My First (Triathlon!)

Last weekend was a busy one. Friday night we were out celebrating Cecelia’s birthday at Little Woodrows in Midtown. It was fair group of people and they slowly managed to consume the beers! At midnight I dragged Stuart home because I needed to get up for running at 0530 the following morning. It was not easy getting up I have to admit but I always feel better for it, and I was a short run day (6 miles) so I don’t mind those. I decided we should go and see the butterfly centre at the museum. It is a large butterfly conservatory and all the butterflies are flying around in a hot tropical paradise (Stuart did ask why we had come to see this during Houston’s summer!) They also had displays of all sorts of insects, most of them pretty ugly and creepy. Since we were going to Karen and Dave’s for dinner we needed a gift some bought them some cheddar flavoured maggots! They weren’t that excited when we gave them to them!! Dinner was great and since they knew I was doing the triathlon the following morning in combination with weightwatchers they did a great balanced meal J Not to mention I got to go home with a couple of weightwatcher recipe books to give us some more ideas. Again it was nearly 11pm before bead and another 5am rise – oh joy. Stuart had agreed to come with Amy and I to support us at the triathlon so he didn’t even get a lie in.I have now successfully completed my first Triathlon and actually quite enjoyed it surprisingly! It was held along the road from us at Katy High School. So that meant the swimming was in a pool. Quit often in Houston the swims are open water, therefore in a lake, but after speaking to a girl at this event about alligators and snakes to look out for at those events I may be tempted to stick with the swimming pool! The course was a 400m swim, 14 mile bike ride and 3 mile run, otherwise known as a sprint!! I laugh at the comment sprint as I am more of a getting through it person rather than a sprinter but I was assured there would be plenty of other like me. I realise I would never win one of these events, but I am competitive enough not to like coming last!! With 300 folk taking part I was cautiously optimistic I wouldn’t be at the end.

You all get written on with marker pen to indicate your number and you get a timing chip to put around your ankle to track your times across electronic mats. Since swimming is first the order I which you swim is determined by the time you put down to swim the 400m. I gave myself a little longer as the instructions on the webpage were very strict on not underestimating your time and holding up other people. Anyway we all stood in numerical order and took about 30 minutes from the starters to me to get in the water. There was a person entering the pool approximately every 10 seconds! I didn’t know the format before starting but you swim up and down the lane then duck under the lane rope and do the same again across the pool, since it was 8 lanes wide you did the 400m (16 lengths) and got out the other side of the pool. I managed to overtake at least two people before the end of the first length and then overtook another few before the end of the swim. Only one guy got my goat as I tapped him on the feet (as you are meant to do to indicate you want past) and he didn’t let me go at the end of the lane. So I took him up the straight and hopefully gave him a mouthful of water! The transition from swim to bike was my longest I had to put on a top and put shoes and socks on however I was pretty impressed I did it all and if I hadn’t lost my sock (I moved it in my hast to get dressed) then it would have been even better! The bike was fine but I didn’t have anyone close to chase o I just set myself a goal of staying about 17 mph. When the road surface was smooth it was easy to go faster but I still did pretty well (I say myself)! Next was riding in to the transition area for another shoes change before going for the final run. Well I was suddenly feeling tired and had jelly legs! I did my best to run away from the start, slightly choking on the cup of water I grabbed (note to self don’t do that again!), but once around the corner I had to walk a bit. There was certainly nothing spectacular about my run, actually it was dismal, and half way around I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion since the sun was fully up as it was after 9am. After a bottle of cold water at the end I was feeling fine and all the pain of the run had been forgotten – when is the next?!

So I can 143^rd in the end – not too shabby . But I was most happy about my swim as I came 1^st in my age group (out of 23 doing it in 7:21 even though I had put down 9:00 for my start time. I could probably have been even better if I hadn’t had to overtake! Next time! Things to work on – going from biking to running. My results are below so I will be able to compare them in the future.

Swim 7:21.2; T1 2:06.1; Bike 46:39.0 (avg speed 18 mph); T2 1:52.9; Run 37:28.8 (avg 12.05 min miles!); Total 1:35:28.2

Positions: 12 out of 23 (age group); 143^rd overall