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Survived my first Triathlon
Posted by: Thierry in Sport and Races, Our newsVoir cet article en
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‘Survived’ is the right word because it did not go as well as I was expecting. I am very happy I could finish it, but I am not proud of how I did.
On one side, I have to give me credit for going from a 60 lbs overweight couch potato to finishing a Sprint Triathlon in about 6 months. Especially when considering I just recently started all 3 activities included in the Triathlon.
On the other side, I feel like I could have done MUCH better. Here is how it went.
SWIM – 750 m – 22:05
After about 150 or 200m into it I got completely out of breath and kind of panicked to a dead stop. This was the result from a combination of several factors: despite my plans to start the swim in slow and concentrated fashion, I started way too fast. Also, I kept getting entangled in large seaweed plants, something alien to my training sessions. Also, I felt really restricted (too tight) in my wet suit, contributing to the panic because I felt like I could not breathe. So I stopped to recompose myself, but then I got the people behind me trying to climb on my back when running into me. I tried to catch my breath and resume, but I just couldn’t.
As a result, I ended up swimming the rest of the course on my back, doing the backstroke. But since I could not see where I was going, I zigzagged a fair amount outside of the direct course, increasing the distance to cover.
I will really have nightmares about that part of the race, getting entangled in the seaweeds and all. When I finally got out of the marina, I was completely out of energy from my fight with the water. Result: at least 5 minutes longer than my worst time in training and out of juice!!!
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BIKE – 20 km – 43:09 (including both transitions!)
First transition was quite smooth, and I had no problem running beside my bike and jumping on it while rolling. All in all, the bike is the part of the race that went the best. While I was much slower than in training, I did my thing as I felt I could do it at the time. I took it easy in the second transition, even taking the time to clean my sunglasses.
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RUN – 5 km – 30:03
I am really not happy with my run. I lacked determination, and allowed me to slow down to a walk not far after the start. I felt completely empty of energy. From then on, I alternated between running and walking until I could cover the distance. I did a few Bricks in training (running after biking) before and I always seemed to do OK.
Now when I look back on my performance, I really wished I pushed myself to keep running the whole course. I lost a minimum of 5 minutes there.
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SUMMARY
Total time: 1 hr 35 min 17 seconds, good for a 60th place out of 76 participants.
So in short, I was disappointed with the way I handled the race. The bright side is that I have something to easily improve upon (I hope!!) if I ever do another one of these races.
Here is a link the official results:
http://homepage.mac.com/ben.balkwill/ltw_pastresults/2009/tomatomanT.htm
My friend ‘Sneaky Craig’ also did the Triathlon with me. I call him ‘sneaky’ because he registered a few weeks before the event, but only revealed it a few days before the race. That was a very good surprise and I was happy to have somebody with me for this first experience.
Craig did very well considering his preparation. I am really proud of him and he did impress me. He finished 2 spots behind me, in 62th place. That’s awesome considering he did not even swim once in the months before the event (and he was never a swimmer either!). He did his thing, ran at his rhythm without really stopping and made it through. Congratulations Craig!
Craig in action:
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Few pictures from after the race:
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Our friend Tracy had prepared a surprise gift for us, which was a nice attention on her part!
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See the complete album below for more photos and larger pictures.
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| Leamington Triathlon 09 |
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