My first triathlon (witness, not participant)
Saturday turned into an off-trianing day for me; instead, I learned about triathlons by witnessing my first one! This post is dedicated to lessons I've learned from watching Matthew Noah Pearlson compete in his first tri.
Course Description: Swim .25 miles
Bike 14.5 miles
Run 3.5 miles
I was up at 5 am to drive him across the lake (Washington) so that he could jump into another lake (Samammish for the Budu Racing Sprint Triathlon.
Lesson #1 : He could have gone the night before to pick up registration materials and survey the course beforehand.
Registration was from 5:30-6:45am that morning, his wave started at 7am. Waves were split into age/gender levels, and people's sections were differentiated by cap color. So, males form 20-24 wore grey swim caps, men 25-29 wore yellow caps, etc...600 people were competing total, but staggered into groups of about 75 people each separated by ~15 minutes. My big fear of being the last person is much smaller now: because when it's happening, it just seems like a lot of people everywhere all the time, rather than a clear 'race.'
Everyone's bib number is written on their upper left arm, pinned to their running shirt, and taped to their bike. This is Matty right before the swim, wearing his wetsuit over his bike singlet. Flexed and ready to go at 6:30 am.
The scramble from the lake to the bike course involves running barefoot out of the water and into the transition area where everyone's bikes and various clothes/shoes/materials are racked according to their bib number. Matty just had to take his wetsuit off and put on his bike jersey on top: easy transition! The problem was getting his bike shoes on, the grass and gravel between areas had stuck to his feet, which would have been really uncomfortable for the ride. He didn't have a towel, but someone else was nice enough to share his extra towel with Matty, which was awesome.
Lesson #2: Be nice during the competition. I'm sure towel-sharing guy will have great karma for how nice he was.
Lesson #3: Bring a towel. Maybe an extra one as well.
Lesson #4: There is no changing out of swimsuit into something else. There is definitely no time and no space to pull that off.
I will have to either wear my swimsuit the entire time, get a wetsuit, or get a compromise tri suit (adapted wet suit made specifically for triathlons). We'll see.
After transitioning out of the water is the transition into the bike section: you must have your helmet fastened completely before leaving the transition changing area, and you have to run your bike for a couple hundred feet until the mounting area (orange cones in the background by the trees on the right)
There was an awful MC to play music and cheer people on in the white tent. Not just bad music, I mean like...unbelievably bad. Instead of just suffering through this fake-tertainment, I helped out with the kids setting up the food for the athletes. This leads me to more learning:
Lesson #5: If you volunteer to help, you get both food (watermelon!!!) and good karma. Double win.
I cut watermelon, muffins, bananas, and oranges for the hour that Matty was burning up the course and got see the winners stumble in right as waves of other people were still transitioning out. The guy who came in first was bleeding on his calf as he ran in, and had been for the entire 3.5 miles. If I am bleeding, I will stop and take care of it, rest assured.
Matty finished 3rd in his division, in a blistering 1 hr 21 minutes! Here he is, still flexed, still pumped!
Ink on his arm by 6 am, out of the parking lot by 8:30 am. He went on to have a celebratory breakfast with some friends, I immediately took a nap.
Course Description: Swim .25 miles
Bike 14.5 miles
Run 3.5 miles
I was up at 5 am to drive him across the lake (Washington) so that he could jump into another lake (Samammish for the Budu Racing Sprint Triathlon.
Lesson #1 : He could have gone the night before to pick up registration materials and survey the course beforehand.
Registration was from 5:30-6:45am that morning, his wave started at 7am. Waves were split into age/gender levels, and people's sections were differentiated by cap color. So, males form 20-24 wore grey swim caps, men 25-29 wore yellow caps, etc...600 people were competing total, but staggered into groups of about 75 people each separated by ~15 minutes. My big fear of being the last person is much smaller now: because when it's happening, it just seems like a lot of people everywhere all the time, rather than a clear 'race.'
Everyone's bib number is written on their upper left arm, pinned to their running shirt, and taped to their bike. This is Matty right before the swim, wearing his wetsuit over his bike singlet. Flexed and ready to go at 6:30 am.
The scramble from the lake to the bike course involves running barefoot out of the water and into the transition area where everyone's bikes and various clothes/shoes/materials are racked according to their bib number. Matty just had to take his wetsuit off and put on his bike jersey on top: easy transition! The problem was getting his bike shoes on, the grass and gravel between areas had stuck to his feet, which would have been really uncomfortable for the ride. He didn't have a towel, but someone else was nice enough to share his extra towel with Matty, which was awesome.
Lesson #2: Be nice during the competition. I'm sure towel-sharing guy will have great karma for how nice he was.
Lesson #3: Bring a towel. Maybe an extra one as well.
Lesson #4: There is no changing out of swimsuit into something else. There is definitely no time and no space to pull that off.
I will have to either wear my swimsuit the entire time, get a wetsuit, or get a compromise tri suit (adapted wet suit made specifically for triathlons). We'll see.
After transitioning out of the water is the transition into the bike section: you must have your helmet fastened completely before leaving the transition changing area, and you have to run your bike for a couple hundred feet until the mounting area (orange cones in the background by the trees on the right)
There was an awful MC to play music and cheer people on in the white tent. Not just bad music, I mean like...unbelievably bad. Instead of just suffering through this fake-tertainment, I helped out with the kids setting up the food for the athletes. This leads me to more learning:
Lesson #5: If you volunteer to help, you get both food (watermelon!!!) and good karma. Double win.
I cut watermelon, muffins, bananas, and oranges for the hour that Matty was burning up the course and got see the winners stumble in right as waves of other people were still transitioning out. The guy who came in first was bleeding on his calf as he ran in, and had been for the entire 3.5 miles. If I am bleeding, I will stop and take care of it, rest assured.
Matty finished 3rd in his division, in a blistering 1 hr 21 minutes! Here he is, still flexed, still pumped!
Ink on his arm by 6 am, out of the parking lot by 8:30 am. He went on to have a celebratory breakfast with some friends, I immediately took a nap.