So, today was my first triathlon. It was a sprint distance event (swim 750m, cycle 20km or 12.4 mi, and run 5k or 3.1 mi) and the idea was to make whatever novice mistakes I was going to make during this event. I’m doing an Olympic distance event (twice the distance of a sprint) next month, which is my chance to apply all the lessons I learned from today.
Pre-race
It would be easier to simply tell you what went RIGHT today. For starters, I forgot my USAT membership card, which means I had to buy a one-day membership for $10. I was able to email my receipt to the race director, so that worked out OK.
Then I realized I had picked up the wrong pair of cycling shoes. I brought the size 47s with no cleats, rather than the size 48s I replaced them with and on which I mounted the cleats that clip into my pedals. After some deliberation, I decided to just do the bike portion in my running shoes and hope I didn’t slip off the pedals too much. I can tell you after today that this is harder than one would expect. It takes a lot more effort to push the pedals when you’re used to pushing/pulling. Lesson 1: Check equipment on more time before leaving the house.. and move the old shoes where they can’t end up in the mix again.
Swim
I should go ahead and mention that a few moments before the swim portion started, the air temperature was 38F degrees. I had a wetsuit, but seriously, let’s call it what it is. Even in a wetsuit, that’s pretty miserable. The swim actually went OK, despite the fact that nobody could put their face in the water during the swim and everyone felt they had problems with this leg of the event. I came out of the water at about 17:30, somewhere in the middle of the pack. I couldn’t feel my fingers or feet.
Lesson 2: Get used to the velcro release that holds the wetsuit strap in place — it’s harder to open than I thought.
Transition went well. I decided to forgo my cycling gloves and the long-sleeve pullover I brought. I also opted not to put on the helmet liner I brought. Only by luck did these decisions turnout to be wise, as the temperature warmed faster than I expected.
Lesson 3: Don’t make clothing decisions in transition based on the feel of the air after swimming in cold weather as your body is certainly playing tricks on you. If you made a pre-race decision to wear something, wear it.
I couldn’t see squat coming out of transition because putting on sunglasses that are sitting in 38F air only causes them to fog up immediately. Nothing to learn from this, but still noteworthy.
Bike
Once I got on the bike, I realized that I would be warm enough once I got up to speed and kept moving. This was about .3 miles into the bike portion. It wasn’t until .4 miles into it that I got the flat tire. Everyone was nice and asked if I had a spare as they went by. I had tubes, CO2, etc. and was back on the bike in about 4 minutes.
After turning around at the halfway point, I started doing the math and realized that even without being clipped in, I was averaging about 18-19 miles per hour. Despite everything stacked against me, I may actually end up with a decent first race.
I was still a little over 3 miles from the transition area when I noticed the bubble on the side of my tire. I dismounted to check it and within a second or two the tire blew. It sounded like a gunshot and I’m pretty certain I would have wet myself had this been a surprise. Nothing to do now but walk the bike three miles back to the race area. Nothing to learn from this — it was unavoidable and out of my control.
Fortunately, someone with a pick-up truck was on their way to the race area and picked me up. It was nice to not have to carry the bike all the way back.
So, that’s my first triathlon. And my first DNF in a race of any type. Oh well, what can you do? I’m sure the March event will go better.
It can’t go much worse… can it?
→ See also: 2009 Waldo Triathlon – Stop 3
