SubscribeA week ago Saturday (5/22), we had our first official triathlon. Well, almost “official” triathlon – it had a swim, a bike & a run, but there were no official times. The Portland Tri club put it on, and most of my TNT team participated. It was at Vancouver Lake (same site as our usual team swims) so it was a familiar environ. It was a sprint length: ~600m swim, 12 mile ride & 5k run.
It was cold (hello, May? Aren’t you supposed to be summery?) and rainy. I was surprisingly calm, especially considering how nervous/scared I’d been all day Friday about The Swim. Knowing that MaryJane would swim with me helped a bunch. And just having distractions (setting up transition area & people to talk to) settled me down. The tri club had some mini-tutorials on how to set up a transition area, etc. Nothing that we hadn’t already covered in TNT, but nice to hear. I wish I’d paid attention to the advice to protect my nipples – cold weather caused some, um, rubbing. Anyway, I got everything set up, said my hellos & goodbyes to Jenn & the kids (who arrived a few minutes before the event began). And I set out on The Swim.
Ah, yes. The Swim. The first 25m were fine from my perspective. I was the last one to start swimming since I knew I’d be slooow and didn’t want the distraction of someone swimming over me. I was calm, swimming with slow strokes & doing well. Then my brain re-asserted its worrywart self, kindly reminding me that I can’t swim far enough. The rest of the 600m was done mostly on my back or in “sweet spot” with frequent pauses to just float on my back to get my breathing calmed down. Never was able to really get restarted in crawl. Spent a minute cursing my brain. Spent a minute clutching a kayak while waiting for an almost panic attack to pass. MJ kept me on course, literally. When I’d veer too far in the wrong direction (easy to do when on my back), she’d point me in the right direction. A couple times I was sorely tempted to hitch a ride with a kayak back to shore. But the thought of explaining to Ty & Kian why I’d quit was unbearable – even worse than actually swimming. And I wanted to be a Good Example of persevering in the face of an intimidating obstacle, even though I don’t think that the kids have an inkling how difficult this stupid swim is for me. And I’m not willing to give up being the Heroic Daddy, at least not yet. And so I persevered. I even swam parallel to the beach rather than walking out as soon as possible, though that part wasn’t too hard since by then I could stand up when tempted. I was the last out of the water with a time of 20 minutes (most folks were out in 12 minutes). My cheering squad has helped adjust my attitude since then, but at the time I wasn’t particularly proud of my accomplishment or even ecstatic at being back on dry land. A better description might be emotionally drained or chagrined that it had taken so long.
I marched up the beach & stripped off my wet suit. Said hi to Kian, who was happy that I would share my fig bars with him. Put my bike shorts on over my swim suit (tri suit should be here in time for the actual race) and headed out. I wish I’d thought to replace the plastic bag over my T2 stuff. I passed a few people before I left T1.
The bike ride was good – mostly the same route as an earlier TNT ride past Frenchman’s Bar. It was pretty chilly (though I didn’t get too cold) and the heavens opened up a few miles into the ride. I got very wet; sort of like I’d never got out of the lake. If I’d worn my Showers Pass rain jacket, I’d have been steamy. I think I’m glad I skipped the jacket. I was happy with how much easier this ride was than the previous TNT ride (my last ride on my old steel bike a couple months ago). I passed a bunch of people, which was a good feeling. Including the 10-year-old kids – though it took several miles for me to catch them. Once I got out of the water, nobody passed me. Actually, nobody passed me in the water either.
Pedaled strong all the way back to T2, where I was welcomed by Ty, Kian, Hope & Jenn. Yay! Put on my running shoes (realized that, dang! the storm came through here too), took off my helmet, kept the bike shorts (not too much padding so it didn’t really feel like running with a diaper on. Really.) and grabbed my sunglasses. It had stopped raining, but the sun never did really come out. Took it pretty easy on the run. My right foot was thinking about cramping for the first mile, but it decided not to. As usual, it took 1.5 miles to get into the Zen of running. I eventually found my groove & kept plugging along. Passed a few more people. Finished up strong and happy to see Kian & Ty & Hope & Jenn. Kian & Ty, of course, asked why it took me so long 
Ate a hamburger, drank a Coke and went to Paula’s famous crawfish boil where I sat comatose for the next couple hours.
Swim: 20 minutes, T1 + bike = 52:29, T2 + run = 34:25.
Stay tuned – I’ve made encouraging progress in my swimming mentality in the 10 days since this race. This weekend there will be another practice tri, but with a much longer swim (a mile!). That will be a good test of my newfound mental state.
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