I finally did it! I finally competed in and finished my first sprint triathlon!
There's so much to write about that I don't really know where to start. I guess I should start by apologizing to those that have been following the blog and keeping up on my training and preparation for the event. Those that are close to me know that I've been dealing with a lot of changes in my life this past week, one of which was starting a new job and working about 60 hours that first week. In all honesty I had no time to keep you all up to date on my progress; but that's just it, there was no progress. I didn't even have time to train outside of a couple nights of hockey which made me even more nervous going into race day.
I'm going to get into a nice recap of the day's events in just a minute but I wanted to write a few things before I do. If you've been to this blog before you already know my story, but if you haven't you can read about it in detail here or watch me tell it here. The short version is that at the beginning of February of this year I weighed 231 pounds and wanted a change. I saw an infomercial for Insanity, and believing that I'm an athlete it really appealed to me. So I started the program and was loving it. It wasn't long before I heard about Shakeology and decided that since I was putting in all this hard work, I should be helping myself by taking better care of what I was putting in my body. If you become a Beachbody Coach you can earn a 25% discount, which if you do the math is totally worth it. It was at this time I also found that helping others with their health and fitness could fill the void in me from not having found a full-time teaching position.
I don't want to get too sidetracked here but it's important to me to get this information out there because I didn't have a lot of support from the people around me as I was doing all this. In some people's minds I might as well have been using the shake weight, watching Sweatin' to the Oldies, and drinking Cartman's Weight Gain 3000 (Beafcake!). It's hard to get out of your comfort zone and do something different, believe me I know. The point is that if I could do it, so can you! There's support out there for us we just have to go find it. The communities on TeamBeachbody.com and myfitnesspal.com were invaluable in the support and encouragement that I received. I don't want to ramble on and on here, but if nothing else I want everyone to know that there is support for you to help you achieve your goals. Even though I'm incrediBILL, I'm really not doing anything that you can't do yourself. Alright, let's get to the main event here...
Pre-race
First of all, I need to take a moment to thank the organizers of the event for meeting me at 9pm the day before the race so that I could get my race packet. They were extremely nice and helpful. So I get home with my race packet and am super excited. I put the stickers on my helmet and bike, then look at the bibs and find there's nothing to attach them to what I'll be wearing. "Hey Mike, got any saftey pins?" "Saftey pins? Hahaha, no." It's like 11pm at this point and I want to be up at like 4am to get in a good breakfast make sure I have enough time to get to the course and get set up since I have no clue what I'm doing. I decide I'll just run to Walmart after I wake up. Woke up at like 5am because I wasn't nervous enough just doing a sprint triathlon for the first time, I though I'd add some more stress by waking up late and being in a rush. I made a quick Chocolate Shakeology and peanut butter shake, got my saftey pins, and found the course fine. Turns out everything was well organized and it was easy enough to get all set up at the course, the volunteers were awesome and really were a big help in helping eliminate all that pre-race nervousness I was feeling.
The Swim
It was actually a relief to get everything set and get to the beach (or the sand that led into the pool). They sent 4 people out every 5 seconds to try and did so based on what the participants thought their swim time would be. This prevented there being just a mass of people on top of each other. It was great because it gave me a chance to see what everyone else was doing. So my strategy was to swim strong for the first little bit to try and create some separation between me and the 3 others I started with. I had only got in the pool about 3 times prior to the event and was hoping to just be able to focus on myself without worrying about the people around me. For those that don't know, I swam competitively from age 12 through high school; so I'm pretty comfortable.
We get started and it didn't take long for me to catch people that started ahead of me. This was a bit of a problem because the water was murky and visibility was low. I found myself constantly picking my head up to see where I was going and see who was in front of me. I would try to take a sort of inefficient path to avoid other swimmers, but would inevitably end up in traffic. It even got to the point a couple times where I would have to switch to the breaststroke to slow down and look for a path to stay on course and get around swimmers. All in all, the swim stage was a good learning experience. If the next one I do is a staggered start again, I know to start a little earlier. In the next one I do I'll know how to negotiate traffic a little better as well. Most importantly though, I now realize that my swimming experiences were over 10 years ago and that I really need to train better for this stage. I wouldn't say that I was out of gas after the swim, but I know I can do better than that if I take the time to work at it.
T1
Alright, time for my first ever transition. It's my first ever because I didn't practice it at all, which was a mistake on my part. I was lucky though, I think I had one of the best spots for the entire event. I was right next to the bike course entrance and exit, and not far from the swim exit and run entrance. So when preparing for the event I didn't have any equipment. I needed some running shoes and some sort of swim suit, because I know better than to try and swim for time in a normal bathing suit and wasn't about to wear my Speedo from high school. For my suit, I ended up buying Blueseventy's Distance Tri Short. It was a little more expensive than a normal suit but it was awesome. It fit great, dried quickly, and was comfortable during the bike and run stages. As for my running shoes, I found that a decent pair of running shoes and Scott's T2 shoes cost about the same. They're pretty cool in that the heel opens so that you can slide the shoes on and quickly lock the heel. I wore them for both the bike and run stage. They worked great and if I had practiced the transition a bit and had not fumbled around with an anti-friction stick I could have had a better T1 time.
(It's gotta be the shoes!)
Bike
(Had to tuck the laces in on ride, EZ laces next time)
This was by far my favorite part of the event. I would have liked to have put in more time on the bike beforehand, but the time I did put in paid off. I was able to keep a pretty consistent pace throughout the stage and found myself passing way more people than passed me. You did two laps on the course, so the trick was to stay out of the way of the superstars that were on their second lap while also negotiating the traffic in front of me.
Don't get me wrong though, this stage was special and extremely enjoyable. The route was nice and I couldn't help but reflect on everything that's gone on this year and my transformation. It's hard for me to put into words the emotion that I felt. I've had the desire to compete in a triathlon for like 10 years now and there I was finally doing it. This year's been very trying at times, but I've never used what's been going on as an excuse to give up and stop working toward my goals. It's not just the physical transformation of losing 50 pounds since the beginning of February; it's also the mental or emotional transformation that I'm proud of as well. For too long I would make excuses for myself and knock others because I wasn't happy with myself. Now I can stand tall and be proud of myself, and I can't tell you how it feels to become the man and father I've wanted to be.
T2
So I'm coming into the transition area with a few others and you get to a line where you have to dismount. I come up to the line, go to get off the bike, and nearly fall over. I was so in the zone that I forgot to take my feet out of the pedals.
Run
In preparing for the event I probably spent the most time on the running stage to try and teach myself to run at a consistent pace. The training really paid off; and while my time might not be all that impressive, I think I did really well for an inexperienced runner.
I did run into a bit of a problem though (get it, run into). I was moving along pretty good, and don't get me wrong, I was pretty tired but there was no way I was going to start walking let alone stop. However, at the halfway point my knee became pretty sore and was bothersome. I was in quite a bit of pain and actually considered stopping. Then one of the coolest things happened. Throughout the course there were volunteers from the middle or high school cheering everyone on. As my knee was killing me, I was approaching one of the groups and one of the girls yells out, "If you can do Insanity, you can do this!" That was awesome and I couldn't help but chuckle. My knee still hurt, but that little quip helped me realize all the work I had put in and helped me to power through to the finish.
The Finish Line
(Time was really 1:22:30)
When I started closing in on the finish line it was like a burst of adrenaline hit me and gave me the energy to really finish strong. It was such an awesome feeling to cross that line and get my medal. My only regret is that I didn't have anyone that I'm close to with me that day. If you're reading this, get a hold of me. Let's train and do the next one together! (I'm looking at you Kim!) Click here to see the race results and then search for Bib #772 to see my times.
As I wrap up here I want to thank all the people that have been so supportive to me, especially those of you that have been following my progress on here, my MFP friends, and my Beachbody friends. That support and accountability really helped on those days where I just didn't want to get off the my butt and train. I especially want to give a shout out to Dennis F., Steph H., and Erin G.; you may not have realized it but it was really great to have your support and it meant a lot to me.
