So. Much. Fun. That pretty much sums up my first triathlon.

Background

I signed up for a triathlon relay 2 years ago without knowing anything about the sport. I wasn’t even a runner yet back then but I was really drawn to the idea of participating in a triathlon and thought a relay was a great way to try it out.

I remember going to the orientation session the day before the race. I had information overload from all the new terminology and rules: transition area, markings, how to rack your bike, run/bike in/out, drafting, when to mount/dismount, wave starts, etc… Our whole relay team was new to the sport but we muddled our way through and managed to place 3rd in our division – mainly because there were only 6 teams in total! 😄

Last year, at the same race, I bumped into a friend who was doing her first triathlon. I’ve never known her as a very athletic person so I thought if she can do it, I should be able to do it too! I also thought it would be a great way to force myself to cross-train which should also help with my running.

Initially, I thought the swim would be the most challenging event for me so I started to swim once a week and set a target to build up to 60 laps (1,500m) in the pool. I figured that would be sufficient to give me the confidence that I wouldn’t drown.

For the bike part, the other Lisa from the RunNinjas crew offered to sell me her road bike. I had no intention of buying a road bike and I don’t know anything about bikes but I’m so glad I bought it. The bike is fast and so much fun to ride. The first time I went out, I fell twice, but now that I am used to the clipless pedals, it’s not so scary anymore. 😊

Pre-race

The Rose City Triathlon is held in Welland Ontario at the Welland International Flatwater Centre. It was a beautiful facility and a beautiful day. Perfect conditions for my first triathlon.

My friend Sheena and I did it together. We arrived the night before and checked out the venue. We stayed at the Niagara College residence with a triathlon rate. We had a great pre-race dinner, did a short ride around the campus parking lot after dinner, chatted for a while back at the hotel and went to bed at 10pm.

The next morning, I woke up at 6:20am, showered, drank 200ml of Nuun at 7am, had my PB&J and another 200ml of Nuun at 7:30am and drove to the race. I usually don’t drink Nuun pre-race but I drank it to help with hydration because I knew it was going to be a hot day.

When we got to the venue, we picked up our bibs, racked our bikes, set up our transiton area, and took some selfies. About 20 minutes before our start, we heard a loud pop and realized it was Sheena’s tire. Thankfully, the guys at Velofix were there and they were able to change her inner tube quickly (and for free!) and we still had lots of time to put on our wetsuits and get to the swim start.

The swim

We jumped into the water about 3 minutes to 9am. This was the first time I swam in my wetsuit. I quickly realized that my wetsuit was flapping around my calves because I have huge calves and I wasn’t able to zip it up at the bottom. Oh well – there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I just ignored the flapping.

I tried to start a little bit behind everyone to avoid being kicked in the face. About 100m into the swim, someone kept on swimming into me forcing me to go off course. By the time I realized what was happening, I stopped and let her pass me and the got back on track. That was a bit annoying.

The rest of the swim was uneventful and even tranquil. The water was cool but the sun was hot. It was lovely.

T1

When I got out of the water, I was thrilled that my swim was under 20 minutes which was my goal. Unfortunately, I ended up taking a lot time in T1. I couldn’t get my wetsuit off (darn calves) and it took a while for me to put on my shirt, gloves, helmet, dry my feet, and put on my socks and shoes. After my costume change, I inhaled an Endurance Tap, took a large gulp of Nuun, and off I went.

The Bike

I walked/ran the bike to the mount line as fast as I could with my awkward bike shoes. Clippity clop, clippity clop. The bike course was 5 loops of an L shaped loop so there were 2 u-turns per loop where you had to slow down considerably. I took it cautiously the first loop but once I got used to going fast and was passing people, I just went for it for the last few loops.

The bike makes all the difference. Most people who were passing me had really nice bikes. I can see how people would easily get bike envy!

T2

After I completed 5 loops, I dismounted my bike at the dismount line and walked/ran to the transition zone. This time, I just had to change into my running shoes, take off my helmet and gloves. I sipped some Nuun, took my Endurance Tap, and headed to the run course.

The Run

The run course was 2×2.5 loops mostly along the canal. It was 29C but I still felt strong. As soon as I got on the course, I took my Endurance Tap. Then I used my typical strategy of picking people off and it felt so good to be passing people! Whenever I looked at my watch, it was telling me I was going under 5min/km and my cadence was in the high 180s which was so surprising because I didn’t feel like I was going that fast. One of my hypothesis is that the bike helped me go faster because I had a high cadence on the bike and I was going fast so this speed carried through to the run too. Is that even possible? Or was it just the race environment and the adrenaline? Maybe a bit of both.

It is an amazing feeling to cross the line still feeling strong!

Post-race

Sheena’s parents came to watch the race and took some post-race photos for us. We had the typical post race food (bagel, banana, orange, pretzels, juice) and rested a while before going back into the transition area to pick up our bikes and stuff.

I had such a great time at the race, I can’t wait to do my next one which will be IronGirl in Grimsby with Lisa in Aug! My plan is to do a couple of Olympic distance triathlons next year and then do the 70.3 the year after with Sheena. Gonna be fun!!