Today I am a triathlete. It took about 6 months since I decided to start training and today I can finally call myself a triathlete as I have officially completed a triathlon.

It actually happened a week ago at the Kerrville Sprint Triathlon. It wasn’t my first choice as I had originally had planned to compete in the Tri for Old Glory Olympic Triathlon in July but my leg decided that we would sit on the bench for that one. I had also set my sights on the New Orleans 70.3 three weeks from now but that will have to wait too. But it doesn’t matter; I finally got it done and it was a special day to be sure.

For starters, last Saturday was my daughter Martina’s 6th birthday and she graciously agreed to let me race on her special day. It was a great honor and it gave me extra motivation since I promised she could have my first triathlon medal. As it turned out, I needed that reminder at some point during the race but I will get to that in a minute. Overall, the race went well. I hit almost exactly the time I set for myself and I was able to pinpoint the areas where I need to focus more. It was a tremendous learning experience all the way from registration to the end of the race and I really can’t wait to do it again.

Celebrating Martina’s birthday

The swim was predictably the hardest part of the race. It wasn’t hard physically but mentally. In training I am more than used to swimming the race distance which was 500 meters so I knew that I could do it, but about half way through I started getting anxious. See, it’s one thing to swim in a 25-yard pool where you know exactly how many lengths you have swum, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to open water. Half the time I would raise my head to look for the buoy and I couldn’t exactly tell if it was far or close. But that was when I could actually see the buoy because most of the time I couldn’t even see it and at some point I could swear I was swimming in the opposite direction. As it turned out, I ended up swimming longer than I needed – 87 meters more according to Strava. I also learned that I pull to the left which is odd because in the pool I tend to pull to the right. Something else to work on. Finally, wearing dark goggles in low light conditions was a really bad idea.

After surviving the swim, I headed to T1 where I spent about five minutes when three would have sufficed. It was painfully slow as I had not practiced and I made the poor decision to wear compression socks for the bike and the run. As it turns out, for short races socks are not even needed but I didn’t know that. To be honest, though, I wasn’t really worried about my time during transitions. I simply assumed I would be slow and it would be part of the learning experience.

The bike leg of the race was actually a lot of fun; well, if you don’t count the first five minutes. See, the night before the race it had rained a little so the roads were somewhat wet and slippery. About five minutes into the bike, I misjudged my entry into a turn and came in a little too hot. I tapped my brakes slightly but as I entered the turn, I felt the rear tire slide and knew I was done. The tire caught again and for a brief second I thought I had avoided a fall but alas, I was wrong. The next thing I knew, my bike was going one way and I was going the other, sliding ever so gracefully on the pavement. In case you’re wondering, my first thought was “I hope I didn’t rip my brand-new tri suit”. My second thought was “Ouch!”. And here’s a fun fact: when you crash, your heart rate spikes. I got up as fast as I could, cursing myself, and walked over to the bike which, somehow, ended up on the sidewalk. I gave it a quick inspection and after deciding that she was good to go, hopped back on and got on with my race. It was here that the extra motivation kicked in. I had landed on my elbow and hip and had what in cycling parlance is known as road rash, but I had promised Martina that I would race hard for her. So for the next 45 minutes or so I pedaled as fast as I could but was very careful on just about every turn. I ended up averaging 20 mph which is a lot faster than I usually ride. I guess I am not too slow on the bike but I don’t expect to maintain that speed over a full Ironman. T2 was not too bad either though I certainly could have done better. I spent almost a full minute putting on my race belt; don’t ask why.

Anatomy of a crash: speed goes to zero, heart rate spikes

The run was also very enjoyable. It was a short 5K that I knew I could do. What I was worried about was actually my leg. Up until then I had not gone over three miles since I had been cleared by the doctor and I definitely did not want to injure myself. I can’t run nearly as fast as I did before the injury but I did a lot better than I expected. In the end I finished the race in 1:32:00. It was two minutes slower than my goal but all things considered, I think it’s okay to call it a win. And we still had one more event to go. After the Sprint race, I ran the Kids Fun Run with Cami and Tina. Both of them have run that distance before so, full of confidence, they just took off and finished in nearly identical times. It was very cool to see them push their limits and enjoy the race.

Racing together with my girls

The final highlight of the weekend was to meet many of the members of my triathlon club, Paragon Training. Head coach Mark Saroni was there to give us pointers and he won the Quarter race on Sunday by something like 15 minutes. The man is a beast. Some of the others I knew only by name from the team’s Facebook page so it was great to finally shake their hand and race with them. I am now convinced that joining Paragon was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my journey to IMTX.

Finally, I want to thank Anama and the girls for joining me on this trip. I know they probably had as many doubts as I did about the whole triathlon experience and, to be honest, being a spectator at endurance events is not easy. However, they soldiered on and met me at the finish line with a smile and even put up with the heavy rain after the event. May this be the first of many to come.

Graduation