TandemHearts

What a blast! I really enjoyed (mostly) my first triathlon experience.

The swim was short - only 400 yards. I was lucky enough to rack my bike next to Ken, who was doing his 437th triathlon. He gave me some good advice on how to lay out my transition area and convinced me to go in the first wave of swimmers. The swim starts in groups of about 150. The first wave is for the competitive people. I felt a little weird being in this wave, but I am a pretty good swimmer. The beginning of the swim was a little nerve wracking. When you swim in the pool you don’t have a lot of waves, or people bumping you. About 50 yards into the swim everyone seemed to have settled down and I was able to get into my rhythm for the swim. Even though I started towards the back and off to the far side, I was able to finish the swim mid pack of the wave, with a time of about 7 minutes. Since this is a Tri for Fun, none of the times are recorded officially. So I’m estimating from what my heart rate monitor says. I know I hit it about halfway up the run from the beach.

I had a good transition to the bike and started off up the first hill. I stayed in a small gear all the way to the top of it, just sort of spinning and trying to get my heart rate where I wanted it for the bike portion. I know I can sustain a heart rate on the bike of about 175. Thus, I rode keeping my focus on my heart rate. I was THRILLED with the speed I was able to put out on the bike. I don’t normally ride any route that is all flat. My typical average speed on a short ride is around 15 mph. But I was seeing 18- 21 mph on my speedometer! COOL! I finished the bike portion with an average heart rate for the ride of 174 and an average speed of 18.4 mph. I am very happy with that. I continued to be about mid pack of the wave. I had a few people pass me and I passed a few people. I completed the 11 mile loop in 32 minutes.

I had a decent run transition. I just bought new shoes and haven’t gotten new Speed Laces for them. Speed Laces enable you to slide your foot into the shoe and pull on a cord to tighten it up. Just one quick pull and you’re ready to go. I was a little clumsy as I tied my shoes. But still it was a pretty good transition, only 1:20.

I am not a very good runner. In fact I have only been running for nine weeks. I had hoped that the rush of racing would help me to have a time of around 30 minutes for the 3.1 mile run. But that wasn’t meant to be. The course was a figure 8 on gravel trails. The gravel bothered me a little since I’ve only been running on asphalt and the course was a little hilly. I was reluctant to go very fast down the hills because of the gravel. Still, I did run the whole thing and finished in 35 minutes.

My total race time was 1:18:05. My swim time was about what I expected. My bike time was much better. I had expected I would average about 16mph. The run, while it’s dreadfully slow, is about what I expected. It’s close to what I have been averaging whenever I do a bike/run combination.

Some things I have learned are that swim starts aren’t really that bad. I can go pretty hard on the bike and it doesn’t really change my freakishly slow run. I think I’ll do better mentally on the run, if I know the course. Fortunately, I have plans to go pre-run the Half Ironman course. We’ve already driven it once. It’s hillier than I’d like, but I’ll manage.