Hempfield Tri for Kids Sake - Spring triathlon report. (Read 413 times)

So yesterday was my first triathlon, the Hempfield Tri for Kids Sake – a sprint distance tri… 300 meter swim, followed by 16 mi. bike, followed by a 3 mile run. Because it was a pool swim (up and back each lane), we were lined up according to our own predicted swim time and set off at 10 second intervals… this meant that we were staggered throughout the race… you were constantly passing people and getting passed but until the final results are posted (they still aren’t) I have no idea where I finished. However, my goal was do it all in 1:30:00 – 1:35:00 and I knew that based on last year, that would put me in the middle of my age group. I was nervous about the swim because I’d definitely trained less for swimming than any other event.. Knowing the swim was only a 300, I knew the difference between a great swim for me and a bad swim for me was 1 minute, I felt the training time would be spent best elsewhere… I finished the swim in 6:34.. thrilled to be out of the water. The bike was ok… I’d ridden the course the weekend before and was so glad I did… knew exactly what to expect and the weather was awesome… I passed people and got passed by people, but spent most of the ride trading places with a girl (in running shoes!) who’d end up making Top 3 for the women… I joked with her that she’d be deadly with real shoes on and she told me that she was just a runner trying something out.. She ended up kicking my butt – that’s for sure. I finished the bike and my transition out of the bike in 58 minutes… really not a great bike time, but a pretty good one for me – I’m just not as strong on the bike as I’d like to be. Being diabetic, I took five seconds in the transition area to do a blood sugar test… was thrilled to see my diabetes planning had gone well… I’d taken off my insulin pump for the race and had taken a GU 2/3 of the way through the bike… my blood sugar was 146 going into the run with some GU left in me.. perfect for a diabetic heading into a 3 mile race. I’d read a lot about the bike to run transition but I wasn’t prepared for how weird the first mile would be. I noticed the runners around me looking ridiculous and realized I looked the same way. It was the weirdest first mile of any run I’d ever had and I was convinced I was doing like nine minute miles and had completely blown up… But before I knew it I’d reached the half-way turnaround and realized I actually had a good pace going. I felt better on the second half of the run and knew I had a chance to reach my stretch goal of 1:30:00 but my muscles were really aching by this point… During the last half mile, I was passed by 1 runner (the only runner to pass me on the run – I passed about five) and I finished in 1:30:09… which I was really pleased with! My run split was 22:15, which last year would’ve been the 4th fastest run out of 50. Not sure where it’ll be this year, but either way, it was definitely my strongest event. The day after a tri feels different than the day after a running race… my legs feel wiped after a running race…. My legs don’t hurt as bad, but my whole body is in moderate pain. So all in all, a very cool experience… super glad I did it, but am looking forward to putting together a great running program for the summer and fall.

Marcus, that sounds awesome! And what a cool event. I think someday I might like to try a sprint tri...I just wish the running portion of those was a little longer--I don't do all that well in 5k races. How great that you seem to have figured-out how to manage your blood sugar under those circumstances. I know that diabetics really have an extra training and nutrition factor that makes figuring out endurance fueling that much more challenging. k

Nice! I did a run/bike/run duathlon once and I can relate to the weird feeling of trying to run after a hard bike ride. And you had the 4th element of monitoring your blood sugar too.