Did the sprint triathlon today, my first...kind of neutral about the whole experience. Not terrible; not glorious either.
The open-water swim was the hardest part. The water was colder than I expected; it had cooled down a lot since my practice swim in that same part of San Francisco Bay a few weeks ago. I had a little trouble breathing, it was so cold. Also, the waves were whipped up by a brisk breeze. And the water is so murky, the only way to make sure you're going in the right direction is to lift your head way out of the water, above the waves--it forced me to do the breast stroke for a few seconds more than once. It's nearly impossible to see anything out there, including the other human beings in the water; I bumped into swimmers (lightly) a few times. As a result of all these complications, my best swimming form was just not there during most of the swim, and my time was pretty slow.
The bike and run portions were without mishaps for the most part, except for the fact that my feet were so cold I couldn't feel the front part of them during the first fifteen minutes of the run. It was like running on stumps. Needless to say, I didn't have my best form during the run, either.
It took several seconds longer than it should have to get my bike shoes on because of the snug fit of the shoes I'd just bought--wasn't used to them. Also, I missed the metal grips in the pedal the first time I mounted my bike. A rookie mistake, which cost another eight seconds or so. And lacing up the running shoes really does take an extra ten seconds at least...all those things add up.
However, and this is the best part: I felt amazingly good during the last half of the bike portion and for almost the entire run portion. It was some sort of endorphin blast, allowing me to go fast at the end of the bike ride, and during the last part of the run. This caught me by surprise. Does it mean that I didn't push hard enough in the middle part of both races? Perhaps. At any rate, it felt wonderful.
My son and husband were a fantastic support team, getting up at 5:20 and getting out the door without hesitation or grumbling. (I won't subject them to that again; if there is another triathlon in my future, I'll buy a bike rack and get there by myself.)
And now it's done, thank goodness...did I enjoy it? Would I want to do it again?
I still think that triathlons are very expensive, white-upper-middle-class-oriented affairs, and there's too much danger involved in the bike part of the race. Those two factors, and the unpleasantness of being very cold at the start of the race--oh, and the pointlessness of making the transitions an actual part of the race--are not attractive aspects of the sport for me.
On the plus side: I still love those three activities--biking, running, swimming. A lot. The triathlon hasn't spoiled that for me.
So I will probably do a few more, then stop...and take up the electric bass.
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