the exhausting hit me though. I barely had energy to grab my wetsuit zipper. How am I going to run this 400yds to transition I thought? I slowly jogged, then walked, then jogged some more while taking off my wetsuit top. I stopped in some grass and took off my wetsuit bottom and then jogged the rest of the way to T1. When I got to my bike, both my friends that I had came with weren’t at their bikes yet. This boosted my confidence as I changed into my bike shoes and ran away.
As I hopped on my bike, my main concern was clipping in my shoes without falling off my bike. I pedaled a bit and they were on without even trying soon enough. Up the hill I went and I was going. Another hill to climb and I could feel the exhaustion from the swim and all the water I had swallowed during it. I definitely did not feel good. As I summitted the first major hill and started going down i shifted gears and put all the power I could into the downhill. I was flying at 27 or 29mph and was ecstatic with that speed. Just keep up the momentum I told myself. Still though my stomach felt like crap from swallowing too much water during the swim. I thought about how I had turned to breath once only to have a mouth full of water get kicked in by someone next me. I kept a fair pace going and told myself that I’d feel better soon and I could really start pumping on the bike. Then I started noticing a sharp pain in my right elbow. I couldn’t’ shake it off and wondered if my wetsuit constricted my arms in some way that had caused this. The pain was pretty significant though and I kept biking with one hand off the bars to dismiss some pain. Only I, I thought, could develop tennis elbow during a triathlon. As I came up to the turnaround at Foster (halfway through the bike) I realized that I really needed to kick it into gear. Next thing I know Alisa passed me and this was the final dagger. I kept up pace with her for a mile or so and then found enough energy to pass her. A pain in my hands that I had noticed the entire bike portion was become numbness. I could feel my hands and finger tingling and thought about how if the fell asleep my body would be rolling across lake shore drive at 16mph. I kept up my pace though and soon enough was nearing T2. I was amazed when the volunteers started telling me to dismount my bike. Already I thought? I got off though and ran over the mats into T2.
After I changed my shoes and ran out of T2 I couldn’t understand how I would possibly run a 5k now. My legs were dead. I just needed a second to catch my breath, but there were no seconds to do that in a race like this. I jogged. At a water station they handed me water. I can’t drink this while running, I thought. I took a sip and dumped the rest on my head. I wasn’t really that hot, but that’s what people do I thought. I felt cool. Supporters and volunteers were everywhere cheering people on. Please let there be a spot with no supporters so I can walk a bit, I thought. I couldn’t find one, so I walked anyway. I started to jog again and started developing one of the worst side cramps I’ve had in a long time. I concentrated on breathing, but couldn’t seem to shake it. Oh well I thought, I have to keep running. I concentrated on my watch and my desire to finish the race in under two hours. As I approached a water station they told me I had run a mile. Dear god, I thought, how can that be? It had felt like forever. I kept trying to run. Run for two minutes, walk for 20 seconds. Then came a long slowly rising hill up Shedd Aquarium. It was a terrible person that designed this course I thought. At the next water station the told me I had run 1.5 miles. How in the world is that possible I thought. This crushed my spirits. I no longer thought I could do it in under 2 hours. I had already been passed by the 3 friends I was with and felt terrible about my performance. But I kept jogging. After I came down the hill people shouted that I was almost done. Really? I had just been told I was halfway done, what’s going on. Kept jogging. Soon a man said the end is in sight around the corner. Now I was really confused. Indeed, I rounded a corner and could see the finish in sight. I found it in me to sprint that final quarter mile and came across the finish line at a pretty good speed.
I grabbed my held and they handed me an ice cold towel. I stood their stunned. What now? It’s over. So I just stood there with my cold towel in front of a fan. I was pleased I had finished. But I hadn’t done as well as I wanted. I came in under 2 hours, but I didn’t expect to have to walk at all during the run. I didn’t expect to feel like crap during the bike. But at least I finished I thought.
All in all, it’s a weird experience for me to finish a tri. I felt good for doing it. I was proud I had motivated three other people to do it with me. But I wanted to do better and it was over. So wait till next year I guess? I’d have to train harder I think. Really train for a full three months. Maybe actually do the Olympic distance. Then again I’m not really cut out for racing. I enjoy team sports much more. I have ‘fun’ doing those kinds of things. But races like these are a place for me to prove something to myself. Prove that I can do something and be able to tell people I did.
So yes, I want to know when the next one is asap. I want to do one in three weeks to try again. But I’ll have to wait till next year. I guess I’ll have to find something else to do, now that all the tri training comes off my schedule. We’ll see what I find. Another challenge to check off the list.
