I Completed a Sprint Triathlon

With a lot of improvement to make! I came in dead last. LOL! But at least I finished.

The indoor sprint triathlon was at our local YMCA where Little E and I go frequently. It has been saving us from cabin fever and winter boredom. The race was all indoor, first 800 yds (about 1/2 mile) in the pool, 12 miles on an indoor spin bike and 3.1 miles on a treadmill. I have wanted to complete one for awhile, having had some friends complete them. So in the fall, I printed off a training schedule and read a book. I tried to swim, bike and run a few times each every week. Some weeks were good, others not so good.

The day of the race, we went to mass as usual but it did go over a little bit. My start time for my heat had been moved up 30 minutes so we were rushing. And that morning my DH's battery was dead so we only had 1 car. So DH and Little E had to take me to the Y. I was quite nervous to get started. Luckily, our transition times were not counted in the overall race times.

I arrived at the Y, signed in, got my t-shirt, and changed into my gear. Once I was at the pool, I started to get a little nervous. There was a family of 4 in my heat and another experienced triathlete, I called him Mr. Triathlon. DH and Little E watched this portion of the race. This was so helpful to see them on the side of the pool cheering my on! I did pretty well on this portion and actually was the second one out of the pool and beat Mr. Triathlete out of the pool with a time of 14 minutes or so.

That is where my good luck ended.

I dried off and headed to the spin bike room. Thankfully, before the race I had adjusted my bike and just jumped on and started. I had trained on a different type of stationary bike but had taken one spin class earlier this month. I just got on the bike and started spinning. When another triathlete got on the bike next to me, I realized that my RPM's where much slower than him. I was kind of gauging that I would finish the 12 miles in about 48 minutes. But when I saw him spinning faster, I tried to go a little faster. I was getting tired and thinking, "What the heck am I doing?" But I keep on spinning. I finished this portion in 44 minutes and also drank about 16 ounces of my homemade Gatorade. I headed down to the treadmills. I thought I was doing well because there were still some other triathletes still spinning.

Once I got on the treadmill, I set my speed for about 12 minutes miles which is actually adventurous for me. I kept that pace for about 1 mile and had to go slower. Man, was I tired and thirsty. Mr Triathlete and a couple other racers were already pounding away on their treadmills. I saw the others come down and get on their treadmills. I had to keep going slower to catch my breath and tried to drink more water. Then Mr. Triathlete was done and started a whole other workout on the treadmill. I was still plodding along now I think I was down to like 14 minute miles and thinking, "UGH, would this ever be over?" Then I stopped sweating and was thinking, "This is it! I might have to just stop." But, then I only had about 1/3 mile to go. So I speed back up to my original speed and finished. Not strong, but I finished. The run took me over 39 minutes, slow for me, but I finished. I sat on the ledge and drank about 32 ounces of water and Mr Triathlete decided he was done with his second run and we chatted a bit. He is a seasoned triathlete and works out up to 3 hours a day. We discussed other local races and training regimes. It was good talk and I was so happy to chat since I don't think that I could have used my legs for awhile.

I was so thirsty! The dehydration really worried me so I kept drinking water and I think I drank at least a gallon that evening. DH and Little E picked me up from the Y since they had to leave about 10 minutes into my bike portion so Little E could nap. I was so happy to see them! And I'm not gonna lie, I was super happy to head to the Italian restaurant to eat. I was so hungry! I think I said to DH a couple times during dinner, "This is the best food I have ever eaten!"

I'm not sure if I will do another triathlon. If I do, I definitely need to train harder especially in the biking and running. When I told DH this, he said, "It did seem like everyone else's legs were going much faster than yours on the bike." Ah, the truth is good for my soul. In fact, this whole race was good for increasing my humility. But it was also good for me to pursue perseverance in a physical way. I think that I really was only able to finish by the grace of God.

(I apologize for not having any pictures of this race. You aren't missing much, it wasn't pretty!)