I got up before dawn this morning to head over to Marin County for a triathlon. It was my third ever, and the first in two years. It was also the first open water one I've done. The first leg was a half-mile swim in the Bay, and I'd wanted to try out Bay swimming.
It turned out to be harder than I thought it was going to be. All the racers gathered at the end of the marina, and then started the race in waves. It was a water start, meaning that we all took off from a line about 20 feet out from the dock. I jumped into the water to acclimate about three minutes before my wave left, which was a good idea, because when I first got in my arms went numb. Unfortunately they remained that way when it was time to start swimming, which made it hard to do a decent crawl stroke (what with not being able to raise my arms out of the water). I eventually managed a breaststroke, and near the end was finally able to muster a crawl stroke and pick up some speed.
I also had made things difficult for myself by forgetting to bring my goggles. I can swim with my eyes open, but I was a little afraid to because I thought they might hurt from the drying salt during the later stages of the race. Had I had the goggles it might have encouraged me to keep my face in the water, thus making me more streamlined and my swimming more efficient. But I guess it wasn't too bad – I still did the leg in about 20 minutes, I think.
The next stage was a nine-mile bike ride, which was more tedious than challenging. My issue was just that it was the first time I'd ridden a bike in about two years. I was having problems remembering how to change gears... But it was nice to get at least one ride in this summer. At least I didn't shlep my bike all the way out here for nothing...
(I'd had grand plans to ride every weekend after my soccer games. But then reality set in, and I've been lucky to make to the games at all, let alone squeeze in a bike ride afterwards.)
Then there was a two-mile run. This is the part I'm most disappointed in. I've never been a good runner, but I've been known to manage it somewhat competently from time to time. But I just couldn't keep myself from walking the run today. My legs quickly started to hurt (which was somewhat surprising to me given that I did manage to play some soccer this summer, even as recently as last week), and I suddenly became very worried about being really sore afterwards and having it mess up my week.
But I felt very chagrined that my legs hurt because it was evidence of my lousy conditioning. Of course, this run wasn't going to help fix that because I was walking it. So the run ended up being a vicious cycle of demoralization, where I didn't push myself because I felt bad about being out of shape, and then felt worse for not pushing myself.
On retrospect, however, I think the race would have gone better if there had been mileage markers. Part of the reason I didn't push myself was because I didn't know how to budget my energies. I was very afraid of coming up short. But had I known how far I was progressing and how much was left, I think I would have been able to do better.
Even so, it was still nice to be reminded that I can do these kinds of races. The distance is nothing I can't handle one way or another, and now I have some idea of what open water swimming is like. There's another open water tri I have my eye on for later this summer, and if I can work out the logistics I think I'll sign up. Emotional melodrama aside, these things are a lot of fun to do.
Edited, because blogging while dehydrated does not lead to pretty results.
Edit 8/10/05: I just saw the official results. Man, I suck. I finished in 323rd place, out of 342 with a total time of 1:32:59. I was in 290th place for the swimming, having done it in 18:18 (I guess I did break 20 minutes...); 304th place for the biking with what I think was an 11 mph rate (which is terrible for me - I should be able to do at least 12 mph or even 14 since there were no traffic lights); and 332nd place on the run, doing two miles in 25:31.7 at a rate of 12:46 (oddly, I would have thought that a good pace for me, but it seems clear that I could have gone faster had I not walked it.)
So this is kind of depressing, mostly with respect to the bike. But on the upside, what with not having any idea what it was like to swim in the Bay, I'm ok with that swimming time.