Bootleg Turtleman Triathlon, July 13, 1996, Shoreview, Minnesota
1/3 mile swim, 21.5 mile bike, 5 mile run
Pre-Race:
My very first triathlon! Wow! I was so nervous the few days before this race that
I hardly slept at all. Two days prior to the race, several members of the Minnesota
Metro Tri Team (including me) previewed the bike course. Not too many hills, but
enough to make it interesting. I felt I could handle that much of the race, but everything all together? I don't know.... Anyway, I was as prepared as I would ever be, and could only wait for the appointed day and hour to arrive. I got up early on Saturday morning to make sure that I would get there in time to have a leisurely set-up. [Thanks, RST!] There were about 30 of us doing this bootleg tri, so set up wasn't a problem. I felt like a geek who didn't know what he was doing, but no one seemed to notice; everyone was just as nervous as me, anyway. As I laid out my gear, I felt that this was a big step---could I really do this? I was about to find out....
The Swim:
This was my first open-water swim ever. No time to train in anything but a pool left
me feeling decidedly unprepared for this portion of the race. Although I consider
myself an above-average swimmer, I had stories running around in my head about killer weeds and mucky mud; that really did NOT boost my spirits. As I looked out over the water toward the lone orange buoy (a life-raft, really!), I was sure it was longer
than the quarter mile or so that we had been promised. Urp! Oh, well, I have gotten
myself into this mess, there's no time to fret! As the whistle went off to send the thirty
brave souls (and an excited and freaked out one) toward that life raft (I mean buoy!),
I knew I was really doing it! I was in the water and swimming toward that big orange thing! Yeah! The weeds were present, and very disconcerting---but I got over that
pretty well. I was told to watch out for other people's legs, arms, etc., but this
was not a problem because there were so few of us. I reached the turnaround and headed back toward the shoreline (except, where was the shoreline?). I was hopelessly lost for about ten seconds (although it seemed much longer), and headed back to shore
at a plodding pace. My time of 11:09 seemed OK to me, but others commented that the
distance seemed a bit longer than 1/4 mile. I didn't care! I had completed the first part
of the race and was going into the second part! Wow!
T1:
I need work here! I took over three and a half minutes to leave this part of the
race. Several people I had exited the water ahead of were long gone by the time I
made it onto the bike. I finally got my gear on and hustled out. Oh, Boy!
The Bike:
Because there were so few people in this race, I was alone for most of the bike.
This made it really tough to gauge how others were doing; the loop course did little
to help matters....I had an odometer on my bike, and as the miles clicked on by,
my legs began to whimper"We hurt! Please slow down!" "But we're on the fastest part of the course," my mind pleaded. "Remember, you want to save some for the run..." they said...."OK," I conceded, and started spinning in a lower gear to prepare for the
run. I had passed two people on the course and one had passed me, but I saw no one else in the 21.5 mile ride.
T2:
The transition area was upon me and my legs were practically screaming at this point
to be stretched out! I obliged, and was off the bike in about 69 minutes; transition
was just a bit over one minute, so I was doing better here than the first transition. My legs thanked me and I was off on the final portion of my inaugural race!
The Run:
Perhaps the best thing about this run was that I could now see my fellow tri teammates, as it was an out-and-back course. I wasn't that fast on the run, so I got to see
exactly who was ahead and behind me. I cruised the run at a 8:25 pace and was done
before I knew it! Thanks to everyone on the Tri Team for their support and cheers at
the finish and throughout the run! I finished in 2:07 and change for my first tri
ever! Yeah! I know this may not seem like much to some of you, but it's always a
great accomplishment to anyone doing their first!
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Updated 10 May 1997
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