Friday afternoon I drove down to Lethbridge (roughly 2.5 hour drive). Nice weather, lots of canola fields, not much else to say. I first got an idea of just how big CinC’s tri group was when I checked into the hotel. One person had booked all the rooms, and when I said what name the reservation was under, the clerk just said “Wow, there sure are a lot of you”
. I got all my stuff organized in my room, went to dinner at Boston Pizza, got to bed early and then… lay in bed wide awake until midnight.Sunday started early. I met Mike in the Holiday Inn parking lot just before 6am in the fog. We agreed that this was in fact a very stupid hobby. I somehow got lost in Lethbridge
and missed out on Starbucks, but just headed straight down to Magrath. Logistically, this race left my head spinning. Drove out to the reservoir; picked up race kit; set up T1; drove back to town; set up T2; got on bus; drove back to reservoir. I was more concerned about leaving something at the wrong place than I was about the race at this point. I made it back to the reservoir with everything I was supposed to have, got sunscreen/bugspray/wetsuit on, and got in the water to warm up. We got started pretty quickly after that, and I was in the water for real!Swim – 750m(ish); 17:38
I didn’t enjoy the swim very much. I can’t really put my finger on the reason why. I wasn’t bothered by all the people, or the open water aspect, but I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. I'm also not very good at sighting, and felt like I kept interrupting myself to look where I was going. In hindsight, I think I felt a little dizzy in the water. I’m using ear plugs next time. My goal by the time I rounded the buoy at the top of the triangle that made up the swim was just to survive long enough to get out of the water, and I didn’t care that I thought I’d be DFL. I was therefore totally surprised to haul myself out of the water and see there were still people behind me! The timing mat was right as you came out of the water, and someone called out to a person behind me, “good job! Under 18 minutes!” and I just thought he was lying. It was the longest 17 minutes of my day, but I was relieved to get it done. I also think it was shorter than 750m, but I'm not complaining about that!
T1/Bike/T2 – 26km; 59:30
T1, the bike, and T2 were all rolled in together in one time. I didn’t wear a watch, so I don’t actually know how long it took me to get on my bike. Once I got the top of my wetsuit off, I flopped down on my backside and struggled out of the bottom. The woman next to me doing the same thing commented that triathlon was such an elegant sport
. I got everything stuffed into my wet bag, remembered to take off my swim cap and goggles, pulled on a shirt, helmet, sunglasses, and number, then headed for the road. Once I got on my bike and climbed the first small rise to get out of the reservoir area, I felt really excited. The swim was the part I was most nervous about, and being back on land was great. I am definitely a land animal. The bike is a net downhill, and it was incredibly fun. It’s on rural highway, and I found that the few cars going by were really good about giving us lots of room (even though we were on the shoulder) and honking/cheering as they went by. Right as I was approaching the wind farm, CinC flew past me (doing the Olympic distance, which started before us but added the extra 14k on the bike in the other direction). It’s always nice to see a friendly face on the course. The last 4k of the bike started to feel a bit harder – it was flat, windy, and hot, but I could see town, so I knew I was close. When I got to T2, I learned an important lesson – always untie the laces on your running shoes when you set up T2! If that was the worst mistake I made that day, that’s not so bad! After racking my bike, I ran out to the second timing mat to start the run.Run – 5km; 25:55
I did a 5k race last weekend, and my new baseline 5k time was 24:33. This course had a few more hills and a lot more heat and sun... oh, and a swim and a bike before it! I grabbed some water, dumped it over my head, and got moving. I just tried to concentrate on keeping my feet moving quickly. The course loops out, then becomes a sort-of-out-and-back (turn is at 3k). Just before I got to the turn around, I caught up with CinC again. We chatted for a minute, then she said to me “You’ve got this – the run is your strength”. That carried me through the last 2k in the heat. I normally struggle a lot more in hot weather (partly physicial, mostly psychological because I don’t like hot weather), but I just kept reminding myself that this was my strength, and that if I could run 50k, I could sure as heck run 5k. I passed a lot of people on the run in that last 2k. There’s one last small but cruel hill right at the end, but by that point I could see the finish line and there was no holding me back!
Final time 1:43:04 7/17 in my AG (11/17 in swim, 8/17 in bike, 3/17 in run)
This was a fun race - yes, even the swim, in hindsight
. Hanging out and cheering for all of the Olympic finishers was fun, especially with pastries, freezies, and chocolate milk at the finish! I drove home wearing my “I swam the dam” shirt in a car that smelled of sunscreen, sweat, soggy wetsuit, and McDonald’s fries and enjoyed all of it.I’m now signed up for the Banff sprint tri in September, followed by a duathlon later that month (thanks to Mike, my enabler, who kept sending me links to events!). My plan for the summer is just to get more time in swimming and on my bike & see what happens, and to use that as my crosstraining for the Portland marathon in October.
Many thanks to Mike (Turd) and Carla (CinC) (and all of the Healing Mochas) for their help and company for the race!
Congrats on a great first race! Glad to hear you already want to do another one. 
