Yesterday was my first sprint Tri. The day before I packed my goggles, bike shoes, towel, shirt, water bottle and a couple of Gu packs. I put my numbers on my bike, helmet and shirt. I was ecstatic about the next day. I tried getting good sleep by going to bed at 10 but I was nervous and kept waking up every hour.
Sunday I woke up at 4:30am very tired, I stumbled out of bed and the nerves set in even more. This is it, it's race day. I grabbed my things and loaded up my bike. The drive there was fast but I was still falling asleep. I got there and didn't know what to do except follow the other people. I unloaded my bike and aired it up. Walked over to the transition areas and observed what everyone else was doing. I walked over to get my timing chip and then walked back to the transition area. I stripped down to my tri shorts and walked over to the pool.
I sat down watching what everyone was doing and got more and more nervous. A friend of mine who has done other sprint tris was there so that relieved some of the nerves. We got to talking when one other guy that we ride with came along; this was his first tri as well. After about an hour of waiting I finally hit the water.
I jumped into the water and pushed off. Lap one and two were fine but as soon as I hit lap three I caught up with other swimmers. I passed a couple and then hit a bottle neck of about 3 other swimmers. I tried to go around but got kicked in the face instead. I lost my breathing rhythm and couldn't get back into it so I had to swim with my head above water. At some points I had to walk to wait to pass a group of people. I finally finished and jumped out of the pool.
I ran to the transition area and wiped my feet and put on my socks, shoes and shirt. Grabbed my bike and helmet and ran out. I got to the point where I could hop on my bike and started the bike portion of the tri. As soon as I took a left onto the street I hit a gust of wind and I knew it was not going to be a fun bike ride. For the most part the wind was on my side but at a couple of points it was hitting me straight one. After two loops I headed over to the transition area.
I took my bike shoes off and put my running shoes on. I started to jog off the transition area and I knew this was not going to be a fun run. Right off the start it went into the wind. I hadn't even gone more than a thousand feet when I started getting shin splints. I had to stop a couple of times because the pain was too much. This lasted for about 1.5 miles when I stretched out my legs. After finishing one lap I knew I had one more to go. I continued on and with about a fourth of a mile I had to stop again. I was walking when the person next to me says "you have a bit more energy to make it to the finish line?". I responded with a yes and we both took off. It's always nice to have some stranger motivate you. We both ran and finally crossed the finish line.
Since I signed up for the Clydesdale division there were only 22 people and out of those 22 people I came in 18th. It's not the best by far but I can finally say I finished a triathlon. Now I'm going to work on losing more weight so I can improve my time in future sprint triathlons and finally move to an Olympic or half ironman triathlons.
