Naperville Sprint Triathlon

Today I finally did something I haven't done: do a triathlon. It was a sprint triathlon which is shorter than normal: 400m swim, 22k bike, 5k run. It was a great experience, one that I would definitely do again. There were also a number of things that I learned. My total time was 1:34:48 which was roughly what I thought it would be. However, well, let's break it down:

On a scale of 1-10, here is how I would rate my personal performance, based on what I know I am realistically capable of:

Swim: 2
Bike: 8
Run: 7

Pre-race: It was amazing how it was an orderly chaos. There were a lot of people there but finding my way around seemed pretty good. When I got to the bike area to get all set up, I realized that there was one thing I did forget: goggles for the swim. Oh boy. Well, you have to make the best of it. Someone did lend me their second pair but the strap was in bad shape and kept breaking. I figured I would just have to wing it without one.

Swim (12:36): Wow, real ugly for me. If I had just done an average swim I think my overall time would have improved alot. This was brutal. You are lined up based on what you think your time would be, which placed me towards the back. We waited about 50 minutes before our turn. Any warmups done before the race start pretty much became useless. One MAJOR thing I learned: never do all your training in a lap pool if the swim is in a lake. In a lake there are no push-offs every 25m, you can't get an extra breath every 25m, and there are lots of people sloshing around. I did good the first 100m or so, then lost it. I think I started way too fast for my ability. Freestyle turned into swimming on my back. I had to walk the shallow parts. Just really bad. I think I got overwhelmed and even had some brief panic. I kept wondering if I was going to finish the swim! Then I'm thinking how in the world I was going to do the rest! I did get through it though, then moved to the next phase...

Bike (46:17): I knew I would make up ground here and I sure did! Here is where the tide turned and I was feeling better about what I was doing! I averaged 17.7mph which isn't bad. What I learned is that I could have pushed it harder (I think 19mph could have been a realisic pace). This being my first time I wasn't sure how much I would have left for the run (considering how much energy I spent in the swim). I played it conservatively, which may have been too much. I found out later that I think I could have sped that up quite a bit. Next time I will get this right. Nonetheless, this part was real fun. I felt I was in a real good groove. I also had a couple of these chocolate energy gels. They were real good, believe it or not. I'm sure they helped!

Run (28:47): During my training, this was one I was struggling with. I couldn't get that time down to where I know I could be. However, during this race I did feel good about it. The average was 9:18/mi. Not long ago I was hovering around 8-8:15. However, during my training I was struggling to get below 10/mi, so there was some progress in this race. What was interesting during this run was that I felt I was getting stronger as I went along. That was interesting and encouraging to me. I think that I probably could have done a faster pace. Again, chalk it up to a learning experience: I now have a better feel on how to pace my run.

Transitions:
T1 (4:50) - I did end up going the wrong direction out of the transition area! The time could have been cut in half had I known. Being in the back of the pack at the swim, there weren't many people to see where they were going! Next time I need to survey the transition area better to know where to go! My bike location was indeed quite far from the exit. Otherwise, this was fine. T2 (2:19) - yeah, I knew where to go! :) I was also very close to the exit!

I am really glad I did it! It was an awesome feeling to finish. I have been meaning to do something like this for a while. The goal was to finish, and that I did! Time to find the next race...