First triathlon race report

I don't know what made me do it. Maybe I was encouraged by a good 5K I ran. Maybe I was discouraged by adding more distance to my running too fast and having my joints complain. Maybe I decided to take the kids to the pool a lot and to bike again after many years, just to cross train. In any case, earlier this year I found myself signed up for a sprint triathlon.

Losing 35 lbs sure helped, but even so I was solidly wedged into an Athena-class (for women over 150lbs) at 220. Undaunted, I kept cross-training and running and biking and swimming and two weeks before the event I was pretty sure I could do it. Maybe. If I ate right.

When I stood on the Pittsburgh North Shore of the Allegheny River, I wasn't so sure anymore. 600m isn't so far to swim, but the current was pretty fierce. Some Olympic-level athletes, who had to swim upstream before swimming downstream, looked like they were fighting a gigantic water treadmill. I was grateful, truly grateful, that we went only downstream. I was terrified, truly terrified, that they had us go across the river first...then downstream...then back. I'd like to extend my thanks to the lifeguard volunteer in a kayak under the bridge who kindly agreed to follow me to the first orange buoy. And, for the record, it really helps to just float on your back and do breathing exercises when the water feels too fast and too deep and just too overwhelming. But, I made it and it will be easier next time. Exalted, I scrambled out of the river and ran for my bike.

And a good bike it is: solid, fat-wheeled and cushy, just like me. Made for taking the built bumps in life, but not necessarily for speed. It took me safely 6 miles uphill to the turnaround, even if I had to push three times. "Go, 613!" "Don't give up!" The athletes passing me shouted encouragements, which I appreciated even though quitting was not even close to my mind. I was looking forward to my way down from the North Hills of Pittsburgh to the riverfront. Surely I would make up for lost speed! And I did, but only to a point. I held on for dear life in my best aero position, not pedalling because on my bike, even in the highest gear, I felt no resistance. Other bikers on their sexy, lean bikes powered by their lean, muscular legs DID pedal even downhill, and they were passing me...again.

The run part was hard. Really hard. It was more a walk-run part, and I even resorted to that goofy speed-walking form I have seen on TV, and with all that flesh barely contained by my first-ever tri singlet, I garnered applause from the onlookers. Go, hoochie-mamma, go! And hoochie-mamma went to finish at 2:22:14. Last by maybe 16 minutes, but fulfilling a personal goal by being there before the course closed, and hopefully in 3 hours, 2.5 if I was really fast.

Well isn't it just funny how goals move on you? I achieved my personal goal yet I was bummed at being last. More training would surely help. A new bike would help, too. Enter my first corporate sponsor: www.icatchdeals.com offered to send me a free roadbike if I blog about my training experience, so here I am.

The bike arrived today via UPS and it took my 14yo daughter and me mere minutes to assemble it. I will take it to a bike shop because I want to make sure the brakes are adjusted right and I don't seem to have the right tools for that...brakes are good to have in our hilly neighborhood. "Here mom I will do it. Come on I can do it faster than you. Mom you aren't listening!" Guess what, kiddo. My bike. How would you feel if I put your Bionicles together?? "It's my bike and I want to do it ALL BY MYSELF!!" I finally sputtered. "Oh okay okay whatever..." she said and wandered away. Turnaround is fair play, you know. When she was three she used to act like this all the time.

So let me tell you about my bike. It seems to weigh as much as one wheel off my mountain bike. It's a grayish purple Vilano 2010 Tuono aluminum frame road bike and will go with my tri singlet. That's important. Furthermore, it has impressive-looking thin wheels with aerodynamically shaped insides, sort of pointy on the inner rim, and they say "Samsom HIGH POWER Double Wall Alloy Rims". There are no knobby parts on the tires and there is no kick-stand. I guess cool fast bikers don't need those because they are too busy climbing big hills, waving their powerbutts in the air while they pass me. And I can be like that too...eventually. Especially since I won't want to sit on that seat much. Look, it's a perfectly fine seat but I am an Athena-class triathlete, meaning I have an Athena-sized posterior. I'll see if my mountain bike seat fits. The handlebar shifters are Shimano, which is awesome. The left one has markings for High and Low, but doesn't advertise the presence of the Granny Gear on my crank, which is cool. It can be my hill-climbing stealth gear. It shifts all the way into the Stealth Gear just fine, though, which makes me think that this bike was made just for me. I shall stealth up the hills and bomb down the hills as soon as the brakes are tuned up, and then I will tell you all about it.