You never know until you Tri...

Well if there was ever a sentence I thought would never be typed by me, it's this one, but; Yesterday I did my first ever Triathlon!

Health warning; this is potentially a very over detailed account of my first Triathlon. However, I found reading about other people's experiences quite handy in prepping for my Tri so I'm just going to stick it all in. 

I've been planning to do the Portsmouth Try a Tri in June since January (New Year's Resolution gone mad!) but had been falling into a real lull in my training, unsure what to do to progress or where my strengths/weaknesses were.

Cue a random facebook post on the Portsmouth Triathletes group (who I've been stalking since Feb but am too chicken to actually join!) advertising the David Lloyd Sprint Triathlon- 400m pool swim, 20k cycle and 5k run.
The pool swim element made this a very appealing first event, as the try a tri is an 750m open water swim but otherwise identical in terms of distance, so cutting my teeth on a less fish-infested, current-riddled body of water sounded like a plan!
I signed up 3 weeks ago on a whim and proceeded to freak out.

My training up until that point had consisted of teaching myself to swim once a week, spin followed by a 5k on the treadmill on Tuesdays and a run at the weekend (with a few resistance/weights sessions thrown in when time allowed).
I upped the swimming to twice a week, went on a few Easter Holiday bike rides, accidentally took a whole week off training in Copenhagen (more on that amazing trip to come!) and suddenly it was Saturday and the triathlon was tomorrow!

Tri lesson no. 1: "novice friendly" does not mean the same as "there will be lots of novices". Pulling into the car park outside David Lloyd at 6am, we were greeted by the scary sight of lots of very muscly men, unloading bikes from their vans/cars which probably cost more than our car, if not our house! We went in to registration and everyone was already milling around, chatting and prepping for the race. I freaked OUT and just wanted to run away and hide in the car! My inner PE-hating teenager was back, with a vengeance!

Note the eminently more chilled and well-trained triathletes chilling behind me!

I filled out my medical questionnaire, got inked up with my race number (right arm and left calf) and headed out to rack my bike. We were seeded into 4 waves by our predicted swim time and our novice-ness. I was number 102- 1 for the novice wave and number 02 for speed of swimming (01 being the slowest...). On reflection, telling them I thought it would take me 25 minutes to swim 400m didn't help- turns out yesterday it took me 11. Oops!

Bike racked and transition mat (towel) set up ready

Before I knew it, it was 7am and time for race briefing, which due to my panic went completely over my head. I was relying completely on following whoever was in front of me. In briefing I met a couple of novices, one who had run 20+ marathons and the other who'd attended multiple training sessions for novices with Portsmouth Triathletes! (At this point I was cursing my antisocial sport tendencies and deep rooted hatred of doing exercise near other people, especially if they're better at it than me! My secret facebook stalking of Portsmouth Triathletes was eminently less useful than actually manning up and going to their training sessions!)

Regardless, it was too late to panic and we lined up at the start of the pool for the swim leg.

Clearly I need to work on my triathlete power stance! (or get a float!)

I think I'd under estimated the effect panic would have on my breathing; but we were only 3 to a lane and 2 lengths in I'd found my groove and was merrily front crawling up and down. We overtook at the end of lanes (something I'd been worrying about) and touched the person in front's leg when we wanted to pass at the next turn. I started to get a stitch around length 10 (despite a 4.30am breakfast!) but by length 13 it was gone and I made it to length 16 without mishap, although I was the second last out of the pool!

I'm in the pink hat

It was time for my first transition and I ran out of the fire exit and across the cold car park! Luckily the sports bra that came with the Trisuit worked it's magic and I definitely experienced less cold-induced embarrassment in the chest region than a lot of the other female triathletes!

Out for a casual jog in a swim suit and bare feet...

I'd practiced this transition multiple times the day before, without once taking into account the fact that, on the day, I'd be soaking wet! I'd laid out my long-sleeved top for the cycle, already tucked into my windproof jacket. In my living room I was getting pretty fast at putting both on at the same time!
The same could not be said for yesterday! The long sleeved top ruched up on top of my boobs, the sleeve holes got stuck at my elbows and 8 inches+ of sleeve was hanging out the end of the jacket. The lycra covered my whole face and the hood of the jacket got stuck up, and I was entirely incapable of freeing myself!! After flapping around transition like some kind of stranded bird for what felt like an hour but was probably about 10 seconds, the lovely marshal came and tried to rescue me! I ended up having to re dress myself to remedy the messed up layers.

marshal to the rescue!

redressing myself after the clothing fail

finally made it!

Embarassed but dressed, I pushed my bike up to the mount line and headed out for 5 laps of Port Solent. The cycle was the discipline I'd definitely prepared least for. My logic was if I can't swim, I drown; If I can't run, I have to walk but I already know I can ride a bike, so what's the worst that can happen?!
Bad, bad logic! Turns out, there's a lot of technique to riding a bike fast and I don't really have any of it! A first step is going to be learning what on earth is going on with my gears as I'm pretty sure I did the first 4 laps in entirely the wrong gear. Once I realised and changed gear, I picked up my pace and really enjoyed the final lap.

 My second transition into the run was a lot faster- jacket off and off I went!
 I haven't felt many things as unpleasant as trying to run on legs which have just cycled 20k! They felt like steel marshmallows and I had no idea how I'd get through the next 5k, especially without my beloved running playlist (no headphones or music at all!)

However, I plodded on and soon realised I was actually running my fastest ever 5k- my first mile was 9.48 (I'm usually around 10.15).
Hoping to finish the 5k sub 30 minutes gave me a new goal to aim for and I knuckled down to the run. I found the lap element really demoralising- running to the finish line to then run away and do another lap made me want to cry, but, due to the phased waves of triathletes there were lots of incredible cyclists and great runners to watch on the run which kept me distracted from my sore legs! I was far too hot by this point, so broke the one rule I'd set myself of never running in just the trisuit in public, and left my top with Jon.

I was over taken in my last lap by 2 runners from the 4th wave (elite) and both of them slowed down to encourage me and cheer me on! It was just a little thing but it really perked me up and gave me the boost I needed to head to the finish line, and use every last ounce of energy for a sprint finish.

In 1 hour 31 minutes I was done and over the finish line! Exhasuted was probably my main emotion but over the course of the day I felt so chuffed that I pushed a boundary and tried something that, a year ago, I never would have dreamt was possible!

So: 5 things I learned at my first triathlon

1. Someone will always run/swim/cycle faster than you, have better kit than you or a more exciting bike than you. Who cares? Crack along and do what you came to do- prove to yourself that you CAN do it and ignore the distractions.
2. Triathletes are actually a really friendly, kind, welcoming bunch of people. Put your high-school prejudice on a back-burner and go in with an open mind. These are not the cliquey, horrible top-set PE people of Year 10. Everyone I met was amazing, to the point I may actually join Portsmouth Triathletes (eek!)
3. Spin followed by a run is not adequate prep for how hard a cycle-run transition is. I need to cycle a LOT more!
4. Never shave your legs on the morning of a triathlon. Chlorine+rain+sweat+permanent marker=Oooooow (still- 48 hours later!)
5. 3rd from last is still not last, even if one of the people you beat was dressed as a gorilla!

June 14th- here I come!