Here we go, Aimee. Here we go 👏👏
Hold on. A triathlon? Wait, did I miss something? You never told me you were training for a triathlon.
Well, I only found out about it 2 weeks ago. We have a friend/neighbor (I'll call him Neighbor/friend #1) who has recently gotten really into duathlons, triathlons, and road races (running). He is not an endurance athlete. He's a martial artist and powerlifter, but over the last several months he has decided to challenge himself by participating in sports that are completely new to him. It is solely for the purpose of seeing what he is capable of, for enjoying sport, and watching himself improve. I LOVE this mentality so much! He knows I've been running for a while now and that I enjoy racing, so he has invited me to join him on some of the races he has participated in this spring and summer. Sadly, nothing had worked out for one reason or another. About two weeks ago he approached me about an upcoming Sprint Triathlon that he was contemplating signing up for. The place where I grew up (which is also where we live now) hosts two different triathlons: a shorter Sprint Triathlon in the spring, and an Olympic Distance in the fall. Growing up seeing locals participate in these triathlons made me curious. While I had been intrigued by the idea of being one of these racers myself since my mid-20's or so, I hadn't gotten around to it. I had even bought the following books (see below) when my husband and I were biking a lot. Then I got pregnant, and well, you know what happens next...life gets in the way.
Those books would sit dormant on the shelf for a while.
Fast forward to this recent invitation. I started giving it some serious thought. Honestly, would I attempt to do one on my own? Wouldn't it be so much more fun with friends? Neighbor/friend #1 and I also got another neighbor/friend (Neighbor/friend #2) to contemplate joining as well. The more the merrier. This particular sprint triathlon is comprised of a 750 meter swim, 16 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. I assessed my current fitness level: I'm ready for the 5k run. I was pretty sure the bike portion wouldn't be too big a deal, just might take a while, but the swim... *gulp*
I have never been a swimmer and I haven't swam laps (meaning sustained swimming) at all for 2 years. I only swam the laps 2 years ago because I rolled my ankle running and it was one of the only things I could do that didn't hurt my ankle. 750 meters is a lot for a non-swimmer who doesn't swim recreationally either. I began doing the math: 750 meters is 15 laps, or 30 lengths, of my local 25 meter pool. 😳 Before I committed to registering for the race, I thought it was prudent to try to see if I could swim the whole 750 meters without stopping no matter how long it took. Reason being, if I didn't have the stamina/strength to swim 750 meters right then without training, I wasn't magically going to gain any meaningful swim fitness in two weeks time.
One afternoon, I went down to the pool and gave it a go. I shot off the wall swimming freestyle fast, WAY TOO FAST. By the second lap I was gasping for air, wheezing. I couldn't stop though, I still had 13 laps to go, so on the spot I switched to breaststroke and continued on. That was a smart move. The change in stroke instantly brought my heartrate down and I settled into a decent pace (for me) and held steady to complete the 750 meters. Once I changed to breaststroke, it felt pretty easy, and I left the pool feeling good. The following day Neighbor/friend #2 and I decided to bike the 16 miles. All in one go. Again just to see if it was something we could manage. We are very fortunate to live a mile away from a 45 mile bike trail, so we hopped on it and cruised the 16 miles easily. I am not trying to dismiss 16 miles of bike riding, but I wasn't riding 20 mph or anything so it didn't feel all that hard.
At this point, I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger, and registered for the triathlon. I was so excited! For the next 2 weeks leading up to the race, I continued to swim laps in the pool, run, and bike ride hopefully to feel a little bit more comfortable out on the course on race day.
Race day arrived very quickly, and sadly Neighbor/friend #2 who had trained and registered ended up not being able to join us on race day so I had to drive all the way down to the race alone with my bike and all of my gear to pick up my race packet and get situated before the start of the race. The rest of my family drove down a little later, as did Neighbor/friend #1 and his family.
As the start time drew near, I started getting nervous and excited. That's normal for a big race. I was definitely the most nervous about the swim. Thankfully, that is the first event in a triathlon so it'll be over soon I told myself. Most triathlons have an open water swim (in a lake, bay, or ocean), and I hadn't been able to practice swimming in any lakes, so this would be completely new to me. People warn and many articles are written about swimming in open water. They say it can be 1) disorienting 2) disconcerting, even downright scary. Why? You can't see anything other than brown/green sediment in the water. You can't see the ground. You have to sight the buoys to know where you are going (a skill in and of itself). People kick/hit you and make a whole lot of chop swimming around you. Not to mention, you are far- VERY FAR- from land at certain points.
I was aware of all of this going into it...but you don't know until you know. When you start the swim your race time officially starts. At this particular triathlon, racers entered the water one at a time announcing their race/bib number to a man who then typed it into a computer that started your official time. I was anxious already and so focused on this process, that as I said my race number and dove in, I forgot to put my goggles on. I didn't even realize until I opened my eyes (I was wearing contacts, gross!), and thus, began my downward spiral of panic. I had already moved away from the shore and could no longer stand, so I was awkwardly, stiffly trying to tread water with one hand while putting my googles on with the other. This burned a lot of energy and caused my heartrate to further skyrocket. But at least I had my goggles on, right? Wrong. As I put my head back into the water, murky brown water seeped into the bottom of the goggles. Further panic ensued. Back to treading water, I ripped the damn goggles off and rested them back on my forehead on my swimcap. Damn it. I continued to tread water, and decided to survey where I was on the swim course after wasting what seemed like so much time on my goggles. The answer: not very far. I still had at least 75% of the swim still ahead of me. I suppressed the urge to cry. I then tried to swim breaststroke with my head out of the water. It was a no-go. My head and neck immediately started to hurt. So much wasted energy. More panic. I decided to float on my back for a second to figure it out. I drove all the way to Culpeper, my family and friends are here. I CAN'T QUIT. I realized that I am calmer on my back, so I decided to swim backstroke. Upon seeing me on my back, fellow racers and race volunteers asked to make sure I was ok. Bless them. I decided to continue with the backstroke and was making progress finally. Thank G-d. I had to roll over throughout the duration of the swim to see where the heck I was going, and veered off course a few times. Nooooo! I didn't want to swim any longer than I have to, and all the rolling onto my stomach and back made me feel dizzy, and nauseous. In other words, seasick. Arg. Minutes feel like eternities, and eventually I became (stupidly) concerned about not being the last one out of the water. I sped up. Cursed vanity. Thank goodness I wasn't the last one out because that would have been one final ego blow that I'm not sure how I would have handled. Finally, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y, I reached the shore. My family and my friend's family were cheering me on. My friend's wife said, "I saw you chillin' on your back, cruising. I knew you had it." Definitely, trying to make me feel better. My husband informed me, someone after me had to be rescued. This is a very my-husband-type-of-thing to say. Great, at least I didn't have to be rescued. I felt pretty defeated. My friend's wife abruptly ended my personal pity party by clapping and yelling, Let's go, Aim! Pick up your feet! Grab your food, bike, helmet! Let's move!" Thank you. I love you! I snapped out of it, and hustled on. I started feeling so grateful the swim was over, and allowed myself to feel, dare I say it, proud.
Here I am starting off the swim with my goggles on my HEAD instead of on my eyes.
Desperately trying to tread water while putting them on.
It's not going well.
Assessing the situation.
Rolling over on my back to rest and realizing that
it is keeping both my stress level and heartrate down.
I survived!!!
I should say, 750 meters in the pool takes me 20 minutes
and this, my first open water swim, took me 30 minutes.
I was spazzing out in the water.
Always easier to say in hindsight,
but I suppose it could have been worse.
Regrouping after the swim and getting ready for the bike leg of the race.
This is hilarious.
I think they were trying to pump me up after my demoralizing swim.
I am a little casual sauntering up from the transition area to where you mount the bike.
They told me there were people running with their bikes,
and others were running while carrying their bikes. HA!
This transition took me 4 minutes. Kinda long.
At least I'm smiling.
Mental game back in check. Off I go!
I wish I had a super triumphant interesting story to tell you about the biking part of the race. I regathered my wits and started working away. The course was described as "challenging, with rolling hills. Not a PR course." This sounded intimidating. Honestly though, I loved it. None of the hills were too steep up or down, and I slowly started picking people off one at a time trying to regain some ground, and time I lost in the water. I made it around the 16 mile course in pretty darn good time (for me). Only thing left to complete now was the 5k run.
After the cycling portion, I'm jogging my bike back up
to the transition area to get ready for the run.
The run was a fairly simple out and back even though it started out entirely up hill. Not something you particularly want to do after swimming and biking, but 3 miles seemed realllllly short after surviving the swim and cycling 16 miles. I had not had the chance prior to the race to practice immediately running after riding that far, and I could only imagine I looked like I was weakly shuffling along. At the 5k turn around point, I was running next to a lady who was 63 years old. 63(!) Years. Old. She looked at me, smiled and said "on the homestretch now." I reply, "yes, this is my first triathlon." She says, "don't you love it?" I hesitated and my facial expression betrayed me. She looks at me squarely and repeats much louder "DON"T YOU LOVE IT?!" I battle-cry, "YES!" Thinking I'll love it when it's over. But I just looked at this lady in her 60's kicking ass in a triathlon and felt so inspired. She gave me energy as I trotted on down the road finishing the last mile and change of my very first triathlon. As I came down the street, my friend's family, and my family were cheering their heads off. I was THRILLED to be done with the race. What an accomplishment! I felt so proud that I didn't give up on the swim and persevered. What an achievement!
The end is near!!!
Yay!
This is Neighbor/friend #1 and I on the ol' podium for a post-race shot.
It is hilarious that we both have a hand on the hip posing action going on.
😂😂😂
But the story doesn't end here. We hung out for a bit, ate a little, chatted, watched some of the awards ceremony, eventually lost interest, and slowly started to pack up to get ready to go back home. I went and grabbed my bike from the transition area and head to my car. Rhys joined me for the hour and a half trek back home. When I arrived back at home, I had received the following email:
Oh. My. God. I finished 2nd in my age group. 2nd in my age group? It just goes to show you, your mental game can really psych you out. I felt so bad, so overwhelmed. Your outlook is everything. Yes, I did have a hard time in the water, it was my first open swim. But I kept trying, kept pushing. I can't even tell you what it meant to me as a symbol of being brave and putting myself out there and trying something new. It is scary. But worth it!
They mailed it to me 😀
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