John Tanner State Park Tri Review

The good, the bad, and the so bad it's kinda hilarious...

First of all I have to express my excitement for completing this race in one piece and persevering through a few snafus here and there on the course!  Yay!  What does not kill you surely must make you stronger, right?

The day began with waking up at 2 AM to eat breakfast (I read an article that recommended this for short distance races, so thought I'd give it a try), then going back to bed until 4 AM.  I got ready, loaded my bags and my bike and picked up my training buddy at 4:45.  We were both nervous and excited; I was also experiencing some major denial about what we were about to take part in.  The topics in the car were downright hilarious as we tried to take our minds off the race with nervous chatter.  A few cars with awesome looking (also read: intimidating) tri bikes passed us on the interstate...and then it became pretty real.  We are going to race these people, and they are so competitive that they have to pass me on the interstate too! 

For those of you who don't know, this is what an intimidating tri bike looks like:

And now, add an intimidating triathlete with years of experience, and it looks like this:

We were among the first cars to arrive at the park and both got end spots on the transition racks.  That is REALLY good :)  As people began setting up their transition areas it was pretty apparent that we were racing against some serious triathletes.  All the tri bikes and gear were enough to give it away, but also the talk going on around me with triathletes who knew each other and were catching up on races they've completed and training schedules and talking about riding the bike more after the race to get in the 2 hours of training for that day.  The question arose in my head: "Ummmm...am I in the wrong place?".  I just tried to focus on organizing my transition area and not worry about how much more experienced everyone seemed.  Triathlon is truly a mental sport, as well as physical. 

Transition area on my side

See what I mean?  Some people were sooo serious about the sport!

My transition area setup with things to grab and go

 The swim

Once the transition area was set up and the wetsuit was on, we headed down to the lake to do a warmup swim.  The air outside was in the low 50's and the water was 72, so it actually felt good getting in.  The hard part was getting out and waiting till our wave start time while we shivered.

At this point I was still feeling like I was having an out of body experience and nothing felt real.  But it was time for us to get in the water and prepare for our start.  I stood there assessing the others around me and felt ready to go.  What I did not count on was the two girls who were on either side of me and slightly in front both merging in toward me as we began swimming, which resulted in me getting kicked by 4 legs at once.  At one point, one of the girls actually merged over and ended up under me as I was swimming.  I freaked out and panicked a little...my breaths were sporadic and short...my wetsuit began to feel heavy on my chest, and I felt like I might not make it.  Miraculously, I kept swimming.

The first half of the race I spent trying to calm myself down and not drown.  At one point, when my wetsuit felt like it was suffocating me and I was struggling to catch my breath, the thought crossed my mind to swim over to the rescue boat and ask if I could take off my wetsuit and then continue on.  Negative thoughts began entering my mind and I started questioning my ability to continue on.  I am not a quitter, and I was disappointed in myself for even pondering that notion of giving up on the swim.  So I continued and talked myself out of the funk I was in.  Then suddenly, after going around the halfway buoy, I got a rhythm, paced myself, calmed my breathing, and made it safely to the swim finish. 

Tired, water-logged, and slightly dizzy, I ran out of the water and up to the transition, T1.  I was alive.

The Bike

My T1 time was slow (a little over 3 minutes) but I am ok with that.  I was so dizzy and disheartened after the swim I needed to regain some composure. Plus taking off a wetsuit takes a little more time.  

I ran the bike over to the mount line and did so successfully, clipped in and everything without a mishap.  As soon as you mount the bike, the road starts going uphill and then there is a speed-bump.  Oh yes, the speed-bump from hell (see image below for what it looked like: this is not the actual speed-bump, but the closest image I could find)

I didn't see a way around it, so went over it; however, when my road bike tire hit the speed bump, it knocked me off balance and I veered over to the right.  I could have corrected myself, but another guy had done the same thing and lost his water bottle, so he was in the way.  To avoid hitting him I ended up in the grass.  This is my moment where it is so bad that it's kinda hilarious...not my proudest moment...but I did manage to laugh it off, get back on my bike, clip in again without mishap, and continue.  I was a bit disheveled after a horrible swim start and now an embarrassing bike start that set me back a few minutes.  Ay yay...we live and we learn.  

I took some time to really get going on the bike.  People on tri bikes were speeding past me and it is a really discouraging feeling.  I began giving myself another pep talk and convincing myself that 1) I was not dead last, 2) I still wanted to push myself to do my best, and 3) that everyone passing me was an experienced triathlete with amazing bikes that made them go super fast.  Hey, whatever lifts the spirits and makes the negativity go away!  It worked!  I kept on going and pushing through and actually enjoyed the bike ride...minus the roadkill armadillo and opossum :P

Entering the bike dismount is downhill so people come in fast.  I clipped my right foot out well in advance and stopped at the line.  When I got off the bike my cleats slipped a little on the asphalt and my jello-like legs almost didn't support me. Thankfully, I did not fall.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that my feet were totally numb at the end of the bike and my left hand was tingling.  Must. see. chiropractor. Monday.

The Run

This Transition was much much faster, and off I went on the 5K run.  I knew this run had major hills in it, but it is still different when you are actually running them after getting off a hilly 13.8 mile bike ride...with numb feet.  It was definitely not as good as I'd hoped...and whose idea was it to put the finish line on a hill anyway???  

Concluding thoughts:

Overall, I experienced about every single emotion and feeling possible throughout this race, and now have an interesting mix of "Yes!  I did it and was not last!" and "Man, I could have pushed harder and done so much better.  I should do better than this!".   There were many personal challenges today, but in the end I DID accomplish something great.  I also need to take into consideration that this was only my second triathlon ever, I was wearing a wetsuit for the first time in a race, and I was racing with my road bike and clip-less pedals for the first time.  Yes, I do have improvements that need to be made, but I AM still a tri newbie and cannot beat myself up about it now.  I need to move on, learn from this, and prepare for the next race in 5 weeks!!!

Most of what I wrote in this post is a summary of the thoughts that were going through my head and the conversations I was having with myself.  Like I said earlier, triathlon is mental as well as physical.  If I had this kind of mental, internal struggle and range of emotions on a regular basis, I think a doctor would diagnose me as either bipolar or schizophrenic (or both) and put me on meds :P  Ohhh triathlon, you have such a way of making the crazies even crazier!

My Training Buddy and I in our wetsuits pre-race