That one time I did a triathlon

At the beginning of the summer, my friend Bobby asked me if I wanted to do a triathlon with him. Well, the first thing that came into my mind when asked that question was an image of me falling over dead in the middle of some open road while other participants run/bike by me, shaking their heads. I knew what a triathlon involved: swimming, running, and biking. I enjoy all of these, but I'm not particularly good at any of them. Bobby whittled down my reservations by telling me it was a small triathlon, only a 300m swim, 15 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. In my head, that actually sounded doable. I could do all of those things separately without too much trouble, so if I trained for a month and half of so, I could see myself being okay in a triathlon of that size. I had even already begun to ride 8-10 miles every other day on the bike, so I already had a start of some sort! I told Bobby I'd do it.

I set up a summer training regimen of sorts:
       1. Ride 20+ miles one day
       2. Rest Day
       3. Ride 15-18 miles and immediately run at least 2 miles
       4. Rest Day


It didn't take long to fall into a good rhythm, with only a couple misses here and there because of vacations. 15 miles on a bike became easy, but running directly after a ride never became easy. I felt so slow compared to home quickly I normally ran. And I never practiced swimming. I don't have access to a pool for free, so that kept me from pursuing that. The more into the summer I got, the more confidence I gained in being able to do the triathlon. Before I knew it, August 9th was upon me.

Bobby had convinced me the night before to do a nighttime sand volleyball tournament that kept me up until 12:30am the night before, and I was spending the night on Josh's couch. I didn't sleep well, but I was up at 5:45am on race day and heading for Bluffton by 6:15am. After checking in a bit before 7am, I waited around anxiously for Bobby to arrive. Once he got there and set up his stuff, we also found Rachel, another HU alumni, and spoke awhile before the triathlon began. Just before 8am they herded us all into the pool area and lined us up, and then at 8am they started us on the swimming portion.

I was in the middle of the line, and I immediately knew I was up too far. I needed to be near the back because the swim was going to be rough for me. Before I knew it I was next to enter the pool, and with a "Go!" from the man at the edge of the pool I was in the water. 300 meters is 6 laps of a full sized pool. I swam the first two laps without too much of a problem, but I had to catch my breath a bit after that. I then had to stop every lap (50m) after that because I simply didn't have the endurance and strength to QUICKLY complete the swim portion. I got passed by plenty of people, but I knew this was going to happen so I didn't get too discouraged.

After completing my final lap, I rushed out of the pool and into the locker room to change, then back to the staging area for the bikes. Almost everyone else was gone by now, but I strapped my helmet on and took off. I knew I was far behind almost everyone else and knew exactly how big of a hole the swimming portion put me in. I was also still trying to get my breathing back to normal, and it took four miles of riding on hilly country roads to get it there. Once I was able to do that, I could kick it into a higher gear even though I was incredibly thirsty. I rode noticeably faster and enjoyed myself a lot more. I even passed someone I had seen just as a neon speck in the distance at the start of the bike portion. It was weird wearing a helmet though.

Once I got back to the staging area I left my bike and took a loooong swig of water before heading out to do the run. I was moving slow, but I still felt pretty good. As I was running, I wondered where Bobby and Rachel were and if they had actually finished the run portion before I even started. I did see Bobby while I was out, but he had already finished and had gone back in to find his sister-in-law and run with her. It was a peaceful run and roads in a state park, even ducking onto a trail for awhile (where I passed someone else!). When I figured I was about a quarter miles away from the finish line, I decided to give it one last push and finish strong. Before the triathlon started I didn't think I'd have it in me at that point to run faster, but as it turned out I did. I breezed across the finish line and was immediately given a medal, which I promptly took off because I was way too sweaty to have that on me.

I had done it. I'd be lying if I hadn't thought about stopping in those first few miles on the bike, with my lungs searching for a normal breathing rhythm, but I pushed through and COMPLETED A TRIATHLON. After a cool down period I found Bobby and Rachel, who were listening to an announcer reading off placements for different age groups. Not long after I got there I spacing out when Bobby turned to me and told me they'd called my name for 3rd place in my age group. Stunned, I went forward and accepted the medal. Turns out there were only 3 guys entered in the 20-24 age group, so we all got a medal!

My final time was 1:58:52...nowhere close to Bobby and Rachel's times, but I didn't care. I knew my swim was going to be abysmal, so I was never concerned about my time. My arms were sore for several days afterwards, but boy was that a cool experience.