The Professional Rookie

First and foremost, this was alot harder than I thought it would be for a first triathlon. When I read the firsttri.com website, they made it seem like a walk in the park. Let me be clear, definitely train for it. But if you don't its ok. Its not sanctioned by the USAT, so they let you get away with walking in the water, and not stopping at the stop line in cycling. But I am getting wayyyyy ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

I arrived Friday to get my package. The race was scheduled to start at 7am. I was very eager to get going and walk the course. I was there so early they had not started giving out packages as of yet. But I knew I was early, therefore I walked down to the beach to check out the starting and ending point for the swim. I was surprised at how long it was. Walking the path on the beach seemed to take forever, but I could tell the water was shallow enough where you can stand up. So that was cool. I even thought about running in the water the entire swimming portion. It was hot that evening and I was sweating already. I don't know if it was anxiety or the heat. On my way back, I stopped at the hotdog stand to get something to drink. I ended up getting, of course, a hotdog and started a conversation with the owner of the hotdog stand. She told me she didn't know about the triathlon taking place Saturday and Sunday. I thought that was strange. I saw a young lady that looked like she was in shape and a triathlon walking alone on the beach. I stopped her to ask her if she knew exactly where we will exit the lake and the path to walk to the transition station. She didn't know either , but together we figured out the path and we actually turned out to be correct.

At that time I decided to get a hotel room at Lake Lanier Islands Resort. I didn't tell anyone because I just wanted to be able to relax, get a good night sleep, and not worry about trying to entertain friends the night before the triathlon. In hindsight, I wish I had invited friends or family to experience it with me. I had a great stay at the resort barring a couple of small inconveniences. After I checked in and took all of my items, including my bike into the room, I went back to the registration area. I figured they would have all of the information, packages, and items ready for distribution.

At the registration area, there were a couple of people there, but not the large number of athletes I was expecting. I was able to get my package and talk to the volunteers. I also talked to other athletes at the time. A couple of them stayed at the resort as well. Even though I walked the swimming path earlier, I went with some of the other athletes to check it out again and to get their take on the length. Everyone was amazed at how long the swim seemed and how long the distance was between the lake exit and transition area.

Again, being a thorough, I decided to drive the biking route. While I was driving, the volunteers were laying out signs for the cyclists to know which way to go and turn. It was good to see the preparation, although it would have been nice for the signs to have been up by the time the athletes arrived. I was able to see about 90% of the route because I ended up passing the truck with the signs and volunteers. While I was driving, I decided to go to the grocery store to get a cooler. One of the other athletes, Ruby, an older woman that decided to get into shape at the age of 69, told me that the rooms didn't have refrigerators. So I got a 4.99 cooler and three bags of ice. I needed that to keep my drinks cool for the race tomorrow. That ended up being some great advice and one I should do even when I train. On my way back I saw the truck still setting up the bike route signs.

That night I went to the restaurant in the resort, because I expected to get spaghetti and carbs for the race the next morning. Unfortunately, they didn't have any type of pasta on the menu. I was disappointed by that. I didn't understand the disconnect of them putting on the this triathlon and not knowing that the day before athletes like to load up on carbs. So I had salad, baked potato, bread, and a steak. It was scrumptious. I ate with Ruby and her friend. When I got back to the room, I made sure I had all of my transition items, clothes, water, nutritional items, and gear packed up. I could not sleep once I went to bed. But eventually my eyes closed and I was in LA LA land.

Once I woke up, I packed up my gear into the car, but my bike on the rack, and drove to the starting point. Something I thought was surprising is that there was no place in the transition area with my name for my gear. It turns out, I found out the day before, that it is first come first serve. So I setup my bike and transition area right at the start of the cycling portion of the race. I was one of only 3 people there at 5:45 am. We all situated in the same area. This was the premiere location. I was glad I got there early. I noticed that these early birds definitely were experienced. They laid out their transition area very methodically. And their bikes, gear, helmet were top of the line. Most importantly, they were in great physical shape. I knew this was not their first time. I realized that the "My Next Tri" raced on the same day with the "My First Tri". So it was a little discouraging to see them flying in the water, on the bikes, and in the running section. But that's a different story.

When it was time to start we walked 1/4 + to the starting point for the swim. I was in the blue wave which started third. I got in the water and it felt ok. I have become used to swimming in the lake , so it didn't bother me any.

The announcer stated that if you stayed on the outside of the bowie, then your time would count. If you swam on the inside of the bowie, where you could walk in the shallow area, your time would not count. However if you went and touched the bowie, your time would count if you wanted to walk in the shallow area. The countdown began and I started my watch at 0. After about a minute of swimming I got tired.

I need to be in better shape. To compensate for being tired, I floated on my back. I ended up finishing with the third wave. I thought that everyone else went out very very quickly. I didn't understand how they were able to finish the swim so quickly. I just decided to do my race and not worry about anyone else.

From the exit of the water there was a 1/4 of a mile run/trot to the bike transition which included going up a cobblestone hill. That was kind of difficult with no shoes. FYI be prepared to run a long distance to your transition area.

Once at the transition station, I put on socks and shoes and mounted my bike. I must have been rattled because for about 1/4 of a mile, I could not click into my pedal. I must have been nervous, or anxious being so far behind my group. I settled down, clicked in, and started my strongest activity. The first hill was maybe 1.5 miles into the course. But I noticed I was passing people along the way. But once I got to the hill, I started passing many many people. Even though I am there for fun, I like to count how many people I pass. That's just my competitive nature. On the hill i passed at least 12 people. From there my confidence built. I could not understand why I was so much stronger than others, but maybe they went out to fast on the swim, or they just didn't train on the bike as much. I continued passing people on the straight away flat sections. Going down hill, I got very low on the bike and just flew by 7 people just going down hill. I was only passed once on the bike. I eventually caught my original swim group. I knew this because we wore blue bands on our wrist. The bad part was that we shared the road, a portion of it, with cars. Not all streets were blocked off for us. A couple of times, I lost momentum because I slow down because there was not enough room for the cars and the bikes as I caught up to them. Coming around the last corner, there wasn't anyone telling us to slow down or stop at the red line. As I got close to the end of the biking portion I knew there was a line to stop at and to walk my bike through to the transition area. Therefore I slowed down, stopped at the line, clicked out, and walked my bike to the transition area. People clapped for me, and I just thought they were cheering me on. When I went back to watch the triathlon the next day, I saw alot of crashes because people didn't know to stop at the line, so the jammed on their breaks. Some forgot to click out and fell over. Others just ran into the back of others. Make sure you practice stopping and getting off of your bike.

I transitioned from the bike to running just by changing shoes. I put my jersey on top of my tri suit just for some good pictures. LOL. When I started to run I immediately got a cramp. I think because I went so hard on the bike that I just cramped up when I started to run. I should have stretched it a little while on the bike and drunk more fluids. While trying to catch everyone on the bike, I forgot to drink my fluids. I believe those were the causes. Hobbling during the one section, I saw alot of people I passed on the bike pass me on the run. Eventually I worked the cramp out and got my groove back. But it was too hard to catch some of the people that passed me. At this point I just wanted to finish. There were about 3 significant hills. In the brochure I think they said one. But it was definitely not flat. Going across the finish line was exhilarating. It definitely took a toll on me as I needed to sit down after I gathered all of my belongs and was waiting for the results to be posted.

I was not happy with my swim and run portion but I was grateful to finish healthy and ranked 517 out of 903. Almost half. That also included the "Next Tri" athletes. I thought I was competing only with newbies, but we all did the same race at the same time. I look forward to next year.