Finished the triathlon!

It's been almost a week, but I did wind up doing the triathlon.  Saturday night, when my cousin came up, I was coughing up a storm.  I was barely recovered from whatever I had, and I doubted if I could even finish the triathlon let alone survive the swim.  But I did it.

When I woke up Sunday morning at 5:30AM, my cough wasn't there.  I felt pretty good, but the fear of drowning during the race came back.  At the same time, I knew if I didn't do it, then it would've been because I wussed out.  It was almost time to leave, so I dressed anyway and grabbed my gym bag and helmet.  We went to pick up another cousin who would photograph and I contemplated grabbing my bike.  I decided not to, but LI cousin convinced me to bring it just in case.  We got to the YMCA and all I saw were pretty fit people with road bikes.  I had a heavy mountain bike with hybrid tires, bar ends, and a non-working third gear.  More fear.  I walked LI cousin to the registration and I stood outside.  Then I realized how stupid it was and I went to register.  There was a funny scene where the race director was shocked at the time I wanted to change my swim time to, but whatever.

Leading up to the swim, I was nervous as heck.  I got inked up with my numbers, setup my transition area, and warmed up a bit in the pool.  Seeing how I doubted my ability, I lined up near the end of the 122 people pack.  The first guy that finished did it in about 4.5 minutes.  Craziness.  Meanwhile, I stood there with some first-timers and worried how it would look to rest every 25 yards I swam.  Until...until I saw a guy kick on his back the whole 250 yards.  That immediately put me at ease.  It finally got to me, and I freestyled the first 25 yards.  I opted not to rest and went under to the next lane.  I got on my back and did a combo of kicking and "jellyfishing" for three laps since I wasn't sure how I would feel without stopping for any rests.  I hit my head on the wall and decided I couldn't do that the rest of the way.  I wound up doing my back kick for most of the remaining laps with me switching over to freestyle near the wall so I could see.  I finishe the swim at 11:28 instead of the 20 minutes I thought it would take.

I jogged to the transition, put on my top, socks, shoes, sunglasses and helmet.  I ran to the bike mount area and started biking.  I thought it would be better to put on my gloves on the bike, but I nearly wiped out twice.  Bad idea.  Did the 3-loop 10.1 mile course.  Hopping off the bike, I felt my calves cramp and seize up.  Not good.  I hobbled/jogged to transition again, racked my bike, whipped my helmet off, and was off to do the 4.5 lap 5K.  My legs felt like they were gone.  I stripped my gloves after the first lap and just kept reminding myself to run like I trained.  I ran through the cramps, ran through the pain, ran through the fatigue that was creeping in.  I kept telling myself, "You did this.  Remember the bricks?  You did this."  The last half lap, my LI cousin came to run alongside.  He had finished much earlier.  A 42-year old lady started cheering me on as she finished too.  I started pumping my arms harder, and just like in training, I switched to a sprint near the last 50 yards and bolted to the finish.  The feeling was pretty kick*ss.  Time?  1:29:34.

It was quite the accomplishment, and I would definitely do it again.  By signing me up, my LI cousin effectively forced me to finish learning to swim.  Now I have to work on my technique.  Triathlon season is pretty much over, so I have plenty of time to get better before the next one.  I did get sick again afterwards, but I'm almost good again.  I'm already working out again, albeit a bit softer 2 - 3 times versus 4-5 per week.  I'm thinking of doing a 5K in a couple of weeks.  In training, I'm hoping to reach the 10K mark too.  Exciting stuff.  Now to get a real bike.


Last weigh-in:
169.5 lb (while sick, so probably more like 170.5 - 172.0lb)