My First Triathlon

I completed my first Triathlon - thus earning the right to call myself a "triathlete" - on 6/24/07. I joined an organization called "Team In Training", which is a fund-raising group for the "Leukemia and Lymphoma Society". It was an amazing experience! I am definitely hooked! Here are my thoughts from the day of the race.

Thoughts and Results from the Triathlon

Woke up sunday morning (6/24) around 4:30AM ready to roll...

At 5:15AM we ride our bikes the 3 miles to the transition area to set up our gear (bikes, shoes, shorts, water, etc.) for the two race transitions - swim to bike and bike to run.

Still waiting to hear whether the water temperature is low enough to wear my wetsuit. The wetsuit has become sort of a security blanket for me - something I will have to fix. I have the feeling that the swim will not go well if I don't wear the wetsuit. I am scheduled to start in the second wave, at 7AM. Finally the question about the wetsuit is answered. I am so happy to hear over the loud speaker that the water temperature is 76 degrees F and the race is "wetsuit legal". At 78 degrees the race is "wetsuit optional" and I will have to ditch mine or start in the last wave (around 8AM) which I will NOT do.

I am in the water at about 3 minutes to 7, lining up with the buoy and treading water until the start. The water feels good and I am confident (I have my security blanket :-). At 7AM on the dot we start swimming. Sometime during the swim, I apparently jammed my thumb. It started feeling a little weird and I guess I got kicked in the thumb or something. Lots of kicking but it is really not as bad as I thought it would be. Finally, rounding the final buoy and heading for the beach.

When I hit the beach my legs are a little unsteady but I am able to find my bike pretty easily. It takes about 5 minutes for me to get the wetsuit off and my glasses, helmet, gloves, shoes, shirt, and shorts on.

I am running my bike over the grass headed for the road. When I hit the road I am feeling strong and smooth on the bike. There is plenty of room and the other riders generally are pretty courteous. Keep right except to pass. Pass quickly on the left and move back to the right. Everyone seems to follow these rules pretty well. We all have our age written on our right calf so I can see the ages of everyone who passes me. 25, no surprise; 30 something, still young and strong. the professionals just have a "P" written on their calf and you can easily hear the different sound their multi-thousand dollar bikes make. Then it happens, I get passed by a guy with "66" written on his right calf! Hey, hold on there! Too late, he's already gone. :-)

I'm moving fast on the bike - even on the hills and feeling strong. Wondering how much I should save for the run. The people on the side-lines are great! I get a lot of "Go Team!" cheers. This is for anyone wearing a "Team In Training" jersey - which I am. Seems like everyone is rooting for me. Cool!

Two loops on the bike and I am pulling back into the transition area, walking my bike to my spot. I can already tell it will be payback time on the run. The swim and ride went too easily. The run will "kick my butt"! I'm jogging out on wobbly legs and wondering how long I can hold of the leg cramps.

I glance at my watch and see that it is about 9AM. If I can do a sub 1 hour 10K I have a chance to beat 3 hours for the triathlon. I'm am psyched to try that since I was hoping to beat 3 hours and 30 minutes. Now the strategy is to try to run around 10 minute miles - maybe a little less - but not much faster since I don't want to cramp up and have to walk. If I have to walk, I can kiss a sub 3 hour finish goodbye. The run WAS a real struggle for me but I only started to feel a little stiffness in about the last mile and it was my left hamstring and achilles tendon - not the calf. Go figure!

When I started to hear the cheering at the finish and one of the volunteers said "less than a minute to go" I knew I was in good shape. As I crossed the finish line I saw 3:01 on the clock. Since the clock started with the first wave, which started 5 minutes before my wave, I knew my (stretch) goal of finishing under 3 hours had been achieved...

Here are my official results:

Overall Rank 827 of 1544

Class Rank 12 of 31

Swim 0:32:36

Swim Rank 929

Transition 1 0:05:24

Bike 1:23:03

Bike Rank 910

MPH 17.9

Transition 2 0:02:23

Run 0:52:52

Run Rank 688

Pace 0:08:31

Final 2:56:20

I did NOT make up these numbers!

You can check them out yourself on the Philly Tri website:

http://phillytri.com/results.html

Click on 2007 "Triathlon Results"

Select "2007 Philly Olympic Individual results" and click "Search"

Enter "Bib number" 163 - that's me - and see my results.