Training Would Have Been A Good Idea

Woodridge Mini Triathlon Race Report (August 17^th, 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 

slid on my socks and running shoes, took a sip of water, put on shirt and my helmet and grabbed my bike and moved on to the bike mounting area.  I was really fast in the transition area as I had thought it all out before hand and didn’t run into any problems.  As I mounted my bike, I realized just how much the swim took out of me.  On brother, this was now going to get difficult!  The first quarter mile of the bike segment was up a good sized hill and I sucked wind all the way to the top.  As the road levelled out, I started to pass a few people, down shifted and got up to as fast as 22 mph.  Every time I hit a hill, I bombed!  Quickly my speed dropped down to 11, 9 and even 7 mph!!  Clearly, training would have been a good idea.  About halfway into the out portion of the bike route, I saw Ali from the run club.  She was a course marshall and as always, seeing someone from the club helped me put a smile on.  Thanks for being out there 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 10^th 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!