We’re Finally Triathletes! A Recap of the Giant Acorn International Triathlon

After much anticipation, we are finally triathletes!

A triathlon has been on my fitness bucket list since my Junior year of college, so it feels pretty good to finally have one under my belt.  The great part about doing something for the first time is that no matter how long it takes you, it’s a PR!  Honestly, all I wanted from this race was for Courtney and I to both finish feeling good and without any injuries or mechanical difficulties, so in my book this was a big win.  I’m also proud of us for jumping right into the Olympic (international) distance rather than signing for the Sprint, which I think we could have done without training at all.  While our training was fairly casual, we did have to spend a number of Saturdays on the trail and at the pool.  It’s so much fun to have a partner to train with who appreciates a challenge and values an active lifestyle as much as I do!

Here’s my race recap, which Natalie tells me is the 6th discipline of a triathlete (after transition and the victory beer, of course!):

Finishing time: 3:17:42 
184/389 overall; 54/157 in gender; 11/15 in age group

The Swim (1,500m, just under 1 mile):
Time: 41:36
Rank: 358/389 overall; 14/15 in age group

The swim is an absolutely beautiful course in the calm, clean water of Lake Anna.  However, I had a tough decision to make morning of on the swim.  Having seen the posted water temperature of 72 degrees, I had resigned myself that I needed to wear a wetsuit despite never once having worn one during training.  However, upon arriving to Lake Anna on Saturday, I learned the water was actually 78 degrees – at the very top end of wetsuit legal, and actually quite warm.  After much back and forth, I decided to wear the suit. While it certainly provided the comfort of buoyancy (I think it would be nearly impossible to drown in a lake in a wetsuit), I found it incredibly awkward to be held at the top of the water, hardly able to kick my legs froggy style – as one does when they only know how to breaststroke.  Ultimately, I don’t know that it made me faster but I do think it probably saved me energy – my legs would have plenty of time to shine.  I quickly fell to the back of the pack (and then was surpassed by the next wave, and finally by the Clydesdales), but that was okay because ultimately it meant I wasn’t getting kicked or swam over.  My only concern during the swim was whether I’d get booted our of the water for being too slow and get a DQ, and I kept checking behind me for the boat of shame.  However, even though I was just about the last in my wave to get out of the water, I wasn’t even close to approaching the 1:10 time limit on the swim leg.  Takeaway: if I ever want a chance of being a competitive triathlete, I’ll probably need to learn to swim freestyle.

Swim-to-Bike Transition: 3:55; when you’re literally almost the last one out of the water, there’s not a lot of impetus to be a speedster in transition.  I didn’t find it difficult at all to get out of my wetsuit.  I then took the time to dry my feet, put on my shoes and socks, biking gloves, bib, helmet and pack and fuel up.

The Bike (42k, 25 miles):
Time:1:35:58
Rank: 336/389 overall; 12/15 in age group

This was not a fun bike ride for me.  If it’s any indication, Saturday’s Giant Acorn ride took me a full 11 minutes longer than it took me to ride the same distance during the Nation’s Tri.  One might think it was the addition of the swim beforehand, but I actually don’t think this was the case – my legs felt fresh and cardiovascularly the swim didn’t take it out of me.  The course was challenging, no doubt.  I found many of the “rolling hills” to be extraordinarily difficult, and think I have some work to do in learning proper gear shifting technique.  But Courtney only added about 6 minutes to his Nation’s time.  Ultimately, I think the real issue was that I was straight up terrified much of the race.  I didn’t realize beforehand that the route would not be closed to traffic, and when I did read that info in the e-mail with final race details, I assumed that at least the lane we were riding in would be closed.  Not the case.  I was frequently being passed with not much room, a couple of times by school busses and large trucks. At times I had to sit in traffic as bikers and cars backed up with nowhere to go to get around each other.  The fact that I was way behind most of the pack surely made my experience worse.  With bikers, there’s safety in numbers. Whereas I was constantly surrounded by other bikers on the Nation’s course and this frankly presented my biggest risk of collision, at the Giant Acorn there were times I couldn’t see another biker ahead of me or behind me and there were long stretches with no volunteers, medics of spectators.  I actually wondered a couple times how long it would take someone to find me if anything did happen, and kept thinking “it will be a miracle if no one gets injured on this bike ride.”  I felt as if I was grinding through the ride thinking, “when will this be over!?” rather than enjoying the beautiful day (and it was a beautiful day), and I felt incredibly relieved to rack my bike and start running.  Takeaway: this set-up very well may be the norm, and I’ll be the first to admit that I am not an avid road cyclist and will always put caution above speed… but I don’t think I’ll be signing up for another race where there is traffic on the race course – even if that counts me out of most triathlons.

Bike-to-Run Transition: 1:58; let’s get ‘er done.

The Run (10k, 6.2 miles):
Time: 54:18
Rank: 133/389 overall; 4/15 in age group

Ahhh, onto the run.  Finally something in my wheelhouse.  My feeling setting off: relieved that my chances of dying were now drastically reduced. The course is a double loop, and I just happen to run into Courtney starting his second lap.  He looked pretty tired and told me to go on, so I did… after a few encouraging words.  It’s an intimidating start to the run because the first mile is up the hill that you just biked down to head into transition, so you’ve just had the privilege to see the agonized faces of runners heading up it. It’s actually not so bad, and at this point I have tired legs but know that it’s nothing I can’t push through. For the first time in the race I’m passing rather than being passed.  As I’m approaching the end of the first loop I kind of want to blow a snot rocket on the well meaning folk telling me “finish strong!  You’re almost there!”, and the chubby little boy who gives me an unrequested “water splash” directly onto the fanny pack holding my phone sure is lucky he’s cute I’m tired.  But overall, the run isn’t too bad and I’m able to sprint the much-appreciated downhill to the finish. (!!!)

Nutrition:  Pre-race dinner was the usual: fish, asparagus and sweet potato with almond butter.  This race was a little trickier to prepare for nutritionally, since we had to get up at 5:30am and drive 90 minutes but the race didn’t actually start until 9:00am.  I had a mini zucchini muffin and 1/4 English muffin with almond butter and jelly at home around 6:00am.  I drank a water bottle on the car ride up, and ate a full English muffin with almond butter and jelly around 7:00.  Finally, I have a banana just before leaving transition around 8:30.  Although I love Quest bars, they have never been great on my stomach during exercise so I’ve been training with Lara bars instead.  I eat a bite of my bar before hopping on my bike and another bite before the run, but don’t want to take in so much as to upset my stomach.  Having made the mistake of putting the bladder upside down in my Camel Pack and therefore having had a very difficult time drinking more than tiny sips during the bike ride, I stop at every water stop throughout the run to take a sip and dump the rest on my head.  Overall, I think my nutrition was pretty much spot on.

Recovery/reward:  The free Papa John’s was a nice gesture and all, but mediocre pizza is the last thing I want right after a race. Instead we stopped at Red Dragon, a brand new brewery in Fredericksburg, for a victory flight!  Their IPA was awesome, and they even gave us a tour!  I refueled with half an egg salad sandwich on multigrain (their food choices were limited!) and then a Sweet Green grain bowl for dinner.  Honestly, my biggest reward was a much needed two hour nap!

Final thoughts: There’s a lot I love about the prospect of joining the triathlon community.  From my summer of training, I can already tell that it’s a team-oriented community filled with generosity and inspiration.  Physically, triathlon training feels like a much more well rounded workout than training for a marathon because you’re using such a wide variety of muscles.  My bootcamp instructor told me I looked cut, and I think this is the closest I’ve come to having a six pack without doing a Whole30… so there’s that.

Here’s the thing though. When I first started running, I was slow (as in, a 35 minute 5k slow).  But I’ve gotten a lot faster in recent years, and I’ve come to think of myself that way.  I guess I’ve gotten fairly competitive (I even won my first race this year!).  It’s really hard to go back to doing something I’m not very good at.  I’m not used to bringing up the rear.  I’m used to hearing “looking strong!” not “hang in there!”  It’s like exercising a muscle you haven’t used in a while.  I have to remind myself that these things don’t come without time and effort, and that I should credit myself simply for being out there and putting in my best. Ultimately, I suppose it’s humbling.

What’s next?
In my eyes, an Ironman is the Holy Grain of athletic accomplishments.  I fantasize about hearing the words, “you are an ironman” (we all have our own fantasies, okay?)  But in all honesty, it’s probably not for me… at least for the time being.  This race felt really hard, and I struggle to imagine more than doubling the swim and more than quadrupling the bike and run.  We may consider a half Ironman.  Even that feels pretty intimidating, but I think we could do it with a lot of training.

For this season though, I’m hanging up my swim cap and my bike helmet and focusing on running for a while.  We’re starting to ramp up our distance. We put in 7 and 8.5 mile runs last week, and are shooting for 7, 8.5 and 10 milers this week in preparation for a couple races:

• Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon, October 8th 
• Vancouver 1/2 Marathon, October 23rd 
• 12Ks of Christmas, December 10th 

Johanna