My First Triathlon - I Did It!!

Remember how I woke up before my alarm the morning of my first marathon? Yeah, well that didn't happen this time. My alarm went off at 4 am and I was snooze happy for 15 minutes. I was half asleep driving in the dark to fairmount park. In the 10 minute walk from where I parked my car to the transition area, the sun started to rise. Before I could enter the transition area, I had to be marked on my arms with my race number and on the back of my right calf with my age.

As I find my rack in the transition area, I was happy to discover that Beth (we have another Beth as a mutual friend) was assigned to the same rack as I was. She has done a few sprint triathlons before - this was her first Olympic distance. So after setting up our spots in the transition area and pumping more air into our bike tires, we grabbed our wetsuits and headed to the shuttle bus that would take us to the start of the swim wave.

Everything happened so fast this morning. But I was relatively calm the whole time - until the moment my swim wave was called to the dock. Then, I wanted to vomit. I couldn't believe this day was here. So we jumped into the 74 degree waters of the schukyll river, and I swam out to the center and hung out towards the back until they sounded the horn.

The Swim

I wait a few moments for the swimmers in front of me to go, then I try to kick myself to level out and start my freestyle stroke. Every time I tried, I got a foot in my face or arms and felt arms on the back of my legs. I put my face in the water and could only see a cloudy mess - it made me clausterphobic. I couldn't get my swim going and had an incredibly hard time catching my breath. Basically, I was just freaking out. So I turned over onto my back and started kicking, hoping I could catch my breath, let the field spread out a bit so I had more space, then i'd get into my swim rhythm.

It took me a few hundred yards to finally get into my freestyle rhythm and in the time I had dropped pretty far behind my field of female swimmers ages 25 - 34. Five minutes after my wave started was the male 35-39 age group - they are terrifying! In these few hundred yards that I was losing ground, they were gaining on me. Somehow, I pulled myself together and started swimming like I knew I could.

I was in the third wave after the pros. The 1st wave was men over 55, women over 45, and athenas (women of any age over 150 lbs.) They wore red swim caps. The second wave were men 30-34 in the orange cap, and my wave were green caps. The wave behind mine wore light blue swim caps. More than halfway through the almost mile long swim, I found I had caught up to quite a few green cappers in the back of my wave. A few red and orange caps were still swimming around as well - and some of the faster light blue caps had made it to this group. There were two red capped women somewhat floating in the center. It sounded like one of them wanted to give up and the other was there to make sure she was ok. I slowed down as I swam by and tried to offer some words of encouragement - saying they were more than halfway there and even if they just floated the current would eventually take them to the end.

I purposefully didn't wear a watch this race so I had no idea how long the swim took me - but it felt like it was much longer than it should had been given my ability. Didn't matter - I now had to focus on a quick transition and clean bike start.

The Bike

As I was taking off my wetsuit and trying to get my gear on for the bike, my body was shaking. Not out of nerves, just shaking maybe from the adrenaline and from being in a horizontal position for probably more than a half hour then all of the sudden running. Nevermind that, I just needed to focus on the next portion of the Tri. As I came to the rack, Beth was already there, finishing up getting her stuff on to start the bike - so I wished her luck.

All of the sudden, I hear my name called from the group of people standing just outside the transition area watching - and I saw my mother. Then I saw Beth and Jenna cheering for me with their signs. I couldn't help but smile and that got me pumped and ready to tackle this bike course.

I came out of transition and was about to mount my bike when I heard Ricardo scream my name as well. What a difference it makes having people who know you there, cheering you on. So with that, off I went. I didn't turn on my computer - I didn't want to know my cadence or my rpms. I stayed in the small ring and mostly in the middle of the cassette in the back. I had to last 25 miles and I didn't want to risk my chain popping off or my legs fatiguing too early. I still had a 10K to run afterwards as well as 8 climbs during this race.

About a half mile into the bike course was the first climb. I shifted to an easy gear and just pedaled as fast I could. It was tiring, but still, I managed to pass quite a few people during this climb and didn't have to get off to walk the bike up like a few people had to do. After surviving this first climb and then enjoying a nice descent that would help my legs recover, I vowed to make sure I rode up every climb - I was NOT going to get off my bike at any point and walk - no matter what it took.

The field was pretty spread out on the bike portion so I never felt too crowded. I stayed mostly to the right to let people pass me. I just wanted to finish cleanly. Towards the end of the first loop, rode past Craig Alexander, the world champion who eventually won this race, while he was halfway through his run. Knowing that the pros were now on their run, I slowly down a bit to see where my coach (who is also a professional) was. I spotted him and screamed his name as I rode by.

The pushed myself a little bit more on the second loop but not too much. It was just easier knowing what to expect the time around - how long the climbs and descents were and where the sharp turns would be. I finished in one piece - and now was time for the homestretch. The 10K run - this should be a piece of cake.

The Run

The second transition was much faster for me. All I had to do was rack my bike and change my shoes. Just as I run out, Beth and Jenna were there, holding there signs and cheering - so I high fived them as I passed. After getting off the grass and hitting the pavement, it hit me again. My shins and achilles started to flare up. Not Again!!! "There is no way you are going to walk any portion of these 6 miles" I told myself. I was shuffling along - I honestly probably could have speed walked faster. The pain was almost to the point of unbearable - but this was it - this was the homestretch - I had to finish and finish on a high note.

Just before the two mile mark, someone ran past me grunting, and I realized it was my friend John-Paul who I shouted too. We ran a few steps together - both in pain - gave a few words of encouragement, and he went ahead. Just past the 2 mile mark my legs started to flush out the pain and I felt like I could pick up the pace a bit. I ran past Beth and Jenna again who told me I looked great. I told them "I think i'll run a marathon now" jokingly. But honestly, I was feeling pretty good at that point.

A little bit further along, around the 3 mile mark I passed Jessi, my goddaughter Kate, and Dave, walking towards the finish line (there were two turnarounds on the run course). Also around that time my mother and Harvey rode up on there bikes on the outside of the run lane. They rode by me while I was running for probably close to two miles. I was feeling good and started picking up the pace a bit. I was able to have a conversation with my mother and harvey while running, which means I was running too slowly for a race effort. But, I really didn't care. My goal was just to finish and gain the confidence of having a Tri like this under my belt. So about a half mile before the finish, I told them to ride ahead and i'd see them at the finish line.

Then, I went into high gear, sprinting to the end. It was such an awesome feeling to cross that finish line and getting to see Jessi, Beth, Jenna, and my mom. I had so much energy, I felt like I could've kept going. Nothing was really in pain. It ended up taking me 3 and a half hours - and honestly, with putting such little effort into it, I could have done it closer to 3 hours with my ability level at this point in time. But it doesn't matter. That was the purpose of this. Now I know what to expect. Now I know I can do it. And now i'll be able to put together more of a race strategy for the 3 sprint triathlons i'm doing this summer (the next one is back in fairmount park in 2 weeks - yes, I know i'm a bit of a glutton for punishment. I blame Ricardo for this one - he convinced me to do it).

Words can't describe how grateful and appreciative I am of the support my friends have given me - especially Beth and Jenna for yet again waking up early on a Sunday morning to give me support during another one of my "First" endurance races as well as the sound advice and encouragement Ricardo had given me in the weeks leading up to the race. And for those of you out there who questioned my decision and my ability to complete an Olympic Distance triathlon on my first pass - Ha! I told you I could do it!