I attempted to do my 1st triathlon today at Tempe Town Lake and it was a blast and a disaster at the same time. LOL… It was an Olympic distance triathlon: 1.5 kilometer (.93 mile) swim, 40 kilometer (25 mile) bike, 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) run. The Swim: I did finish the swim and I am very proud of that. I thought the swim would be a walk in the park but I am used to swimming in a swimming pool, in a straight line, in clear water, alone in the lane, swimming perfectly straight, back and forth 153 lengths, looking down at the line. My workouts for swim are always the full 3800 meter Ironman distance and I can do it in 93 minutes. In the lake you can’t see anything. There was a 1000 people splashing and kicking me. Every time I looked up to see where the buoy was I was usually headed way off, always to the right. At least 3 times I looked up and was headed straight to the shore. I got my finger jammed by a kicking foot in the first 5 minutes which stung the whole way. I never felt I was in a rhythm. I felt the entire swim was a war. I need to massively learn how to sight buoys while swimming so I can swim straight. The Bike: This was my first huge mental error. A 25 mile bike for me is a walk in the park. Before I bike at home I always pump up my tires. For this event we had to check in our bikes a day early on Saturday. After the swim I did the transition, walked my bike to the start line, got on, and the front wheel was completely flat. I could not believe that I did not check it this morning first thing when I got there at 6:00 am. HUGE mental error that will never happen again. It took me 45 minutes to change it. Then about 15 miles down the road the same front tire went flat again. I changed it again but when I went to blow up the new tire with my last CO2 capsule it didn’t work because I didn’t have it down all the way and the gas blew out the side. I had no more CO2 cartridges. It was game over! I walked my bike back and went home. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry! Rats…
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 18:52:05 +0000
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