Well I did it! Today I completed my first sprint triathlon!
I titled this post "I am a triathlete!". In fairness I must say that I use that term lightly. This was my first event and hopefully won't be my last. I am already planning on two in 2010.
So why in the world did I want to do a triathlon? First of all let's consider why I shouldn't have done a triathlon. First I am deathly afraid of water and secondly I hate running almost as much as I hate mayonaise and that is a lot. So why do I want to do an event that is made up of 2/3rds of things I hate or fear? Good question. My distaste for running keeps me from pursuing 10K, half marathon and Marathon events. The fact that triathlons have swimming it intrigued me to conquer my fear of water.
Last December as I planned my goals for the year I decided to kick up my physical fitness efforts since the Air Force had been hinting at new fitness standards. I wanted to be ahead of the power curve and not get caught with a poor fitness evaluation.
Combine that with the fact that I will turn 40 in January and for the last few years I have wanted to do a triathlon, there you have it.
So this spring I came across a book that had about 50 stories of other peoples first triathlons. This gave me the fever even more so I took my first step and purchased a used Scwinn bike to train and race on. I also started looking for 5K races to run in.
So I had the biking and running equipment. I only needed one other thing, learn how to swim. In June I went to the base pool during lap swimming and jumped in the pool and swam one full lap and almost drowned literally. So I went online and started looking for swimming instructors. I discovered a swimming system called Total Immersion (http://www.totalimmersion.net/) I found a swimming instructor in St Louis and had my first lesson. I had a second lesson two weeks later and have been swimming laps for the last few months 3-4 times a week.
So that brings me to today. It was beautiful weather. Rainy and overcast all morning. I hit the road at 6:15 heading out to the site of the Triathlon. This event would be a 400 meter lake swim, 12 mile bike ride and a 5K run. To practice for the lake swim I swam a few times in the lake behind our house since they were very similar. I felt confident in my swimming ability and did not think my fear of water would be a factor. It turned out to be true but the swim was very interesting to say the least.
I arrived at the location and set up my transition area where I would change between each event. 15 minutes before the start time they went over the rules for the day. Before I knew we were at 1 minute out and I wasn't feeling nervous. The horn sounded and we jumped into the water and took off. I swam fine for the first fifty yards and then I don't know what happened but I started hyperventilating. I must have been breathing 90 respirations a minute and I couldn't slow myself down. I would try to swim my stoke nice and easy but holding your head under the water while breathing so rapidly isn't a good combination. I spent the next 28 minutes trying to swim the 400 meters with a back stroke zig zapping the whole way. I am sure I covered over 600 meters today. Believe it or not I actually was thinking to myself that I couldn't wait until the run portion, thoughts I would later question myself on.
Eventually my self inflcited version of waterboarding came to an end and I was off to my bike. I got all my gear on and was off...in last place. more to come
