Fortunately, with the help of friends, namely Nate and Colleen, I managed to avoid beating myself up too much for bailing, and instead started training for a NYRR Sprint Triathlon in August. Weekly visits to Colleen's pool, numerous attempts at running, and bicycle jaunts in Central Park and around town, we were off.
Well, they say you should expect to make mistakes during your first triathlon, and I did. My goal going in (not that I really ought to have had any goals), was to finish in under 1:30:00. A little bit of a stretch, but somewhat reasonable goal. EXCEPT... I don't know squat about bikes. I finished the swim relatively quickly - out of the pool and through the timing pad in 9:15. Transition was fast - just over two minutes. Then I get on the bike. And it's HARD. And I'm SLOW. Very Slow. Slower than I've ever been before. I get off, and try putting the front wheel back on, thinking that's what it is. Nope, still slow and hard. People are passing me and saying - keep going, you can do it! I stop 4 more times to fiddle with the wheel - all within the first lap (6 miles), but no go. Then a bit into the second lap, I try once again. But this time, I stop next to a group of spectators. Turns out My front brake was askew, pressing against my wheel. One of the guys opened up the brake, and suddenly... no resistance - I was flying!! Well, about time. Still, a course that should have taken less than 45 minutes ended up taking over 1:15:00. And after all that there was still the run!! Legs tired and aching, I practically fell coming off the bike, and going into the run. I stopped and walked huge portions of it... and finished in 1:58:59. Nearly 1/2 hour slower than I wanted to.
As exhilarated as I was to have completed my first tri, I was super-bummed about my time, and the silly mistake (which I would have been able to take care of if I had taken a quick spin on the bike as I should have done prior to checking in). So when I got home, I looked for the next sprint tri in the area - which turned out to be two weeks away. I immediately signed up.
Fast forward two weeks - it's a sprint in Harriman State Park this time. Rivka was nice enough to hang with the girls in Suffern on race day, so that I could get an early start. I was primed for this one - sure that everything would go right, that I would finish in under 1:30:00. Well... you can make mistakes on your second tri too. 19:05 on the swim (1/2 mile). Cruising on the bike - the hills didn't phase me. I was feeling good, and didn't stop on the run - I go through, arms up, thrilled to be done - look up at the time board - okay... not 1:30, but 1:48 isn't bad... long swim, long, hilly bike... "Umm, can I have your timing chip please?" "Sure, no problem... Oh, shit! It's not on!! Did it fall off?!" No, I left it in transition between the bike and the run. While unvelcro-ing my biking shoes, I unvelcroed the timing chip as well!! So, shame of all shames, I ended up with a DNF. The biggest irony was that I calculated my scores - I would have WON my age group had I not taken of the chip.
Well, I had another sprint already planned, with Rebecca and her family in Staten Island, the last weekend of August. My last chance to save my dignity. So I trained (ok, only a little). And on race day, I swam 1/3 of a mile in 12:23, biked 12 miles in 38:18, and ran 4 miles in 35:39, and crossed the finish line in 1:30:25 to win my age group. Finally!! Vindicated! Well, if I wasn't hooked before, that definitely did it for me. At that point, I knew that I found my newest addiction and that I wanted to do more challenging (Read - longer) races in 2011.
But given that I wanted to try my hand at a half-ironman in 2011, I really wanted an olympic length tri under my belt before 2010 was over. So I went online looking for one late enough in 2010 for me to train for, and on the east coast. The tri that I found was Miami Man, held in mid-November at the Miami Metro Zoo. They had 2 options - a half ironman length and an olympic length. I chose the later.
It turns out that the names of the lengths of triathlons are used somewhat loosely*. The three sprints I did were all different lengths - with swims ranging from 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile, bikes in between 12 and 15 miles, and runs between 3 and 4 miles in length. From what I gather, the traditional length of an olympic length triathlon is 1.5 k swim, 40 k bike and 10 k run. Because, however, MiamiMan was running the 2 different lengths side by side, the oly length was a .6 mile swim (1/2 of the halfIM), 22 mile bike, and 6.6 mile run.
The only problem was that I hit a training wall. I couldn't motivate myself to do anything this past fall. Not to go to the pool, not to bike and not to run. I was a bit worried that I was depressed, but just couldn't motivate myself to get up and go**. At least with the run, I made a half-assed effort, building up to 5 miles in the weeks before the tri. But I had only swum twice or three times between the Staten Island tri and November, and following an exhausting 65 mile bike ride in mid-September, went no further on my bike than TSNY and back.
So it was with much trepidation that I headed to Florida, and really, had I not bought my plane tickets, would have bailed on that tri. I managed to convince myself on the flight down that even if it took me 5 to finish. There were times listed for swim, bike and run cutoffs, and I was relatively confident that I'd be able to finish before being cut off. Just to be sure, when I had bought the ticket, I chose a late night return, so that even if it took me 5 hours, I'd make my flight. The optimistic part of me, though, set a goal of finishing in under three hours. I thought
it unlikely that that I would finish in under three, but also thought that it was doable.
My parents were great that weekend. They picked me up from the airport, though my flight landed at 12:30 AM, headed to the bike store with me to pick up a part, down to the zoo for check-in the day before, and even worried that I'd eat a proper dinner the night before. The morning on the race, my mom got up when I did, wanting to fix me breakfast. She didn't know that race morning it was all I could do to force some cereal down my throat without throwing up.
The nice thing about early race starts, or early transition closings is that you don't hit any traffic on the way down. Unfortunately, with all my nerves, and transition lock down before the 1/2 IM starts, I forgot my goggles on my towel. Nuts!! Fortunately, I had them in a visible place and was able to get someone to throw them to me.
Still, waiting over an hour after transition being closed for our heat to start (2nd or third to last) was rough. The caffeine from my 5:30 AM coffee was already out of my bloodstream. I had already peed out all the fluids I had taken in, and the nerves!!
Finally, we were set to go. The swim was tricky. I still haven't figured out sighting in open water, or swimming with a wetsuit. I figured that even though the swim was wetsuit legal, I'd be okay swimming in 77.4 degree water. I was right about that, but the wetsuits certainly gave the gals I was swimming with speed and bouyancy that I didn't have. Top that off with me going off course because I couldn't sight, and the swim took me a slow 23:24, and left me tired.
Still, I went through transition as fast as I could and onto my bike. Well let me tell you, not riding for 2 months was not the best strategy going into this race. While I managed to get my biking speed up to 19 mph by the end of August - I only averaged 16.88 on this bike leg. Then a really slow T2- during which I was shaking, but stopped to take in some GU and drink some fluid. And of course I left my watch on my bicycle handle, so I couldn't time my running pace. This was the part of the tri I was most nervous about - I had never run even 6 miles at a stretch, much less 6.6 following 2 other events! But my "strategy" was simple - drink fluid at every aid station, go slow and even, and stick with it through the end. All I can say is that I'm glad that the run went through the zoo. Seeing those animals between miles 4 and 5 is likely what allowed me to finish the race. They provided just enough of a mental break to keep me going. And when the animals were gone, I came upon the wonderful people cheering as we went through the trailer park. Who would have thought that total strangers cheering you on could give you such a boost!! All told I finished in 2:56:35.64. Not that great when compared to everyone else, but better than I thought I would do, and I now had an olympic length tri under my belt.
Which leads me to this season.
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