In my head, after all the months of training, it was still a near thing whether or not I would go through with the triathlon.
The last week or so before was not encouraging. I developed a thing where my left arm just hurts from shoulder to fingertip for no apparent reason. My bowels were unhappy enough that I was muttering to them about getting their poop in a group. I was sleeping a lot but still exhausted. I thought maybe I should've signed up for the super sprint instead, but it was too late to change it. There was a predicted 50% chance of severe thunderstorms across exactly the time I expected to racing and I kind of half hoped it would happen so I'd have a reason to not have to do it.
But I kept going like it would happen. I spent Saturday afternoon packing everything up so I wouldn't forget anything and got the rack and bike onto the car. I slept at least part of Saturday night, which is not bad since I'm told that "nobody sleeps the night before a race". I was displeased that my secondary alarm was ten minutes slow, so I got up at 5:10 instead of 5, and after applying appropriate meds and caffeine, I made it to site by about 6:15. I parked on the far side of the lake, just outside the course and biked in, which worked very well. In theory a 3 mile warmup would have been a reasonable idea. In practice, biking 3 miles back home would have been painful, and having the car nearby but out of the crush was perfect.
I got my timing chip and my body markings. I was expecting something like grease pencil but no, they use big fat permanent marker, and it stays with you, though you can smear it with sunscreen pretty easily at first. I set up my stuff. I looked around the transition area. I went to the mandatory meeting where they announced that the severe weather had dissipated after all. (It wound up being cool and cloudy the whole time until there were a few peeks of sun during the second half of the 5K, which was perfect.) I got in the lake to warm up a bit and acclimatize, and then back out, and into line with my wave, 13, which I decided was lucky. I talked to people around me. And then... it was time to go. So I went.
I did pretty well with following the open water class recommendations for about the first 2/3 of the route, then started getting out of breath and having to flip over to backstroke to breathe for a little bit. About halfway through the third leg, I realized that wasn't cutting it because I kept getting off course and going further out than I needed to, so I made a beeline across traffic to get to one of the noodle swimmers, who was helpful and very encouraging, and after about 10 seconds I was able to carry on. I made it the rest way in one shot, but waded longer than I would have if I'd been up for a bit more swimming.
My bike rack had largely cleared out by the time I got there, so I didn't have a lot of competition to get out and started. The bike leg was pretty much how I expected, if only because it's the only leg where it's possible to stop moving and still have forward momentum going on, so pacing myself was straightforward. One nice thing was that I'd managed to leave my water bottle at home, and Scott brought it to me, along with a couple of others and a towel. I saw him as I was rounding the corner to head out from around the lake, so I stopped for a second, grabbed the bottle, kissed him and kept going.
The route is lovely, if you've got time to pay attention - around Lake Nokomis, up to Minnehaha Parkway, up the West River Parkway, across the Lake Street bridge, back down the East River Parkway and back to the lake and around. Unfortunately, it's also full of a good number of patches and potholes, so I paid a lot more attention to the road than the scenery.
Once back in transition, I dropped off the bike (and helmet! Not everybody remembers) made a quick pit stop and then began running, the part I was least comfortable with at the time when I was most tired. But I ran where I could, and generally when I dropped back to a walk and wanted to stop entirely that was a good sign that I'd gotten my breath back and it was time to run again. A few weeks ago, a friend recommended some changes to my stride that helped resolve some of the issues I'd been having with running being painful. It's not perfect, but much better, and I think that helped improve the percentage of time I could actually spent running substantially. When I did a test 5K, it took me almost an hour because I was spending so much of it walking, but looking at my race results, it was closer to 45 minutes, which I'm delighted with.
Of course I got passed lots, but a surprising number of racers were actively encouraging as they went by. I heard some minor grousing before things got started about the event not being very competitive, but that was obvious, and about 70% of why I'd decided to enter as a beginner with somewhat dubious training and an active dislike of competition. As in, taking the men out of the race immediately made it less mentally overwhelming as a prospect. But this race prides itself on how many women over 50 participate. It bends over backwards to make itself not intimidating, to make the idea seem possible. So it was nice that that ethos translated to people passing you saying things like "one foot in front of the other" or "you can do it!". It was also helpful in the bike leg when somebody said "you're working way, WAY too hard", which prompted me to shift gears and to think harder about how I was managing that element. That wasn't encouragment, but it was actively useful, which is not bad for an interaction of maybe 5 seconds.
In the end, I made all my goals. I finished. I wasn't last. And I even passed a couple of people. Go me! My results are here: http://www.mtecresults.com/runner/s
2:18:59 total time
I suspect I'm going to do it again eventually. It's a good training goal, and as Scott points out I have all the kit now, so it'd be kind of a shame not to use it. The next likely time is when the Y starts running their winter indoor triathlons. On the other hand, at this point I have zero ambition to do an Ironman, or even an Olympic triathlon. You can gut it through a 5K without really liking running, but I'm going to have to get a LOT better at that part before I take on much more distance. However, the more immediate goal is to maintain or improve my biking skills so that I'm ready to bike to Stillwater. We've been threatening to bike to Stillwater and back and stay at a B&B for our anniversary for a couple of years, but this is the first time I think I'll be in a good position to do it, so that's the next goal.
The last week or so before was not encouraging. I developed a thing where my left arm just hurts from shoulder to fingertip for no apparent reason. My bowels were unhappy enough that I was muttering to them about getting their poop in a group. I was sleeping a lot but still exhausted. I thought maybe I should've signed up for the super sprint instead, but it was too late to change it. There was a predicted 50% chance of severe thunderstorms across exactly the time I expected to racing and I kind of half hoped it would happen so I'd have a reason to not have to do it.
But I kept going like it would happen. I spent Saturday afternoon packing everything up so I wouldn't forget anything and got the rack and bike onto the car. I slept at least part of Saturday night, which is not bad since I'm told that "nobody sleeps the night before a race". I was displeased that my secondary alarm was ten minutes slow, so I got up at 5:10 instead of 5, and after applying appropriate meds and caffeine, I made it to site by about 6:15. I parked on the far side of the lake, just outside the course and biked in, which worked very well. In theory a 3 mile warmup would have been a reasonable idea. In practice, biking 3 miles back home would have been painful, and having the car nearby but out of the crush was perfect.
I got my timing chip and my body markings. I was expecting something like grease pencil but no, they use big fat permanent marker, and it stays with you, though you can smear it with sunscreen pretty easily at first. I set up my stuff. I looked around the transition area. I went to the mandatory meeting where they announced that the severe weather had dissipated after all. (It wound up being cool and cloudy the whole time until there were a few peeks of sun during the second half of the 5K, which was perfect.) I got in the lake to warm up a bit and acclimatize, and then back out, and into line with my wave, 13, which I decided was lucky. I talked to people around me. And then... it was time to go. So I went.
I did pretty well with following the open water class recommendations for about the first 2/3 of the route, then started getting out of breath and having to flip over to backstroke to breathe for a little bit. About halfway through the third leg, I realized that wasn't cutting it because I kept getting off course and going further out than I needed to, so I made a beeline across traffic to get to one of the noodle swimmers, who was helpful and very encouraging, and after about 10 seconds I was able to carry on. I made it the rest way in one shot, but waded longer than I would have if I'd been up for a bit more swimming.
My bike rack had largely cleared out by the time I got there, so I didn't have a lot of competition to get out and started. The bike leg was pretty much how I expected, if only because it's the only leg where it's possible to stop moving and still have forward momentum going on, so pacing myself was straightforward. One nice thing was that I'd managed to leave my water bottle at home, and Scott brought it to me, along with a couple of others and a towel. I saw him as I was rounding the corner to head out from around the lake, so I stopped for a second, grabbed the bottle, kissed him and kept going.
The route is lovely, if you've got time to pay attention - around Lake Nokomis, up to Minnehaha Parkway, up the West River Parkway, across the Lake Street bridge, back down the East River Parkway and back to the lake and around. Unfortunately, it's also full of a good number of patches and potholes, so I paid a lot more attention to the road than the scenery.
Once back in transition, I dropped off the bike (and helmet! Not everybody remembers) made a quick pit stop and then began running, the part I was least comfortable with at the time when I was most tired. But I ran where I could, and generally when I dropped back to a walk and wanted to stop entirely that was a good sign that I'd gotten my breath back and it was time to run again. A few weeks ago, a friend recommended some changes to my stride that helped resolve some of the issues I'd been having with running being painful. It's not perfect, but much better, and I think that helped improve the percentage of time I could actually spent running substantially. When I did a test 5K, it took me almost an hour because I was spending so much of it walking, but looking at my race results, it was closer to 45 minutes, which I'm delighted with.
Of course I got passed lots, but a surprising number of racers were actively encouraging as they went by. I heard some minor grousing before things got started about the event not being very competitive, but that was obvious, and about 70% of why I'd decided to enter as a beginner with somewhat dubious training and an active dislike of competition. As in, taking the men out of the race immediately made it less mentally overwhelming as a prospect. But this race prides itself on how many women over 50 participate. It bends over backwards to make itself not intimidating, to make the idea seem possible. So it was nice that that ethos translated to people passing you saying things like "one foot in front of the other" or "you can do it!". It was also helpful in the bike leg when somebody said "you're working way, WAY too hard", which prompted me to shift gears and to think harder about how I was managing that element. That wasn't encouragment, but it was actively useful, which is not bad for an interaction of maybe 5 seconds.
In the end, I made all my goals. I finished. I wasn't last. And I even passed a couple of people. Go me! My results are here: http://www.mtecresults.com/runner/s
2:18:59 total time
I suspect I'm going to do it again eventually. It's a good training goal, and as Scott points out I have all the kit now, so it'd be kind of a shame not to use it. The next likely time is when the Y starts running their winter indoor triathlons. On the other hand, at this point I have zero ambition to do an Ironman, or even an Olympic triathlon. You can gut it through a 5K without really liking running, but I'm going to have to get a LOT better at that part before I take on much more distance. However, the more immediate goal is to maintain or improve my biking skills so that I'm ready to bike to Stillwater. We've been threatening to bike to Stillwater and back and stay at a B&B for our anniversary for a couple of years, but this is the first time I think I'll be in a good position to do it, so that's the next goal.
cheerful
contemplative
busy
angry