I participated in my first indoor triathlon relay today which consisted of a 15-minute lap swim, a 15-minute stationary bike, and a 15-minute track run. I did it with my P&G triathlon relay teammates: Loretta and Charlotte.

Since it was our first time doing an indoor triathlon, we had no idea what to expect. We arrived super early to familiarize ourselves with the layout and logistics of the race. Charlotte brought her husband and 2 friends so we had our own cheering squad. 😄

Some synchronize swimmers were in the pool next to our race pool so we got to watch them practise which was a huge treat. We kept on saying, how do they do that??

The race was split into 9 waves with a maximum of 16 people per wave. We were in wave 5. When it was time for Loretta to swim, I went down to the pool deck with her for moral support and to take some photos. Loretta had only swam twice in preparation for this event but she makes up for it with her youth. 😅 She ended up swimming 26 laps (650m) in 15 minutes which is way more than what I would be able to do!

After Loretta finished swimming, I took the score card and walked it up to the bike area. Charlotte was already there and was waiting to set up her bike as soon as wave 4 was done. Thankfully, she was assigned the bike at the end so our cheering squad had a good vantage point. She ended up doing 10.2k in 15 minutes. Good thing Charlotte spins a lot! She did such an amazing job!!

After Charlotte was done, I walked our scorecard to the running track. I gave my scorecard to one of the volunteer lap counters who looked like she would be responsible enough to do the job. (I bypassed all the teenagers 🤣). She took my scorecard and barely even looked at me which made me a bit worried. Before the race started, the main timekeeper told us to make eye contact with our lap counters at each lap, just in case, which made me even more worried. As the race progressed, a few times, I saw my lap counter chatting with the other volunteers as I passed by. By then, I could only hope that she was actually paying attention but I was already planning on how I would be disputing my laps.

My goal was to run 15 laps in 15 minutes. Each lap is 200m so if I did 15 laps, it would have been 3km. I did the first few laps in under a minute each which was very fast for me and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sustain that pace. Sure enough, as the race progressed, I took longer and longer per lap. When I was at around lap 8-10, I realized I was not going to make 15 laps but there was still a chance I could run 14.5 laps. I completed lap 14 in 14:30 which meant I had to do half a lap in under 30 seconds to get 14.5 laps. I sprinted as hard as I could and crossed the last half lap just before the 15 minutes was up.

Turns out my lap counter didn’t fail me. She counted 14.5 laps and even congratulated me on doing some laps in a sub-1 minute pace. I’m happy with my results. 14.5 laps in 15 minutes is 2.9km and a pace of 5:10 minutes per km. I’m glad I got that last half lap in!

Nutrition log:

• Pre-run: We were supposed to have a Subway sandwich for lunch but ended up having Pizza Pizza instead. 😣 At least I had it 3 hours before so it had some time to digest but I wouldn’t recommend pizza and pop as a pre-race meal. I also had lots of water but I was still so thirsty. I think all the salt this weekend has caught up to me. I also remember being thirsty like this before the Chilly Half too. Maybe it has to do with pre-race jitters?
• Mid-run: I didn’t have anything. Since it was only 15 minutes, I didn’t think I would need anything. I don’t know how I would have been able to drink anything anyway given the pace I was going which was super fast for me. I now have more appreciation for the runners who can sustain long distances at a fast pace – how do they fuel??
• Post-run: I just had more water. I figured I didn’t need to eat or drink anything else because it was just a 15 minute run.

Overall, an indoor triathlon would be a good way to get into the sport since it’s in a controlled environment and these are relatively short distances. I still had a good time because I was there with friends but I must admit that I much prefer running outdoors and it seems so anticlimactic to go to a race with no bling. 😂