My First Triathlon

The to-do list got one shorter today. BJ and I did the Pewaukee Triathlon. I've been training for a long time and through the experience I learned alot about how I really should have trained. I took the swimming for granted. I did go to the pool and swim laps, lots of laps thinking that I was ready since I could swim in the pool twice as far as the race required. I did not anticipate how different it would be in a lake. The waves and the other swimmers were two major factors. All I worked on was the endurance. For a moment, I thought I was going to drown before I would get to the end. The resistance of the waves made a quarter-mile lake swim tougher than a three-quarter mile pool swim. Lesson learned.

Changing out of my swimsuit was a little challenging since there were no changing rooms. So I just stood in the middle of the parking lot wrapped in a towel and removed my suit. I needed to be comfortable to finish this race and I was not going to do it in a wet swimsuit.

The biking was easy for the most part, I've never had a problem with it except that I don't like doing it. I headed out on my bike while eating a granola bar, easing my way down the road. As soon as I turned the corner out of the chute, I hit a big hill. Right off the bat, I started to feel tired. I actually thought 'forget this-just turn around and quit'. But once the granola bar was gone and I could concentrate on my riding and it was going well. The countryside was pretty and the area was hilly but nothing really major, just at the beginning. That is, until mile 13 when my chain decided to jump off the sprocket making it extremely difficult to climb the next hill. And the next hill was a doozy. I heard some people discussing it before the triathlon started, the comments were to pace yourself to be ready for the big hill at mile 14. So amazingly, I climbed it stuck in a low gear thinking how glad I was that I never had to leave my clips through the whole ride.

Running is my thing. I am not fast, I like a nice and easy pace. So I completed the run without mental or physical anguish. I did feel a tightness in my calves from biking, but I stretched my calves while running on the hills.

I'm not certain of my time, but I hope I was close to the 2 hour 15 minute mark. My goal was originally under 2 hours, but the swim really did me in. This was definitely a fantastic experience but I'm not so sure I would do it again. So for now, I'll just stratch the triathlon of my life time achievement list.