The Runner's First Triathlon

I chose the Liberty Long Course in Rockford, MN (ie, 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run...so the same distances as an Ironman Half) for my first triathlon. A lot of people presumed that this was a lofty goal, but I will be the first to tell you that from my experiences as a distance runner that I much prefer long, slower events such as this as compared to a Sprint or Olympic distance triathlon. I have incredible respect for people that choose to go all out on those distances, because that type of pain is brutal.

Training to prepare began in earnest after the Boston Marathon in April (see previous post), which had previously consumed too much of my training time. Additionally, it took forever for Minnesota to warm up enough to swim or bike outside this year.

 Coming into the race, I was:

- A very poor amateur swimmer
- An average amateur biker
- A pretty good amateur runner

Therefore, as the race went on, I kept feeling better about myself :)

THE SWIM

Swimming is frightening to many people, especially runners whose low body fat % make their legs sink and discourage them (including myself) from spending enough time focusing on this activity. Luckily I had made it out for a few open-water swims before this race, otherwise I don't doubt that I would have panicked and likely not made it.

So you and a big group of other people start on a beach, and then all run into the water at the same time and start swimming across a giant lake. There is sand, weeds, murky water that has been turned up from the waves before you, and dozens of other people's limbs flailing around hitting you in the feet, legs, torso, arms and face throughout the event, but especially for the first 15 minutes.

I had not practiced "sighting" enough, which means looking forward in order to make sure you are going in the right direction, and had a terrible time keeping straight. As I zig-zagged my way along, I found myself running sideways into people, crossing into the center area between the large buoys (the course was a long oval), and even going into head-on traffic while we were on our way back from going across the lake because I had veered 30 yards to the right. This is something I need to practice before my next one, as surprisingly there are no long blue lines across lakes like there are in pools.

At first, the excitement and fear made my breathing labored, so after about 10 minutes I rolled to my back, did some elementary back stroke for a few breaths to calm down, then went back to freestyle which worked terrific from there on out.

The swim took 47:10 for a pace of 1.5 mph, which was definitely closer to the back of the pack then the front, but I had an incredible time and was glad that I had done it.

THE BIKE
Biking began smoothly. There are rules against drafting, how to pass, etc, but they're all pretty simple. A big difference from running was that I counted four people on the side of the road with mechanical issues before I turned a corner in a construction area, hit a big hill and shifted gears, and my chain fell off. Getting it back on was a little tricky because it fell off my front sprocket, which hadn't happened to me before, and trying to start biking while you are 10% up a steep hill is in itself a masterful art. However, it worked and I was on my way.

My second issue was taking a wrong turn around mile 32, which put me towards the final 7 miles to the finish line instead of a shorter second loop. It took me 3.75 miles to realize this, so by the time I got back to the intersection to make the correct turn, I had incurred an extra 7.5 miles of biking.

Overall, I averaged about 19.2 mph on the bike through my 63.5 miles (including the time stopped to fix the chain and also some time to help out a guy with a flat), so I finished near the back on this event too given that the course was supposed to be 56 miles and hence my time of 3:18:19 made my average speed appear to be 16.9 mph. Still felt great and had a great experience overall.

THE RUN
This event, which I expected to be my strong event, was made even stronger by the fact that I began it by being among other racers who had been mostly about my speed on the swim and significantly slower bikers than me.

The course was very hilly, moreso than most running races I've done. I held pretty good paces between about 6:45 and 7:15 per mile, and finished in 1:33 (average pace 7:05) which I was very happy with for 13.1 miles. The interesting part to me was that I passed 84 people and was passed by 0. It is probably fair to say that I should practice the other two events a bit more and lay off the running a little before my next tri.

OVERALL
Loved it! As every runner knows, the journey of the hard training schedule, time commitments, sacrificing happy hours, golf, sleeping in, and weekends out with friends are the hardest and most rewarding parts of the experience. The after-effect was a little different than after running races. The muscles were less sore (because you use so many different ones I presume instead of the same ones the entire time) but the mental exhaustion was equally as difficult. Total time of 5:45:42, some of which was due to the bike mishap. Would recommend trying one to anybody who is considering it!