Ok, I know it’s been a week since I’ve posted but that’s been more to do with personal schedule than anything else. I wanted to take a few minutes to run through my experience of enduring a mini-triathlon this weekend even though I am still pretty fat….and out of shape….and older.
I was hoping that they would have published some of the pictures from the event before I wrote this but instead of looking at Fat Charley in skin tight triathlon shorts you get to look at some other person, raising their arms in victory, captured by a professional photographer. You can thank me later.
On Saturday I ran the Tri In The Buff, which is one of the more simple and friendly triathlons in the country. They have a Try a Tri division that’s a very short course of 200m swimming, 12k Bicycle, and 3K run. Easy enough for most of us couch potatoes, right?
The intent of this race was to hopefully spark me into a new level of fitness…which was supposed to occur before the race but I feel pretty inspired after having run it.
There were definitely hundreds of racers who were the beautiful people. Thin and fit…the kind of people I aspire to be. They had all of the nice equipment, they seemed to all know each other…they are part of a Tribe that’s been developing for years and I’m trying to gain entry.
The really, really cool part is that they are, almost without exception, very friendly and helpful to newcomers. There were ten year olds and seventy year olds (I’m pretty sure one of the seventy year olds beat me).
Equipment
First things first is being prepared with all of your equipment. It’s actually very hectic race morning. There are several hundred cars trying to pile into a parking lot and unless you have a good list to work off of, you’ll forget something and be screwed.
Now you don’t need a lot of equipment. I wore a pair of Tri Shorts that have some bouyancy (Garneau’s cost about $80) so that you can use them for the Swim. That same bouyancy acts as padding for your nether’s in the bike ride, and then you can run in just about anything. A pair of swim goggles (Barracuda’s cost about $20) with sun protection help and the swim cap is provided by the organizers as you are assigned a color by which wave you are in.
It’s good to have a towel, I use a tiny shammy, so that you can at least dry yourself off enough to slip on shoes (I used Vibram Five Fingers for the bike and run) and a T-shirt.
For the Bike wave…you need a bike…and a helmet. They won’t let you ride without one. Yes, you can use any bike you want for your first race(s). You don’t need to drop a thousand or two thousand bucks (the Cervelo’s cost as much as a used car). I used the same Trek FX commuter bike that I ride to work during the week.
And for the run? Comfortable sneakers I guess. I wore the Vibrams. I saw another woman literally running barefoot. Some people skimp on the equipment to save time in the Transition area.
My Morning
I woke up at 5am which is only slightly earlier than when I usually get up with the first baby for feedings. My goals at this point is to have something to eat, to make sure my body eliminates, and to get my gear in the car and going by 6am.
I had some oatmeal, a cup of coffee, and some fresh fruit. I had my prepped list of gear which was mostly packed and ready except for the bike in the Jeep. I took a quick shower because I always feel more refreshed after one.
You’re looking for as smooth and stress free morning as is possible.
Then it was in the car and a 45 minute ride to Evangola State Park. As I pulled in, the first thing you want to do, even before unpacking your gear is to pick up your race packet (most races you can grab your packet the night before) and get in line for them to mark your body with your race number. They do this because you can’t wear a race bib while swimming, so they take a sharpie and mark your calves, your shoulders and one of your hands.
NOTE: it takes several subsequent showers to complete remove sharpie markings from your body.
After you get your markings, then go get your gear from your car to bring it into the transition area. The transition area is where you go in between each leg of the race to dress and/or refuel for the next leg. The object is to spend as little time in that area as possible.
So, you set your bike up in the rack of the transition area, have your sneakers and socks ready to go. Sunglasses and shirt draped over your bike.
Your first leg is the swim so make sure you’re dressed for that with swim trunks, goggles, and swim cap and your timing chip is affixed to your ankle.
They close the transition area to athletes about twenty minutes before the first wave of athletes hit the water.
I go to these races alone. I don’t have any friends (period) that really do these races so I have plenty of time to walk around, watch and listen to people. Some folks warm up a bit with a jog or some swimming in the water. The swim freaks people out the most because it’s open water. It’s a lot different than swimming laps in the pool.
You can’t usually see the bottom, there aren’t any painted lanes to keep you focused on direction, and you have to watch out for several dozen other flailing athletes in your wave. You may get kicked, you will swallow water, and you will likely freak out.
The beauty of doing the Try a Tri at Evangola State park is, if you freak out in the water, stand up. The 200 meter course is set up so that if you’re taller than five feet you can stand and I actually saw a bunch of people walk thru that part of the course.
Now if you do one of the Sprint or Intermediate races of 750 or 1500 meters, you’re going way the hell out there. And they have lifeguards in kayaks, boats, and waverunners who are trolling the area for anyone in trouble. There was a person doing the 1500 meters who clearly wasn’t ready for this type of thing. They were trying to do the butterfly stroke the whole way and they just ran out of steam. No worries, the boats picked him up right away.
You gotta learn how to do the breast stroke and you gotta practice in open water. Yes, nearly every area of the US has a few races that involve swimming in an indoor pool. The weather for Northern latitude countries doesn’t always permit swimming outside, but I enjoy the summer races.
Nearly all the athletes are very nervous. The parade of people running in and out of the bathrooms was ceaseless. Tip…you may want to bring your own toilet paper. There’s no guarantee against them running out. Just discard it in the trash a few minutes before the swim because once you get started, you’re usually fine.
So being a fat, old guy with limited triathlon skills, I had an hour and ten minutes to wait before my wave hit the water. We were the very last group so I got to watch everyone start. They coral you into a fenced in area with your other wave mates about five minutes before the start and then they have you step into the water up to about your waist. There’s some joking around amongst the athletes which helps to calm the nerves and break the ice. I wondered if the competitive athletes also did this? My guess is no, but who knows.
Once the horn went off, I expected people to be flailing about but with the Try a Tri, everyone was very supportive. They let space open up between racers. They encouraged each other. It was nice.
I was in the middle of the pack with the swim. That was encouraging for me because I’d previously freaked out on my prior triathlon in 2007 (different course, deeper water) and was the third last person out of the water…the other two having been rescued by the boats. But again, in this race, if you freak out, just stand.
I got out of the water and was pretty wiped already. You have to jog up the sand and into the transition area about a quarter mile away.
Second leg is bike, and for me, the most relaxing because you can pedal and coast for parts of it (Note: Hills, however, suck royally). In the transition area I wiped my sandy feet with a towel, quickly dried off, and spent a couple minutes fumbling with my Vibrams (they are not easy to get on your feet, especially when they are wet and sandy). Then I put on my t-shirt sunglasses and helmet and jogged my bike out of transition to the mounting area at the beginning of the bike course.
At this point, there are all kinds of bikers on the same course as you. The experienced triathletes from the earlier swim legs are doing their second lap of the bike. So the key is, stay right, when you pass on the left, announce that to the biker you are passing.
The other key is, know your course. They typically have the turns marked by color, but having some familiarity with the street signs the night before is great. With different racers, some do the long course, some shorter, it’s easy to get screwed up following someone else. But knowing your course, you’ll be fine.
Also, have a water bottle or something on your bike. The only place that the organizers provide water or electrolyte drink is in the transition area, and at select points on the run course.
After the bike, you dismount and jog your bike back into the transition area to the spot where all the rest of your gear is. Then you pull off your helmet, exit transition and start the run. Again, keeping time in the transition to a minimum is best but don’t kill yourself if you need a short rest.
Also, trying to run after you’ve been pedaling for 12K or longer is really strange at first. It’s kind of like getting your sea legs back when you hit dry land, so it may take you a quarter mile to fell sort of normal again.
Again, here’s where it helps to know your course. For the Try a Tri folks, the organizers to verbalize several times prior to the race what the course is, but have it visualized. With different waves all coming together for the run, they will be running different lengths.
By the time I hit the jog, I was wiped. I was ill-prepared to run on Vibrams which is very different than with shoes. I was determined not to stop and walk at any point but I certainly wasn’t setting any speed records. I was discouraged once when a guy who seemed to weigh a good 75 pounds more than me passed me, but at the same time, I was very proud of him for his resolve.
As I came to the end of the 3K there was a lot of people cheering and an announcer calling off your bib number and name as you passed the finish line. It was a nice touch for all the athletes.
So, I waxed a long time about the race, sorry. I know most folks here won’t be interested in this type of thing, but it may help a few who were considering it.
I finished in exactly and hour and five one hundredths of a second. That put me in 62nd place out of 84 athletes in the Try a Tri. Yeah, I know, I didn’t light it up, but I really enjoyed it and am encouraged to up my training this week for the next triathlon August 7th.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I’d be happy to answer what I can. A great book to start with is Joe Friel’s 12 Weeks to Your First Triathlon, which, unfortunately, I didn’t buy till the night before the triathlon. But there’s some great training plans in there for people who only have five or fewer hours a week to work out, like me. You’ll have to Google it, I’m too lazy to find an affiliate link on Amazon.
And Finally….
Giving Back to the Community
So, back in late April, I wrote an article on Earth Day about my intentions to monetize this site and give 50% of my 2010 proceeds to charity. With May and June now gone, I just wanted to give a brief update.
In May, I made $45 on this site and so I sent $22.50 to:
The Massachusetts Avenue Project.
In June, I did better, making $129.50 on this site and so I sent $65 to:
The Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers
This is money from you guys, so I just want to thank you very, very much for your contributions via the products you’ve purchased from me.
How can you contribute? Just purchase a product from my site:
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Like what you’ve read? Check out my eBook, You, Simplified – Handbook for A Simpler Life. 50% of the sale goes to environmental organizations.
For those interested in poetry, you can purchase my new collection here: Foundations
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Congratulations, Charley! I hope you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished. It’s inspiring. It’s slowly dawning on me that it must be quite useful, and motivating, to train for events like this; gives you concrete goals and deadlines to help you push yourself along. Unlike, um, my “get out there and go for a brisk walk sometime today” method. Which, um, isn’t working all that well. :-{
Well done Charley. I used to be into triathlon big time back in the early 90s. You brought back some great memories. Back in those days triathlon was a *lot* smaller, and a lot less glamorous than it is now. We were a gaunt bunch of sports obsessives, and not all of us had great gear. I used to compete on my brother’s discarded racer, that I rebuilt and repainted myself. I remember a guy called Patrick Barnes, in his 70s back then, used to compete on an old war relic bike with a shopping basket on the front. He was competing well into his 90s. In the year of his death he completed 12 or 13 olympic distance events if I remember correctly. The thing that kept me hooked was the great camaraderie – the clubs were mostly small and intimate affairs, with some truly great and memorable people – in fact you are making me quite nostalgic and misty eyed! Wonderful stuff!
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