# First Competitive Triathlon



## Flying_Monkey (31 Jul 2011)

I've just been trying and failing to sleep after getting back from my first competitive triathlon (at the age of 39). Having been taught to swim properly for the first time ever this year for a charity tri a couple of months back, I thought I would have a go and plunged straight in at the deep end with the long course at my local K-Town Tri. It might only be a local event but apparently it's rated in the top 3 triathlons in North America on Slowtwitch tri website so it does attract some serious competitors. 

The K-Town Tri is slightly unusual because the distances were set before the modern Sprint, Olympic and Ironman standards and they've stayed as they were. So the long course is a 2km swim in Lake Ontario, a 56km ride (basically from Kingston to Gananoque and back) and a 15km run. So it's in between Olympic and Half-Ironman, and in fact the swim is longer than Half-Ironman. Clearly this would not be the normal choice for a new swimmer, but no-one ever accused me of being normal. 

And actually, the swim was fine. The start was a bit dicey - it's a mass start in the harbour, so for a while it's arms and legs everywhere until some kind of order is established. The weather was warm today (25 degrees), but the water was still cold enough for wet suits to be permitted and ost people (including me, for the first time) were using them. I was hoping for 45-50 minutes, and I got 50 and in fact I would have got nearer 45 if I had actually been able to swim in a straight line on the return leg, but I couldn't see where I was and felt rather disoriented. 

After being hauled out of the water, the first transition seemed smooth enough. As I was aiming just to finish rather than for a serious time, I was methodical rather than quick, but once on the bike, things got rapidly better. Obviously the bike leg is my thing and even though I was keeping it steady and controlled, I seemed to pass lots of people and got passed by no-one. By the time of the turn for home, I had probably made up more than enough time for my weak swimming, and because the return leg was into the wind, I passed even more people who were in difficultly because they didn't have as much experience cycling in windy conditions. 

I am not sure what the time was when I got in, but the last stage was when my optimism about how things might turn out was turned on its head. I'd done quite a few bricks (bike to run sessions) in training, but clearly not enough, and in any case the combined effect of swimming then cycling before the run adds an extra layer of pain. And pain it was, shooting up the insides and fronts of my thighs, combined with a very unpleasant bout of trapped wind probably caused by energy gels. 2km into the run, I had taken 15 minutes, stopping frequently trying to massage my thighs, stretching, and discreetly )or perhaps not so discreetly!) farting. I was considering just jacking it in, but no, that's not me at all. So I tried to run at as slow a pace as I could manage and gradually the pain disappeared and my stomach calmed down and I even started to enjoy it again. By now it was getting towards midday and hot so getting a bit faster was a good thing, and towards the end I managed to overtake several of the people who had gone past me when I was suffering and I even managed a sort of sprint to the line. 

In the end my time was almost dead on 4 hours but I haven't seen the official time or the splits yet. My realistic goal had been 3.45 and I had had aspirations to better, but it was a lot harder than I had anticipated. Still, I finished, and now doing a Half-Ironman in just over a year's time does not seem so out of reach.


----------



## montage (31 Jul 2011)

I enjoyed that write up, the wind thing sounds nasty.....not tried those energy gels before or just a bit of bad luck?
Glad to know it's going well anyhow


----------



## Flying_Monkey (1 Aug 2011)

Well, I got the split times (including transitions) - my swim was slow (but I planned for that) at 50 minutes, my ride was just over what I planned at 1 hour 42, but the run time was dreadful at almost 1 hour 30 - I had been hoping for 1 hour 10. I did have about 15 minutes of almost complete standstill during it, but it made the difference between what would have been a reasonable time and just getting round. Since it is my first year swimming I know I can improve my swim time quite a lot over the next year, and I guess I just have to do more bricks and intervals so that my legs aren't so shocked from the transition between the bike and run sections. And even though I'm already among the stronger cyclists, I could be much faster on the bike section too, but I would only risk that if I had more confidence in being able to run afterwards... the training starts now!


----------



## VamP (18 Aug 2011)

Enjoyed that write up.

I am about to take my plunge into the world of duathlons (can't swim!) at the ripe age of 43, so I am feeling your pain.

I don't reckon your time is at all bad, especially given the problems you had. Well done!

Right, 10 weeks to get some bricks in!


----------



## mr Mag00 (18 Aug 2011)

well done i stated last year too at the same age. i only competed sprint to sart but planning the leap to olympic next year. a nice write up too. well done and good luck!


----------

