tri tri tri again...
sorry about the subject line - it was way too tempting.
so i've been sitting on the fact that i did my very first triathlon on saturday so as to let the whole thing kind of soak in and percolate a bit. before the tri, i was convinced that it was going to kill me. now i'm running around online searching for more opportunities to do a tri before it gets too cold up here. NUTS.
this got long, so
to start, it was hard. there were moments that i thought it would just be best to give it up and walk back to the start and call it a day. but it's tough to do that when you've got your brother racing up and down the transition area cheering you on (at 8 am after getting off of his night shift at 2 am), your 8 months pregnant sister-in-law frantically waving her arms at you, your boyfriend snapping pictures like a deranged tourist (both because you asked him to since he's not really a photo taking kinda guy and he actually ~wanted~ to take these ones) and your friends out on the course with you. really tough.
daniel did his part by offering me Rock Band for the XBox 360 if i could finish the whole thing in under 1:30:00. you can bet your ass that kept me going through the hilly bits of the ride.
the swim itself was fairly reasonable. right until i realised that there were ~three~ buoys and not the two i saw from shore. suddenly it became a bit more of a stretch. just so you know, a wetsuit is a godsend, especially when the last long distance swim you went on was ~months~ ago. there were elbows and knees and feet everywhere and i swear we all looked like remedial fish out for a morning flail.
in the end, i finished up in just under 18 minutes, looking like a drowned monkey. from there i had originally planned on just relaxing my way through the transitions - right up until all the other women in the race were jogging to their bikes. the spirit of competition is a bitch. that and, well, Rock Band.
a little over 5 minutes later (i nearly forgot to put on shoes) i was trotting my bike to the mount/dismount area. thanks to daniel and enoch's advice i had a clif bar in my pocket for snacking and a Gu-like pouch taped to the bike frame (the road bike i borrowed from roya because riding my 3000 ton hybrid was ~not~ going to get me Rock Band). the week before the ride i learned what cadence means (rpm) and why/how you want to keep it consistent. and i rode the bike for the first time. all of which makes me fairly happy that i finished the 12 miles in 43-ish minutes - an average of 16.7 mph.
under 2 minutes later i was jogging. they say it's the running portion, but i think that might be for the crazy people. i was definitely jogging. maybe trotting. quite possibly speed walking with an attitude but ~not~ running. it was a little punishing at first (you try running after aspirating your gatorade) but i had a huge mental shift once i get past the halfway point. all i could think was "nearly done ... dimsum! Rock Band" and it didn't hurt that i happened to have caught up with one of the folks who was doing the whole deal with me. solidarity in numbers. or misery in numbers, one of the two. possibly both.
everyone had positioned themselves not too far from the final arch and amidst the cheering, hi-fiving and hollering as i passed someone suggested that i sprint. so, for the last little bit i poured it on and managed to pass a couple of people, one of whom muttered "damn it!"
you know how in all those years of competitive swimming your coaches would tell you to "finish strong" and since you weren't ~really~ a competitive it seemed like kinda okay advice but nothing really all that important because, really, who were you gonna beat? you should listen to them. after over an hour and half of pushing myself to keep going, feeling like my lungs were going to leave my body in protest and wondering when the goddamned path was going to stop winding around like an asshole and Just Let Me Fininsh, sprinting full bore across that finish line was a total rush. ~and~ the lady who swore congratulated me and gave me a good back patting. 30 minutes and 51 seconds to run 3.1 miles - at least it's on pace with my standard 10 minute mile.
sadly, i was 9 minutes and 24 seconds too late for rock band. but there is no feeling in the world like having completed a triathlon. d posits that if i had enough energy to run that fast across the finish line, maybe i wasn't working hard enough on the other legs and that perhaps had i just tried a little harder, we could be playing rock band ~right now~. i say that i'll buy him rock band when he does ~his~ first tri.
so i've been sitting on the fact that i did my very first triathlon on saturday so as to let the whole thing kind of soak in and percolate a bit. before the tri, i was convinced that it was going to kill me. now i'm running around online searching for more opportunities to do a tri before it gets too cold up here. NUTS.
this got long, so
to start, it was hard. there were moments that i thought it would just be best to give it up and walk back to the start and call it a day. but it's tough to do that when you've got your brother racing up and down the transition area cheering you on (at 8 am after getting off of his night shift at 2 am), your 8 months pregnant sister-in-law frantically waving her arms at you, your boyfriend snapping pictures like a deranged tourist (both because you asked him to since he's not really a photo taking kinda guy and he actually ~wanted~ to take these ones) and your friends out on the course with you. really tough.
daniel did his part by offering me Rock Band for the XBox 360 if i could finish the whole thing in under 1:30:00. you can bet your ass that kept me going through the hilly bits of the ride.
the swim itself was fairly reasonable. right until i realised that there were ~three~ buoys and not the two i saw from shore. suddenly it became a bit more of a stretch. just so you know, a wetsuit is a godsend, especially when the last long distance swim you went on was ~months~ ago. there were elbows and knees and feet everywhere and i swear we all looked like remedial fish out for a morning flail.
in the end, i finished up in just under 18 minutes, looking like a drowned monkey. from there i had originally planned on just relaxing my way through the transitions - right up until all the other women in the race were jogging to their bikes. the spirit of competition is a bitch. that and, well, Rock Band.
a little over 5 minutes later (i nearly forgot to put on shoes) i was trotting my bike to the mount/dismount area. thanks to daniel and enoch's advice i had a clif bar in my pocket for snacking and a Gu-like pouch taped to the bike frame (the road bike i borrowed from roya because riding my 3000 ton hybrid was ~not~ going to get me Rock Band). the week before the ride i learned what cadence means (rpm) and why/how you want to keep it consistent. and i rode the bike for the first time. all of which makes me fairly happy that i finished the 12 miles in 43-ish minutes - an average of 16.7 mph.
under 2 minutes later i was jogging. they say it's the running portion, but i think that might be for the crazy people. i was definitely jogging. maybe trotting. quite possibly speed walking with an attitude but ~not~ running. it was a little punishing at first (you try running after aspirating your gatorade) but i had a huge mental shift once i get past the halfway point. all i could think was "nearly done ... dimsum! Rock Band" and it didn't hurt that i happened to have caught up with one of the folks who was doing the whole deal with me. solidarity in numbers. or misery in numbers, one of the two. possibly both.
everyone had positioned themselves not too far from the final arch and amidst the cheering, hi-fiving and hollering as i passed someone suggested that i sprint. so, for the last little bit i poured it on and managed to pass a couple of people, one of whom muttered "damn it!"
you know how in all those years of competitive swimming your coaches would tell you to "finish strong" and since you weren't ~really~ a competitive it seemed like kinda okay advice but nothing really all that important because, really, who were you gonna beat? you should listen to them. after over an hour and half of pushing myself to keep going, feeling like my lungs were going to leave my body in protest and wondering when the goddamned path was going to stop winding around like an asshole and Just Let Me Fininsh, sprinting full bore across that finish line was a total rush. ~and~ the lady who swore congratulated me and gave me a good back patting. 30 minutes and 51 seconds to run 3.1 miles - at least it's on pace with my standard 10 minute mile.
sadly, i was 9 minutes and 24 seconds too late for rock band. but there is no feeling in the world like having completed a triathlon. d posits that if i had enough energy to run that fast across the finish line, maybe i wasn't working hard enough on the other legs and that perhaps had i just tried a little harder, we could be playing rock band ~right now~. i say that i'll buy him rock band when he does ~his~ first tri.