This past Wednesday night I mentioned to my brother (in town from So. Cal.) that there was a triathlon going on at Bear Lake this weekend. I mentioned it for two reasons: 1) he is a triathlete; 2) we were planning to go our cabin at Bear Lake this weekend. More or less on a lark I agreed to race the triathlon. I have never done a triathlon before. I guess my recent swimming gave me just enough confidence to think I could survive the swim and make it through the rest as well as I could. We signed up for the Sprint, which seems like a logical place for a newbie like me to start -- the distances are 750m swim, 20k bike ride, 5k run. I spent the last couple of days picking the brains of my triathlete friends about how to do handle the transitions and some other basic triathlon etiquette. Perhaps most importantly I borrowed a very nice bike from a good friend. The nice thing about this event is that I had absolutely no expectations at all and thus no pressure. My goal was just to get the feel for doing the events back to back. I have had such an unfulfilling summer for running training that at least this gave me something a little different to try. Just jumping in blind rather than focusing on training for a triathlon for months on end seems like a more fun way to get the experience. And it was fun. One consistent word of advice I received is that if you're not a great swimmer that it's best to start in the back of the pack. So that's what I did. When the horn sounded the start, I waited on the beach as everyone pushed out into the water. I was just chuckling to myself at the fact I was actually beginning a triathlon. The swim went well enough for me, though very slow compared to the leaders. It was 17:53 for the 750k. The lake swim was not too bad--there was some jostling but nothing awful. My first transition seemed to go quickly but actually lasted 2 minutes. I don't know where that time went. On my way out of the transition area, I saw my family that had just arrived to watch my brother and me race. When I got onto the bike I felt pretty good and kept feeling pretty good. In fact, although my run was the fastest leg, I felt strongest on the bike. This was a surprise because my little six mile ride I did yesterday morning constituted the whole of my bike training for this event. It was only 12 miles, so not really long enough to reach any of the fatigue that accompanies a long ride and really requires the endurance that true cyclists develop. Surprisingly to me, I didn't get passed during the bike ride -- but I did pass several people. It was fun to race on the bike, a totally new thing. Total time was just over 34 minutes which compared relatively favorably to others in the top 15. The second transition was quicker than the first. I downed a gel and got on my shoes and took off. The run itself felt alright, but not that great. It's really weird to go run after getting off the bike. The legs just don't feel right. I guess that is the challenge of the triathlon and what makes it different from a running race. I passed many people. There were no mile markers and I didn't have my Garmin on so no idea of pace. It ended up as 19:09 for the 5k (which was run mostly on dirt roads) This seems acceptable all things considered, but I can't say it felt like a normal road 5k.
To my great surprise, I finished fifth overall. My time was 1:14. I'm searching for explanations for this result and I think this must mean (with all due respect to my fellow competitors) that it wasn't a particularly deep field in the Sprint event (as opposed to the Olympic and Half Ironman distances). It sounds like a good result though, and I'll take it -- it's certainly not a bad showing for the first triathlon, particularly given my lack of training. Most importantly, it was a lot of fun. It was a great change of pace from road racing. The effort overall seemed equivalent to a hard 10 mile race, maybe a half marathon. But I wasn't completely toasted the way I would be after a hard half marathon. My brother had a good race too--though he had some bike problems that slowed things down--but it was great to be out there with him. So would I do it again? I don't know, but it seems likely. I am getting comfortable enough swimming that it is almost fun now. I know nothing about the bike and I need to get one, that's probably the biggest impediment right now. All of those things would trade off with the running, but right now I think my body could use a little change.
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