Swim Bike Mom often features awesome folks and their race experiences in the form of official guest posts. Here’s a recent report from SBM friend, Jen H., and her first International Distance tri: White Lake International Triathlon in North Carolina 9/10/11…. Congrats, Jen!
Here’s her report! [Disclaimer: the pictures are from a prior race. I didn’t want anyone to say “liar liar” or something of the like. But we all like pictures, so these have to do.]
“This was my first International-distance race. Prior to this, I had done 4 sprint tri’s and one fake tri, which I won! But only because everyone else got lost on the bike leg and I stopped to ask directions.
This year, fake tri. Next year, fake boobs.
- One hour and 45 minutes is not enough sleep the night before a race, especially if you only got 4 hours each of the two nights before. Yet, the body can do amazing things, with the aid of adrenaline and caffeine.
- Women in the novice category will always stop to say “I’m sorry! Are you okay?” when they hit or kick someone during the swim.
- During other bike rides, I’ve had to dodge cats, dogs, squirrels, turkey vultures, and a deer, but this is the first time I’ve had to dodge a flying pinecone. Some dude was using his leaf blower and a renegade pine cone flew out over the road and landed right in front of me as I was pedaling at 20+mph. I thought it was a grenade. Which, of course, made me pedal faster.
- When mack trucks pass you going 55mph, you don’t just get blown by the wind – you also get sucked toward them for a scary second.
- If you ride hard enough on a really bumpy road, you will break your handlebars. And you will then laugh about it for the next 3 miles. And your neck will hurt for at least 3 days.
- Running in full sun at 11:30am is not fun. EVER.
- It’s eerie to see so many dead butterflies on a road while you’re running.
- It’s freaky to see a really strong, in-shape dude bending over in the middle of the road about to puke while he’s about to get run over by a truck.
- Note: I think he was able to hold back the vomit, and I got him to move into the grass before he got hit.
- It’s hard to gut it out and run 10k after 2 and a half hours of other endurance activities, but I think I can do it IF I don’t see EVERYONE ELSE walking. Oh, the peer pressure to just walk for a minute. Seeing all these really in-shape people shuffling along puts thoughts in your head – “Well, if they’re walking, I can too!” (I ran most of it but took walk breaks when I thought I was going to puke or pass out. It helped!)
- Seeing someone in your age group pass you, knowing that means they’re going to beat you, is at first demoralizing, then motivating. There was a girl who passed me at mile 3 on the run, so I chased her for the next 3 miles. By mile 5 I could see her slowing down ahead of me. I was determined to catch her. I caught her with about a half mile left, then saw she wasn’t even in the novice group (and therefore not my competitor)!!! She said “Nice kick” and I said “I’ve been chasing you for 3 miles for nothing!” We had a good laugh. Then of course I beat her.
- When someone’s kids run out in front of me as I’m sprinting to the finish, they’re going to get hurt. I hope they learned their lesson.
- Dr Pepper tastes GREAT immediately after finishing an Olympic distance triathlon – but then after about 20 minutes you realize it was a terrible idea to drink that.
- I can eat my own weight in country fried steak at Cracker Barrel.
Overall, it was a smashing success.
I enjoyed myself (in between the bouts of suffering) and I beat my goal by 56 seconds. It was a great experience. My training partner (it was also his first of this distance) is a beast and a natural at this, but he only beat his goal by 54 seconds, so I WIN!!!!!
Of course, he beat me by 30 minutes overall, but I beat him at T2. I’ll take what I can get! This time T2, next time T1, next time the swim leg…. He’d better watch his back.”