2009 Terre Haute Triathlon race report

That's me on the bike, I did my first ever Triathlon today. Those are my sunglasses in my mouth I was still to wet/hot from the swim to put them on as they fogged instantly. I got them on about a half a mile later. It was the Terre Haute thunder in the valley race. It was a pretty small event with 345 participants. The distance was 800m swim / 40km bike / 8km run. I've spent the last month collecting all the things I'd need to do my first event having only done running events up to this point. My main goal for today was to finish and I did that. I hadn't been able to put as much time into swimming or biking as I wanted prior to the race as I'd been working on sticking to my training plan for the Indianapolis 500 Festival half marathon which was a total success (new PR woo). I'd basically just been doing some cross training of a brick workout on Thursdays and a swim on Tuesdays. Overall this was enough to let me finish but I was pretty much out of gas at the start of the run which should have been what I was most in shape for.

The Swim:

I got my wetsuit this week so hadn't had a chance to do an open water swim in it. I got in the water about 20 minutes before the race and did a little testing it out and it seemed fine. It definitely adds flotation which helps. The downside for me is my chest is pretty good size and I felt pretty restricted in my breathing with the wetsuit on. I also got a lung full of water about 100m into the start so it took me quite a while to get my breath back after that. All in all I was pretty happy with the swim based on how much time I had put into getting ready for it. Next event I'll be spending a lot more time swimming prior to the event. The water was impossible to see in so I kept alternating from freestyle to Tarzan style swimming looking straight ahead to try and keep on course. I ran into a lot of people but got run into a lot also so didn't feel to bad about it. Once out of the water it was about 2 city blocks to the transition area. They had sidewalks and pavement. It was a bit farther than I expected to have to go in bare feet but it was really clean so no issues with rocks or anything. Having swam all through age group and high school on the swim team I think I was least worried about the swim and it turned out to be the most difficult for me. A good lesson learned. Swimming 2000 yards in the pool is WAY different than 800m in a lake surrounded by 40 other people trying to go fast on your same course.

The Bike:

The course was a straight out and back after a few initial turns to get out of the park. The streets were open to traffic so there was the occasional car but for the most part the traffic wasn't an issue. I got passed by 2 people and passed about 5 people on the bike. I'd have liked to have had a faster average speed over the course but a little head wind and lots more hills than I'm used to kept me right around my normal training ride speed. My landscape around my home for my 20-30 mile rides don't have any hills that require me to stand up and there were quite a few of those on todays course so I'll be looking around for some more hilly rides in the future to prepare a little more for that. My garmin tells me I hit 35 mph as my top speed and my bike runs out of gear there downhill so I'm forced to coast as pedaling doesn't do any good. I might look into another cassette at some point for that but on normal rides thats never a problem so it's not a huge deal I don't think. I was praying to not have a flat and thankfully I didn't get one. I saw two people with flats and thats always a worry of mine on these road bike tires. I'm pretty new to my road bike having been on a recumbent for the last 10 years until I decided to do a triathlon so I'm always nervous about how skinny the tires are and my body size I always feel like it's just about to blow out. The last thing is when I came into the transition to dismount I almost didn't get out of my clips which would have been pretty embarrassing. Thankfully I was able to yank my left leg out at the last second and not fall over. I got a smile and a "nice save" from the USAT official standing about 3 feet from me.

The Run:

The transition from bike to run was very smooth and I was just over a minute. The elastic shoe laces are a life saver for speed on this part. The longest part of the transition was probably taking my bike to the rack and trying to not fall down slipping in my road shoes on the wet pavement. The run was 4 miles of out and back and a final mile of trail runs through the woods around the lake where the swim was. It was really nice though they ran out of water. Thankfully I was carrying some of my own. It was plenty hot by the end of the race and I'm glad I had fluids with me. I was really tired toward the end and had to alternate a little walking with running every half mile or so. Everyone was very supportive on the run, lots of "Great Jobs" and "Your almost there keep it up" type comments. The bike was a very solitary event since the riders were so spread out and the event size was small. It was nice to get to the out and back run on the paved path when you were passing the people ahead of you. I saw a couple of my friends that are much faster than me and got some encouragement from them as well as everyone else.

Event Summary:

This was a great event I think I'd recommend it to someone else doing their first triathlon. The fact that we were able to camp on site and just wake up and walk to the transition was awesome. I need to do some more triathlon specific training for my next race instead of relying on a running program and cross training. I also need to do a better job getting nutrition during the race, I waited to long to get my gels in during the bike ride and I think maybe I'd have had some more energy for the run if I had planned that a little better. I also think I'd like to try some aero bars for my bike. Not that I'm a speed demon but the added option of that position would relieve some stress on my shoulders I think and give me another option to shift around a little during the ride.

I finished and that was my goal so I'm super happy for that.