The Bountiful Triathlon was awesome. I highly recommend it for anyone who’s curious—it’s a GREAT first tri. The run course is fairly flat, and the bike course takes you all the way out to the Legacy Parkway Trail. It was a super fun ride. The swim was a little hectic, just because I got stuck behind a slow swimmer who would NOT let me pass her. It was actually very frustrating to not be able to swim at my full-out and best pace. It was also painful, as she kicked me a few times. Oy vey. All in all though, it was an excellent race and I felt great at the finish line. The only sketchy part was hopping off the bike and running into the pool. It literally felt like my legs were made of JELL-O, and even though it was only a 100-meter run from the transition area to the pool, I felt super awkward, like I was just learning to walk. All I could think was, “Great, Carly, now try doing the ugly, awkward, stiff-legged JELL-O walk for 3 whole miles! Joy!” Here were my times:
3.31 mile run - 32:43
11.35 mile bike ride - 45:58
Transition 2 - 01:15
350 yard swim - 09:28
Total time - 1:31:57
Triathamom was out in Kearns at the Oquirrh Park Fitness Center, right by the Olympic Oval—and it was a TOUGH race. It seemed to be advertised as a tri for beginners, but it was definitely a harder course. The fact that it was in the traditional order (swim, bike, run) made it harder for me, but the bike and run courses were hillier and harder than Bountiful as well. They did a staggered start for the swim, where you rank yourself as a 1-5, and swim with people of your same speed. For the swim times they listed, we probably should’ve been 3’s or 4’s, but Chelsi and I decided to rank ourselves as 2’s. It worked out fine and I think we were in the right group for our ability, we probably would’ve even kept up with the 1’s just fine. But we would’ve been hating life if we had gone with the 3’s or 4’s.
Getting on the bike sopping wet was…interesting. But once I started riding, the built-in AC felt very nice. The bike course was two loops, and the big huge hill on the second loop was…interesting. Chelsi and I found each other on the second loop and it was a lot of fun to have someone to ride with.
We finished the bike course together, and then Chelsi beat me out of the
transition area and started on the run. Remember the aforementioned JELL-O
legs? Um, yeah. Big time. Holy cow. Ouch. To make matters worse, the run course
started uphill, on GRASS. The only thing that made me feel better during that
first mile was looking ahead and seeing Chelsi taking tiny little steps, and
struggling just as hard as I was. If she had just started sprinting with no
apparent ailments, I think I might have collapsed and died right then and
there.
After the first mile, it did get easier, but I still don’t feel like I
was at my best on the run AT ALL. I was concentrating too hard on staying
upright to try to go faster. At long last, I made it back to the grass trail
and the finish line was in sight. My cute family was there, cheering for me and
holding up their awesome homemade signs.
It felt great to finish in a sea of
supportive family, and seeing my smiley baby boy was just icing on the cake.
My
times reflected the difficulty of the course for sure, but who gives a bleep
about times anyway? All I know is that I had a great time, and I only finished
like 40 seconds behind super speedy senorita Chelsi. Not bad!
300 yard swim - 9:06
Transition 1 - 02:00
12.68 mile bike ride - 50:25
Transition 2 - 02:00
Total time - 1:38:00
The best part of the whole experience, besides the feeling at the finish line, was the fact that it gave me something to work out FOR. I love exercising, but sometimes it is so hard to find the time and motivation to be consistent at it. On those mornings where I really didn’t want to get up and run, it really helped to say “You are training for a triathlon, you’d better get yo butt outta bed, girl!” I’m doing another one in November, so hopefully that will keep me in the groove.
Now that I’m a seasoned triathlete, I thought I’d share my
wisdom with the masses (SARCASM). Totally kidding of course, but if you are
thinking about trying a tri, here are some things that I learned doing my first
two:
-Wait
until the morning of the race to get the body markings if you can. When you get
marked up the night before, your sheets and your baby will be covered with
black ink.
-For
a traditional order tri, always put yourself in the faster swimming group, and
let people pass you if needed. It’s much better to be polite and let someone
pass you than to be stuck behind a slow, stubborn swimmer.
-Goos,
gels, sports drinks, etc. are for the birds. I’m sure it’s different in a
longer race, but I was fine with a banana beforehand, water during, and a
couple of Shot Bloks on the bike ride. I got the strawberry kind and they just
taste like a big fruit snack! They also fit very nicely in the fuel pockets in
my tri suit, and I didn’t have to worry about opening a pack of goo while
riding.
-Get
to the transition area earlier than you think you’ll need to. At Triathamom,
there wasn’t much space. We got there in the nick of time and barely secured 3
spaces on the very last bar, but there were tons that arrived after us that had
to walk around and beg for people to scoot their stuff over to make room. You
don’t want to be stressed about getting everything set up 10 minutes before
start time.
-Reverse
tris are the bomb.
