500 yard swim, 14 mile bile, 5K run
After about two months of swimming and about five weeks of cycling, MAP was here, ready or not. And I had no clue what to think or expect. My friend Brandon made sure to help me get signed up for this and the other events as a Novice. In the NC Triathlon Series, you get one year to compete as a Novice. After that, it is humiliation and beat down from the big dogs in the age groups.
I had some pretty good training weeks leading up to the race. I looked at the previous year’s results, crunched some numbers based on my training and thought, ‘you know, I may actually have a shot at winning this Novice category.’ So I made that the goal. Again, I had absolutely nothing to base that on and no clue what to expect come race day. For all I know, I could fall flat on my face, have five minute transitions, break a chain, whatever and not even come close. But it is good to have goals.
My lovely wife Allyson was gracious enough to get up with me and make the early trek over to the Huntersville Aquatic Center. She swore she was not going to miss this first time event. There was a little nip in the air, however I certainly wouldn’t classify it as cold. A little overcast. More to come on that later…
The air was electric. Again, this was the first event of the year and everyone was excited. The official race start time was 8:00 am, however this was a pool start with participants starting every ten seconds for about two hours. They start all of the Novices toward the back and I had a decent but not great seed time, so I wasn’t pushing off the wall until 9:46.
I had plenty of time to scope everything out, bouncing from inside by the pool to the transition area, watching the Elite guys fly through the pool and jump on their really expensive bikes that cost them as much as, well, you know. It was intimidating and exhilarating at the same time.
The waiting started to get old. Pretty soon minutes started feeling like hours. Finally the time rolled around and I was in the pool. A very cold pool, might I add. I was starting right behind a couple that lives in my neighborhood, so at least had some company around at the start. From staging to the start passed really fast. Before I knew it I was pushing through the water.
The swim was a 20 lap, up one lane, under the rope, back in the other pool swim. 500 yards. When I registered for the race, I had to submit a 100 yard split time for seeding purposes. From the time I registered to race day, my swimming had got a little better, so I was seeded a little further back than I would have liked, but no worries. Allyson and Nick were standing at the far end yelling each time I hit the far wall. When it was all said and done, I had to swim by/over about a dozen folks in 20 laps which wasn’t too bad.
I was out of the water and running to the TA (transition area for any non-tri folks.) I hit the back door of the aquatic center and immediately noticed that the outside temperature had probably dropped about 10-15 degrees from when I went in to swim. Not good. A cool morning had turned a little chilly. The transition was decent for a first timer, though I greatly underestimated the difficulty pulling a tri jersey on over wet skin. Let’s just say it doesn’t go on to terribly easy.
Onto the bike…the leg started out pretty good. Nothing eventful until about mile 4 when things got really, really interesting. I had mentioned the weather had turned chilly pretty quick. Well around mile 4, the good Lord allowed the clouds to unleash. Sideways raining. Hail. Cats and dogs. Small rodents. It was a new level of misery I had never experienced. Keep in mind I just bought this bike and had probably less than 200 total miles on it. This was my first competitive race on it. And the rains were of Noatian proportions. At one point it felt as though I was being stung from head to toe by bees. And in case you were wondering, hail on a bike helmet is loud.
It did let up some toward the end of the 14 miles, however the rain was with us to the end. I made a right hand turn about a mile out from the finish and my right calf started severely. So now I was freezing, burning from the stinging rain, tired and cramping. I love this sport. I cruised into the finish, slid across the bike finish line almost busting my tail and headed into the TA for the run.
My run stuff was completely drenched. I picked up my left shoe and swear it weighed 25 pounds. I almost turned it over thinking if I did so I would dump a quart or so of water. There was standing water in the bottom of my duffle bag and in the base of the hat I was getting ready to put on. I shoved everything on the best I could and headed out.
The run could only be described as misery. There was a steady, driving rain the entire time. The run course itself was horrendous. Actually, I was surprised it was a USAT certified race with that race course. One point took us completely off road behind the Aquatic Center. There were two red clay spots about 10-20 yards in length that were full of standing water and mud. And there wasn’t any way around them. I trudged through and luckily shortly after there was a giant water puddle on the back parking area that I was able to run through and lose most of the mud.
It was to the home stretch from there. Other than rounding a curve about 50 yards from the finish line and nearly wiping out completely, the end of the race went fine. I remember the first thought going through my head being something along the lines of ‘and this is supposed to be fun?’ I was feeling things in places and in ways I never had before. On top of that, I was kind of discouraged because I was pretty sure my effort wasn’t enough to hit the goal of a Novice division win. The swim was a little slow due to traffic and the bike was a disaster.
Despite all that, I somehow was able to pull off a 1:13:40, which was good for the Novice win. It was a huge blessing and I was extremely grateful that having been the first triathlon ever. It was also amazing having Allyson there to share that moment with her. She was a real trooper hanging out there all morning, standing in the cold rain and mud. It wouldn’t have been half as meaningful without here there. I figured with those kind of conditions, I got the very worst out of the way on the first one. All uphill from there!
Official results 105th overall, 1st place Novice
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