What NOT to do at a triathlon. A comical look at my first mini triathlon race.

If you want a good laugh, keep reading.  A few months ago I decided to sign up for a sprint triathlon which is next week (300 yard swim, 13.5 mile bike ride, 3 mile run) in Monticello to force me to keep active this summer.  Psst, you can still register for the Kirby Medical Center Sage City Triathlon that is this upcoming Saturday.  You can find more details on Facebook.  Since I was already signed up for that one, I decided it was a great idea to sign up for the Champaign Park District mini triathlon (200 yard swim, 6 mile bike ride, 2 mile run) which was held yesterday so I got one under my belt.

I finished.  It felt great.  But let me fill you in on a few things.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:

If you want to train for a race, here is a beginner’s training guide that takes you from couch to sprint triathlon in 12 weeks.  It’s a great resource.  Even better, if you actually follow it.  There it is. That’s all the advice I can share with you since I didn’t do anything properly.

WHAT NOT TO DO:

I have plenty that falls into this category.  ha!

DON’T Take a month off right before the race- Between getting poison ivy and taking vacations, I pretty much took the entire month of July off of exercise. Yes, we hiked on vacation and walked miles and miles a day but other than that I exercised the fork.  

DON’T stop training- I signed up for these triathlons to force me to do more this summer.  Since last November, I’ve been faithfully going to the gym 3-5 days a week.  I’m getting stronger, my body composition is slowly changing, and I’m feeling better.  I knew these triathlons would help me kick my training up a notch.  And it did.  I took several bike rides when I would have rather just taken a nap.  So that was awesome.  But I didn’t do it often enough or long enough.

And the lack of planning continued right into the week of the event.  So let me just share with you how my last minute ‘planning’ that is typical of me played out so you can have a laugh.  I mean, if you can’t laugh at yourself, then well… I guess I wouldn’t laugh near as much during my days here on earth.  🙂

A triathlon includes swimming, biking, and running.  There are various versions of triathlons… the longest FULL triathlon being 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run.  Ok, just typing that out makes me extremely tired.   

SWIMMING

Swimming is very hard for me and I had no plans to practice that portion.  With the races being short I figured I’d just do my best and really pick up the pace on the biking portion since after one practice ride my confidence skyrocketed.  

BIKING

I had been using Joey’s bike we bought off the Facebook garage sale sites to train this summer.  I use the word ‘train’ very loosely.  Yes, I did feel motivated to go out and ride to prepare for the race.  That is… I went out a few times for very short rides and went out and rode a longer distance, 4 miles ONCE.  And thankfully because of all the strength and cardio training I’ve been doing at No Limit Fitness I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to complete.  After that confidence boost, I decided continuing training wasn’t at the top of my list for the rest of the summer.

RUNNING

At the gym Adam and Eldon, the guys at the gym trying to kill me  helping me get stronger and healthier, a few months ago started incorporating more running into our daily workouts, from 100 meters to 1/2 mile at a time during each round of exercises often ending up with 2-3 miles of running completed a day.  Well, that sounds like great training for the running portion to me. Done.  No need to exert more effort on the running.

So as you can see, I really focused my efforts preparing specifically for yesterday’s triathlon. Earlier this week, I hopped on my Joey’s rusted second hand bike for another ride and realized his brakes were completely shot.  If I was gonna ride it, it meant I was gonna have to use my feet as brakes around every curve.  Well, you know that’s not acceptable.  I mean, if I worked so hard preparing for this race I can’t let anything slow me down.  I had looked at the bike shops earlier this summer after my bike from 20 years ago finally bit the dust but I couldn’t bring myself to spending that kind of money.  Instead, I run into Wal-Mart to pick up a new bike for John and myself earlier this week.  For once in my life, I actually didn’t pick the most expensive one.  Even without seeing price tags, I tend to pick the most expensive (insert any product here) of all that are offered.  It’s a talent really.  You could line up a bunch of plain white t-shirts and I’d pick the one with the Jimmy Choo price tag.  So I was excited that my bike was actually even less expensive than John’s.  Hopped on it and the seat was comfy so out the door we went in less than 5 minutes.

 

NIGHT BEFORE THE RACE

Boys and I were busy Friday.  Busy with what?  I’m not sure but didn’t get around to putting the bikes on our vehicle until about 10 pm.  That’s when I remembered Jake’s brakes on his BMX racing bike don’t work.  Jake’s mountain bike brakes don’t function either.  What’s up with us and brakes?  Oh well, he has his old racing bike that will work.

I get our brand new air pump out to check air pressure.  Let’s just stop right there because I was so proud of myself that I was thinking so far ahead to even check that.  So I was mentally giving myself a high five.  The gauge says the tires on mine and Joey’s bikes were good.  Jake’s rear tire needed lots of air.  So I pumped and pumped and pumped.  Wasn’t making any progress. Great.  So now I have a kid eager to race in the morning and no bike.  About 10:45 pm, I was about to make a run to Wal-Mart to get a bike for him.  Thankful for friends cause the father of one of his racing buddies let me come by and borrow his son’s bike.  I was so happy I didn’t have to run to Champaign.  I mean, I’ve been preparing for this race with such dedication I didn’t want to screw up now and not get enough rest the night before the race.  (I end up in bed about 12:30 am after getting our towels, goggles, water bottles, bikes, helmets and such packed and answered a few emails for work.)

DAY OF THE RACE

John chose not to register for this race and at 5:30 am, I was thinking he was rather smart.  Going back to sleep sounded like a great idea.  But I get up and wake up the other two boys knowing I’d be mad at myself if we didn’t go.

We arrive at Sholem about 6:30 am ready for the race.  A race that I still wasn’t sure what I’d gotten myself into with Jake, who while active hadn’t come close to doing those distances ever, and Joey who took the “Couch to Sprint Triathlon” literally and after doing NOTHING physical all year gets off his XBOX the night before and decides he’s gonna swim 200 meters, bike 6 miles and run 2 miles.  Actually he had begun biking recently thanks to Pokemon Go so there’s that.

Honestly, I was just excited we were doing something active together.  Even if we weren’t really ready for it, we were being active together this one day.  And that made me happy.  And nervous.  I mean, I had to photograph a wedding a few hours later so we couldn’t have any injuries that landed us in the emergency room.

We arrive and I unload our bikes.  And after I get my bike off my vehicle, I yank the tags and instruction manual off the bike.  Yes, that is correct.  I’ve never ridden the bike I’m gonna race with.  Not so smart.  More to come on that later.   Joey hops on his bike and tells me his tires need air.  I forgot the bike pump at home.  Darn it.  I get on mine and realize my tires need a decent amount of air too. How could this be possible?  Both our bikes are brand new and I used a brand new air pump last night and the gauge read that they were at proper PSI.  I’d like to assume the new air pump must be broke but I have an inkling that it might have been user error.  So now we’re gonna ride 6 miles on tires that need another 15-20 PSI.  Lovely.

We get checked in and wait for our start time.  The competitive swimmers start first and then the recreational participants.  Everyone was placed in alphabetical order and spaced out in 15 second intervals so the pool isn’t overcrowded.  With the last name Wanninger, we arrived knowing we were the VERY LAST racers to start.  I definitely thrive on competition and was disappointed that no one would be around me this way though.  Racers were starting almost 35 minutes before I even got in the water so people were almost finished before I even heard “Go”.

INTO THE WATER

We heard the announcement for racers #100 and over to line up at the lazy river.  Oh yeah, so that’s another hiccup in the morning.  Apparently someone the day before at Sholem, as we were told, ‘didn’t make it to the bathroom in time’ so the chemicals were not at correct levels so we would swim in the lazy river instead.  So we line up and wait.  As I’m getting ready to get in the water, I put my goggles on.  Well they weren’t my goggles.  They were the kids’ and were several years old but would work fine I thought.  I can’t open my eyes in the water and knew I’d need them if I’m gonna try to swim at all.  Only one person left in front of me and I put ‘my’ goggles on… and they break.  I couldn’t believe it.  So I toss them aside and get in the water and go without.  I start off at a quick pace and swim at least 6 or 7 strokes before I decide this is really hard and decide to change things up.  I am going as fast as I can because my personal goal was to not finish in last place.  I am working so hard that I actually pass someone that was 30 seconds ahead of me as I exit the pool.  You know how I did it?  Well, I actually decided not to swim at all.  I ran through the lazy river.  Yup, I improvised and realized running through the water was faster for me than attempting to swim.  🙂

THE WHEEL DEAL

My transition time from swimming to biking was pretty quick.  Now I’m ready to hop on my bike for 6 miles on a bike with partially deflated tires.  Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned the other issue with my bike.  Remember, I told you that I bought a brand new bike after a quick pedal down one aisle of Wal-Mart and ripped the tags off the morning of the race after never having really ridden it. Before the race started as I bike over to the transition area, I notice I need to raise the seat because it was wayyy too low.  I adjust once and it was still too low.  I adjust a second time and the seat comes right off.

Hmmmm, that’s strange.  I swear the tag said 26″ bike but apparently I must have purchased a kid’s bike (remember the good price I was proud of… well makes since if you’re buying a girl’s bike).  So I’m hopping on my 20″ bike (I’m exaggerating but it was definitely too small for me) to pedal 6 miles.

100% efficiency- To get full use of your leg power when biking, people use clips so you get power from both pushing down on the the pedals and pulling the pedals back around.

50% efficiency- Most have regular pedals and you are able to capitalize on the pushing down of the pedals.

10 % efficiency-  Then there is me on race day.  My seat is so low that I can not even extend my legs fully and my knees are almost hitting my boobs every time I pedal.  I mean, please picture this.  Visualize it with me and I hope you’re laughing.  This was comical.  In case you can’t visualize here are a couple pics.  I mean… boob to thigh on the left and check out the ‘full’ extension of my right leg?!?!

I had not even gone 1 mile and my quads were on fire.  I feel like I’ve biked a marathon already.  I was getting mad that I didn’t even have a bike for me to do MY BEST and I wanted to quit.  I was kinda pouting to be honest.  I was mad that I didn’t actually ride the bike earlier in the week to realize my mistake.

It’s my own fault.   My fault or not… I had the choice to make the best of it.  Life doesn’t go as planned but you can make it better or worse by what you do next.  So instead of focusing on my race, I focused on the race of others.  Remember, I was the last one to start the race so many were already on the running portion and on the same loop as the bikers. So as I pedaled my big body around on this itty bitty bike, I encouraged every runner I past with a smile on my face. “You’re doing great!” “You’re almost done!  Keep going.” “Nice job!”  Some didn’t hear me cause they had headphones on, many thought I was probably crazy and a few smiled big and raised their hands in the air cheering too.  I was having fun celebrating with others.  And you know… it instantly lifted my mood.  So as I neared the end of my final lap, Jake caught up with me and we finished the bike portion together.  News Gazette published this photo of us.  I love that this memory was captured but it also makes me laugh.  That bike.  Seriously.  So many untold stories in this one photo.

 

RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN

Transition time was quick again after hopping off the bike.  I get part way through the run and realized why I was so efficient transitioning.  I was running with my bike helmet.

Never took the darn thing off.  lol.  So then I decide to take it off and carry it with me instead.  Then I figured I may as well just toss it in the grass and hope it’s still there when I’m all done.  Sure beats carrying an extra 20 pounds while I run. No, it doesn’t weigh that much but seriously… it’s a cumbersome thing to carry.  And remember, I was racing for the gold so I didn’t want anything to hinder my time.

 

I FINISHED.  WE FINISHED.  WE GOT THE GOLD.

No record breaking times but I finished.  Jake finished. Joey finished.  We finished.  And I’m proud of that.  To top it all off, there were 13 people who finished with slower times than me.  Yahoo! I wasn’t last!

I was making fun of my 7th place finish in my division (cause there were only 7 participants in my division) and one of my friends reminded me earlier today… “(a) you believed in yourself enough to sign up (b) you showed up (c) you didn’t give up and (d) you finished. You have SO much to be proud of! Who cares about everything else– this race was about you 🙂 ”   She is absolutely right.

So as far as I’m concerned, we all earned the gold.  And tomorrow, I’m buying a new bike.

XOXOXO,

Heather

 

Heather is the owner of Sweet Lemonade Photography and co-owner of Sweet Darling Weddings.  Life gave her a bunch of lemons (you can read a little more here) and by keeping her focus on God, finding the positive in each day, and surrounding herself with supporting, loving and encouraging people she has turned those lemons into the sweetest lemonade.  This blog has been created to share her heart, her adventures and find ways to bless others.  You can contact her at heather@sweetlemonadelife.com.