Woodridge Mini Triathlon Race Report (August 17th,
2014)
Three or four months ago, it sounded like a good idea to
sign up for the Woodridge Mini Tri (WMT).
Ony 250 yds in the pool, 6 miles on the bike and a 2 mile run. How hard could that be? I run all the time. Notice how I didn’t even consider that I had
not been in the pool more than once or twice in about five years, and on my
bike about the same number of times. I
signed up. Did I train? No.
How hard could it be?
Saturday night I was a wreck. What the heck had I signed up for? Why did I think I could swim and bike without
training? What should I wear for all of
this? Where was all my stuff? Yikes!
After much debate, I decided to wear an old but supportive sports bra
under my Speedo and a pair of compression shorts for the swim. In transition, all I would have to do is put
on my shirt with my race number and slip into my shoes and socks. Of course, I had never swum in the shorts nor
run in them wet.
Sunday morning I woke up at 4:45 AM. My start time wasn’t until 8:02 am but the
event started at 7:00 so I thought I should get there by 6:30 to get decent
parking and get a sense of how things were going to work. I had a granola bar and coffee and fed the
cats (who are getting used to weird feeding times on race days.) I had put the bike in the car the night
before with all my transition items so I was set to go. Although it was a little cool, the air was
pretty humid. Not necessarily the best
biking and running weather but overall fabulous weather for a mid-August
morning.
By 6:30 the main parking was full so I was asked to move to
the first of the secondary lots. This was
just a short walk through a soccer field away from the main event at
Bolingbrook’s Cypress Cove. The field
was wet but the grass was lush so I took off my sandals and enjoyed the feeling
of cool, wet grass on my feet. As I
entered the transition area, I looked around and determined where the bike and
run starts were and put my bicycle on a rack midway between the two
starts. Having never done this before, I
took note of a few things others were doing like hanging my shirt on my bike. One, it would be easier to find the bike and
two, it would be ready to slip on after I came out of the swim. Note for the future, bring things in a milk
crate and flip it over to use as a seat to put on your shoes. Someone had decorated the rack with pretty
helium balloons too. That would also
make it easier to find my rack and bike.
After I was all set up in transition, I went in to Cypress
Cove to watch the people ahead of me in the pool. Actually, I first used the restrooms which
were really nice. No need to use the
port-a-potties at this event. My number
was 415 and the swimmers were split between two pools with odd numbers in one
pool and even numbers in another. So
there were 200 plus people to swim before me with a swimmer starting every 20
seconds. As I stood there waiting, I
chatted with quite a few people. Ths was
almost everyone’s first Tri and my fear (yes, I was anxious about this whole
thing) started to subside. One surprise
was the pool I was assigned to was 12’ deep tapering down to 4’ deep. Not a problem for me but a number of people
were panicking about having to swim in deep water. I think next year the organizers will have an
option to let people who are concerned about deep water self-select into the
shallower program pool.
Cypress Cove is a beautiful Woodridge, IL Park District
facility. Wow!!! It is fairly expensive for non-residents but
it is absolutely lovely and I really liked getting to use it.
The first swimmers took off and as expected they were
fabulous! Fast! Sleek!! Just beautiful. It didn’t take long, however, for people to
start having over estimated their swimming abilities and clogging up the
lanes. There was a woman in the first 50
people (when swimmers were doing 5 min or less overall times) who was leisurely
back stroking (really?) down the lanes totally clogging up the flow of
swimmers. If you are not a strong
swimmer, DO NOT lie about your time. You
won’t get done earlier and it totally irritates everyone else. I had estimated my time as 7:30 and I
finished in 8:19. I forgot about the
time running from the pool to the timing pad AND there were a number of people
flailing in the lanes that I just couldn’t pass.
I was totally winded as I left the pool and made it to the
transition area. I wasn’t using my
bicycle clips so I
 |
| Biking past Ali |
There was a nice downhill run into the turn-around
area. I should have stopped and taken
some water but I didn’t. As I started up
that nice downhill, now a brutal uphill, I decided to get off my bike, walk and
drink some water. That really slowed me
down. Although, a woman was riding
beside me who noted that I was walking as fast as she was pedaling. At the
top of the hill, I got back on my bike and rode the rest of the way. It was only 6 miles for heaven’s sake. At about mile 4, I started hearing people say
things like “this seemed like a good idea a few months ago”, “I’m never doing
this again” and “who knew 6 miles could feel so bad”. I was thinking all of those things but
hearing others say them made me laugh. I
was going to survive. I wasn’t liking
it, but I would survive.
A quick shout out to the volunteers! This event was well staffed and everyone was
really nice. I never once felt like I
was out there on my own without support.
As I wheeled down the hill (the big one at the start of the
ride) into the transition area, I was so happy to be getting off my bike…. Until,
I did. As I tried to trot my bike over
to the rack, I realized just how tired I was and how little my legs felt like
my legs. I quickly racked my bike, took
off my helmet, slipped on my running hat and grabbed my water bottle and headed
for the running course. As I walked down
the first bit of the course, I saw a number of folks from the run club taking
pictures and cheering. What a difference
having friends out there makes!!! This is
a mini tri but it was designed by sadists.
This was only a two mile run but the whole first mile was uphill. I guess if you’re going to design a mini you
might as well make it a hard mini! I
tried running a bit but my body wasn’t having anything of it. After about 2 minutes, I pulled out my time
which was attached to my running hat and reset the intervals from 1 min walk/1
min run to 30 sec/30 sec. I found that
this worked for me and I was able to get a little running in. I was significantly slower than usual with an
overall 12:30 pace but at least I did run some of it.
 |
| Running in with Michael |
As I turned the corner to the final segment of the run,
Michael from the run club (who had already finished) joined me and ran me
in. Then Michael ran in another couple
of folks and went all the way back out to run in one of our last runners. Way to go Michael! You are a machine!
After the event, Shanhans, a local pub provided really good
hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and beer to the participants. There were the usual bananas and water but
the hamburgers and hot dogs were a really nice treat! Good job Woodridge Rotary!!!
My run club hung out and waited for everyone to finish then
we had our own post party that went on until mid afternoon. What a great way to do a first tri. Not sure I will ever do another one. It just takes too much preparation and
thinking but I did enjoy doing this. I
finished 10th out of 20 in my age group. I’m really happy about that. Training really would have been a good idea.
 |
| After party! |
Photos were all taken by friends in the run club!
