Memphis in May Sprint

Memphis In May Sprint Triathlon

May 2013

400 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run

One of those orange heads is mine

My first Triathlon!
I was beyond nervous. It was a crazy time in my life. My husband, Nathan, had his second open heart surgery just 3 days before the race. I was completely on auto-pilot, and I think focusing on the race helped me cope with his surgery (although the day after the race, when there were no more distractions, I completely fell apart).

I also had never swam in open water before. My swim coach tried to explain what it would be like.  Mostly the lack of visibility. We swam in the pool with our eyes closed and tried to swim in a straight line (not easy!) to simulate it, and I thought I had mentally prepared myself for open water. Boy was I wrong.

My parents and Nathan's dad came to stay with us the week of the surgery and the race. Friday night mom and dad and I drove to the race site for packet pickup, a race preview, and to set up my bike. Thankfully my friend, Glen, was also racing and helped me with transition set up and last minute pointers. I was a ball of nerves.

I lucked out by getting my bike near the end of the row.
Also, meet Torp, our monkey that travels with us.

The lake looked nice enough

Saturday morning was an early wake up call. Why must races always start so early? I went down to transition to finish setting up and to get body marked.  I tried to pretend like I knew what I was doing.

My first ever body marking!

I'm so thankful my parents were with me!

Glen went over to the lake for a warm up swim. I figured I'd join him to see what this open water thing was all about. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or a bad idea. Let's just say I fully understood why people had panic attacks during the swim portion of the race. I knew visibility would be zero, but I wasn't prepared to experience it. While Glen went and swam for awhile, I immediately turned around and got out of the water.

Can you see the terror in my eyes?  I was trying so hard not to cry.

My parents saw how nervous I was getting and tried distracting me. My dad later said he hadn't had any idea what to say to me. When it was finally time to line up I started talking to the other girls in my swim wave. Some of them were first-timers, too, and were also nervous. The experienced ones tried to calm us down. My age group was the last to start so we watched everyone else start the swim. One of the girls pointed out the water was so shallow at the beginning that people were walking.  And some people were already doing backstroke! We found comfort in knowing we weren't the only ones who were nervous.

Right before it was my turn to jump in the water.
My mantra was "fake it 'til you make it"

My turn!  No backing out now!

The swim was terrifying. I found solace in touching the bottom and half swimming/ half walking. I started praying Hail Mary's and finally found a rhythm.

As I rounded a bend in the canal, I thought I was coming into the final stretch. I looked up to sight and realized I wasn't where I thought I was. There was one more bend to go around before I'd be able to see the end. It startled me and I went to touch the bottom to get my bearings. Only where I was was deeper than at the beginning and I could no longer touch. I swallowed some water and started gasping. Cue my "one minor freak out".
A girl near me saw me panic and yelled out, "get on your back, come on, you can do this". She also got on her back so she could keep talking to me. "Keep breathing, relax". After I calmed down enough, I rolled over and commenced my Hail Mary's and tried to block out my nerves. We rounded the last bend and I saw the exit banner in the distance. Finally!

The final stretch

This was only a 400 meter swim, but with my one minor freak out, it felt like the longest swim of my life.

Exiting the water. So relieved for the swim to be over!

Out of the swim and into T1 (transition 1: swim to bike). T1 was uneventful, but a little slow. I was still trying to calm down. But I had practiced enough. I figured as long as I remembered my helmet, my bike shoes, and my bike I'd be okay. Luckily I also remembered to remove my swim cap and goggles!

Wondering what on earth I got myself into!

The bike was also fairly uneventful, but after the first few miles I looked down and saw my timing chip was no longer on my ankle. I had no idea where it fell off! I couldn't remember seeing it in T1, but I also couldn't remember not seeing it. To the first race official I saw I yelled out "I lost my chip!".  He said "that's okay, keep going!".  I wasn't sure how it was okay, so perhaps this race has two minor freak outs: what if I was going to have no record of any of this?

I passed people on the bike. Me and my hybrid bike passed people on road bikes. I didn't know if this was good or bad.  Was I just stronger than them? Or was I pushing myself too much and going to ruin the run? I didn't think I was going that fast, but should I slow down or keep going? I figured I'd keep passing people while I could. I felt okay and wanted to get this whole thing over with as soon as possible. As I ran my bike into T2 (transition 2: bike to run), I kept telling race officials that my timing chip fell off. I was still worried about that.

I like to think this picture is blurry due to my lightning speed!

I struggled during the first mile of the run. My legs were wobbly and I think the adrenaline from the swim was wearing off.  But I was still passing people and that gave me a little boost, and the last two miles were a little easier.

Coming around the final curve to the finish line!

Apparently my "lightning speed" surprised my dad because he wasn't expecting me back yet! I like this picture, though, because I'm still running, it shows the finish, and I can see the lake that I overcame.

I immediately went to the race officials and told them about my missing timing chip.  They explained to me that they record every athlete coming in and out of transition so my times were figured out. What do you know? There wasn't any need to freak out, after all!

Things I learned from my first triathlon:

• I needed open water experience (I've actually come to love open water swimming)
• Triathletes are awesome people. Everyone was so encouraging and fun to be around.
• Road bikes are better than Hybrid bikes, but don't underestimate the strength of the rider.
• That being said, I was going to have to upgrade to a road bike one day
• I needed to add more bricks (bike to run) into my training.  I had done some, but I needed more.
• Triathlons are fun, and I want to do another

Race times:

Swim: 13:53 (slower than I wanted, but given the circumstances I was pleased)

T1: 2:59 (took a little longer since I was still a ball of nerves)

Bike: 48:56

T2: 1:50

Run: 30:35

Total: 1:38