Image courtesy of Kiawah Island Triathlon.
Holy smokes! Another three months of training – and my first olympic distance triathlon – over in a blink. My official time was 2:38:18. I told myself I'd be happy finishing anywhere around the 2hr 45min mark. Needless to say, coming in about seven minutes under feels pretty good! Here's how it all went down...
The Setup
Lindsey, the kids and I teamed up with Rance and his wife and kids to rent an awesome house in Kiawah just a mile from the race start area - perfect! We spent the day Saturday playing with the kids at the pool and getting a quick orientation on the race routes.
Race Morning
Since our house was so close, we decided it would be best to load up our gear in backpacks and just ride our bikes from the house to the race. Easy, right? Well...
As our bikes rolled out of the driveway at 6am Sunday morning, we learned a fun fact: Kiawah doesn't have street lights and and it's DARK AS HELL at 6am. Didn't see that coming...literally. So I fashioned a makeshift headlight by attaching my iPhone to the handlebars and turning on the flashlight app. Not the best, but it got us there in one piece.
We got our transition area setup, body markings and timing chip just in time for a quick warmup jog, followed by the long walk to the swim start – about a mile up the beach. The view walking out onto the beach was stunning. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon and the ocean was calm and smooth.
The view was stunning at the start line. (Image courtesy of Kiawah Island Triathlon)
The Swim
I was in the first wave, so promptly at 7:30am, the horn sounded and we made a mad dash into the water. With a huge ocean, everybody was able to spread pretty quickly out so I was happy to see that the swim was not as crazy as the Clemson race. And I didn't get any random kicks in the face this time. Woot!
And we're off. (There I am!)
The swim went off without a hitch. We were swimming with the tide and the water was cool and calm. There were buoys placed along the length of the route and as long as you swam around the outside of the buoys at the start and the end, swimmers were allowed to swim anywhere they wanted along the buoys in the middle. Some swam closer to shore but I stayed on the outer edge so I wouldn't have to backtrack out and around the last buoy when I got to the end.
Before I knew it, I had rounded the outside of last buoy and was headed for shore. I was out of the water in about 23 minutes and spotted my family for the first time cheering me on.
Out of the water in 23 minutes - right on schedule! Seeing my family for the first time brought a big smile.
I went from smiles to grumps when I remembered I now had some 200+ yards to run to the transition area. The good news: it wasn't uphill like the Clemson race and I didn't have a wetsuit to deal with.
From smiles to grumps when I remembered I had a 200+ yard run to the transition. Yay!
Swim Course (3/4 mile) and Run to Transition, as recorded by my watch
Total Swim Time: 25:33 (including run to transition) About what I expected.
Transition 1
The lack of wetsuit made my first transition much faster than Clemson – and the fact that I didn't knock anybody's stuff over this time. I threw on my helmet, sunglasses and cycling shoes and was out of the gate in no time.
Total T1 Time: 1:54
The Bike
I was worried that 'clipping in' to my pedals and starting the ride while under pressure was going to have me falling over like I'm prone to do. I'm happy to report that I got to the mount line, hopped on the bike and clipped in like I'd actually done this before. WOOT!
Clipped in and off on the bike – all without falling over!
The course rambled through the entire island. It started out on the main road, then through some residential areas out to the Ocean Course Golf Course. From there you did a 180º turn and headed back to the other end of the island. One last 180º sent you back to the main part of the island to the finish.
The first half of the bike I was making good pace and feeling pretty good. Then around mile 10, I got passed by Coach Rance (who started in the wave several minutes behind me, mind you). I thought, "Well...I keep pace with him when we do our training rides, so I'll just keep pace with him for the rest of the bike." Yeah. This lasted all of about 5 minutes before he was basically out of sight. Damnit.
Around mile 22 of 25, my neck was getting sore and my legs were getting tired. I was now officially worried I wouldn't have any legs left for running. Rounding the final turn, I saw my family again cheering me on – it was exactly the push I needed. I even managed to unclip and dismount my bike without falling over. BOOM!
My cheerleading squad giving me a much-needed push to finish the bike. :-)
Rounding the corner to the final bike finish - apparently concentrating very hard on not falling over when I dismount.
The Bike Course (25 miles), as recorded by my watch
Total Bike Time: 1:16:10 Actually a little better than I thought...which probably explains why I felt so fatigued.
Transition 2
Unlike the Clemson race, I had to change out of bike shoes and into running socks and shoes for this transition. I figured this would really slow me down, but my T2 time wasn't too bad.
Total T2 Time: 1:44
The Run
The moment of truth: would I have any legs left for running 6 miles? Surprisingly, yes!
My cheerleading squad was there to high-five me when I started the run. The BEST!
Even with some energy left for the run, I had to shuffle along at an old man's pace for about a mile until my legs finally agreed to let me speed up.
The nice part about the run course is that it was broken up between the main road, some really nice residential areas and a nearly two mile stretch on the beach itself. This gave me small goals to focus on with each section.
The nearly 2 mile stretch along the beach was a welcome change.
After finishing the beach section, there was just a little over a mile to go. I was definitely feeling the burn at this point, but I could hear the after party in the distance and knew I was too close to slow down. So I pushed on.
Finally, I rounded the last turn to a cheering crowd and my family waiting for me at the finish line. What an unbelievable feeling!!
Made it to the finish line!!
The Run Course (6 miles), as recorded by my watch
Total Run Time: 52:57 Not stellar, but about where I thought I'd be.
The Summary
Total Race Time: 2:38:18 That put me smack in the middle of the pack for my age group as well as overall males. I'll take it!
For you fellow data geeks, here's a link to the stats collected by my watch during the race.
So in summary, this was an amazing experience. I never in a million years thought I could do an event like this. But thanks to Coach Rance for all the training and motivation – along with support from my family and friends – not only did I do it, I had an absolute BLAST doing it!! I'm officially hooked.
Lessons Learned
- Our training plan was perfect. I felt totally prepared for this race.
- I need new cycling shoes. I learned a few days before the race that my fancy cycling shoes make my toes go numb on long rides because they're a tad too small. Ever try running when you can't feel your toes? Spoiler: it sucks.
- When you train this hard and suddenly you don't have to train anymore, going a full day without exercise makes you feel very lazy. Going back to a normal schedule is going to feel very strange.