Triathlon Report – 1st Annual Non-Invitational Self-Supported Post-Baby Tri!

After my horrible, no-good, very bad failed triathlon on 9/23 in which I didn’t finish the swim (arguably my strongest sport at this point), I was determined that I would still do a triathlon this year, as it was in my 2012 goals to finish one. Being the end of September, there weren’t a lot of local organized choices left.

So, I decided to just do my own. There were some logistical issues with the triathlon, but thanks to the awesomeness of The Ambitious One (it was not really a self-supported tri; it was an Ambitious One supported tri).

The morning of my tri, I planned to meet the Ambitious One at 9 am at the pool. A series of mishaps and the fact that it just takes longer to do anything when a baby is involved made me late.

I got to the pool (the architect dropped off my bike and me) and locked up my bike then went inside to start the swim. Immediately upon getting my stuff ready, I realized that I had forgotten to grab my small swim bag. In that small swim bag were my goggles and cap. My hair is short enough now that I could get by without a cap, but 800 yds in the pool without goggles is pretty hard.

Fortunately, I was meeting the Ambitious One, and she is awesome. She lent me her goggles and kicked for my entire swim. I did a 200 yd warm-up before starting my watch and beginning my tri.

I did my 800 yds in 17:19, which is the second fastest paced swim I’ve ever recorded. (The fastest paced swim ever recorded still stands as the mile swim I did at 39.5 weeks pregnant in March.)

I didn’t time my transitions, because they were ridiculous…after I got out of the pool, the Ambitious One gave me my swag bag full of powerbar products and body marked me for the rest of the race.

I got to choose my age – and went with my real one, because I like being 35. When asked for my race number, I chose 666 because it was funny, and my standard motivation for almost everything is whether or not it will be funny. (I tried my hardest to convince the architect to marry me on June 6 in 2006 – he declined because apparently he is less dedicated to funny than I am.) This is important later.

After running down to the locker room and having a devil of a time (see what I did there?) getting my sports bra on (damp skin & tight clothes do not work together). I unlocked my bike, put my whole bag + lock at the Ambitious One’s locker, and started the timer for the ride.

My goal was to do the 16 miles that was the distance in the Portland Triathlon. The Ambitious One was meeting me at my place at 11:30 to run the 5K with me, so I wanted to be there by then.

The bike ride was insane. Seriously completely insane.

After getting downtown, I rode through an untented revival. There were hymns and and a great mass of people. And a few of them saw my race number. One of them took it upon herself to call me the Daughter of Satan. Already, the funny was paying off!

I rode along the waterfront and was intending to cross the Steel Bridge. Just as I got there, I noticed another large mass of people on the Bridge. Turns out it was a suicide victim awareness walk. For a memorial walk, they were not very solemn and friendly. I got off my bike to walk across, there being too many people to safely walk through, and nearly got into a fist fight with a large woman who thought I was not being properly respectful. Eventually, I got through the mass without throwing any punches, and made my way up to Interstate, where a car whose driver was reading a map nearly hit me after he ran a red light.

I continued my ride without much further incident, but was very much behind schedule, and then hit every red light possible. When I neared my home, I had done about 10 miles, and didn’t have enough time to finish the full six by 11:30. I did 4 more miles (and was barked at by a woman on the trail) and finished my 14 miles by 11:30.

I finished in 1:17:09 (11 mph average). Every time I looked down when I was actually riding, I was going 14 + mph, so I think if I had a closed course, I could’ve done this a lot faster.

As I approached the house, there was my welcoming committee!

I changed my shoes & shorts & hit the rest stop, then kissed my supporters good bye for luck & headed out for the run.

The 5K was wicked hard, but fortunately the Ambitious One kept me on track! I could not have done it without her, for sure!

The 5K was one of my slowest ever – 41:28 (and certainly the slowest at the end of a triathlon), but it was my fasted post-baby 5K!

When we came in sight of the house, the Ambitious One ran ahead to get finish line photos, and I did a sprint to the finish.

 

And there it is! Done with my triathlon! Since I didn’t time the transitions, I’ve no idea what my total time was. But it is a PR for the course, for the post-baby life, and for the distance, as every other sprint tri had a 12-mile bike instead of 14. So yay me!

 

I have decided that my total transition times were likely about 15-20 minutes (we’ll go with the most conservative estimate), which makes my total triathlon time 2:35:56 – which is 45 minutes slower than my next slowest triathlon. BUT, as I said, it was course PR and a post-baby PR, and not having a closed course makes it very difficult.

 

And now – that can be crossed off my list as a 2012 goal!

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