Will's Perspective of the Triathalon

Posted by Will

You all probably noticed a while back that I retired from Triathalons from the Bio page. Well after some thought it occurred to me that saying that was a little bit like saying Paris Hilton retired from a job. I figured that in order to claim that I was retiring from the sport, I would first have to participate at least once. So after Sandi registered me for the Vineman – Monte Rio (without asking if I wanted to do it…ie: Sandi’ing) I decided play along and give the triathlon a tri (or “try” for those of you who don’t like homophones).

This was an incredibly insightful learning experience for me, and even though I had a pretty good time, it affirms my decision to leave the triathloning to others for now. So I’m going to break my report down into the three sports. My only disclaimer is that while my critiques may seem pretty harsh, I did have a pretty good time and in no way regret participating.

Swimming (or Aqua-Battle-Royale): Just like Rachel, I also took 22 minutes for the swim…plus I added another 18 minutes, but who’s counting? This is my weakest sport and since my first open water swim was about a week ago, my expectations were pretty low. The low water level and abundance of algae were a challenge, but the biggest challenge was fighting off the savages I was “swimming” with. There is no etiquette to swim racing (at least not in the 34 and under wave). I have been running for about over 10 years and have never seen anyone close-fist punch a runner during a race. Not only is this normal in swimming, but you get to continue punching the person in front of you until THEY move out of the way. The other strange part about the swim is how they structure the wave start. There is little-to-no correlation between age and gender and swimming speed, so why are the waves organized by age and gender? Of the first 50 swimmers, only 12 were men under 35 (and not the first 12 either). There were just as many women under 35 (including our Master Swimmer, Rachel!) in the top 50 swimmers. And, probably more shocking, there were 10 men over age 50 in that group (which was the LAST wave). Both the female under 35 and men over 50 waves had a higher percentage of swimmers in the top 50 than the men under 35. I’ll stop the rant here, but triathlon organizers should consider setting the waves up by projected swim time, not age and gender.

Biking: I would say that I am average at biking, but it is definitely not one of my strengths. My race plan and execution was probably a little conservative on the bike which is reflected in my average speed of a whopping 16.5 mph. I wanted to conserve some fuel for the run and take in a little of the scenery, so from that standpoint it was a huge success. The bike course was almost tailor made for me. It was pretty flat, had a lot of shade, and riding out towards the coast meant cooler temperatures. I was able to see everyone on the bike which was a highlight except when Sandi “reverse-ghosted” me. What’s that you ask? Well, Chen created this thing called “ghosting out” which is when she fades back from her running partner without them realizing it. A “reverse ghost” is the opposite…like when Sandi silently sneaks up on you and then shouts “Hey Iberg” really loud. I might have pee’d a little, but can’t confirm or deny as that entire region was numb due to the fact everything was wet and cold.

Running: Finally!! I don’t think I passed anyone in the swim and the amount of people I passed on the bike was somewhere in the single digits. Finally, I was able to pass some people. I wish the run would have been longer, but since I was well into the 2nd hour when I started the run, it is probably better for me that it wasn’t any longer. Just like the bike course, the run was flat and shaded almost the entire way. My conclusion is that the running portion of a triathlon is more of a mental game that a physical one. I observed two populations of triathlete; those that were runners first and those that weren’t. I witnessed a large group of people that flew by me on the bike, and then walked the 10k (without any obvious signs of injury). I’m assuming this population is mostly people who didn’t enter the world of triathlons via running. They probably love to bike and swim and then just “get though” the run. Anyway, the other population (which I believe everyone on this blog is part of) is those that converted from running to triathlons. For this group, the run is a mental game of making sure the pace doesn’t get out of hand. After a hard swim/death match and a hard bike ride, I laced up the running shoes and hobbled out of the transition zone. Everything felt tired and heavy as if I was running up a steep hill...then until I looked at my Garmin and it said 7:34! Most runners are pretty good at knowing what pace they are capable of maintaining for a certain number of miles, so managing a huge gap between how fast you feel like you are running and how fast you are actually running can be difficult. I don’t know why, but for some reason legs still want to go fast after a hard ride. Regardless, a runner knows this isn’t sustainable so the rest of the run becomes a mental game of trying to connect how the body feels with what pace your watch says you are running. I only partially succeeded at this game since my pace dropped about 40 seconds per mile by the end of the run.

All-in-all the weekend was a great success! Both Rachel and Travers had huge PRs, Sandi finished 10th in her division (behind Rachel’s 8th place finish), and I survived an activity I was trying to avoid. Now I can officially say that I am retiring from the sport, however something is telling me I’ll be back. Maybe I’ll be the Brett Favre of amateur triathlons.

Will