Escape From the Rock Triathlon: My First Tri!

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were a kid?  I remember very distinctly that I had two very clear dreams for myself: 1) Become an Olympic Swimmer (I recently admitted to myself that unfortunately, this dream will never come to fruition), and 2) Do a triathlon.  Apparently I thought I could make a living doing these things for ever and ever.

I'm not sure what it was that put the triathlon thought in my head.  My parents didn't do triathlons, I had no other family members that did, and I had no close friends that had either.  In fact, I had never met a single person (to my knowledge) that had completed a triathlon.  So where this elementary thought occurred from, who knows?  But as a 7 year old, I knew I loved to swim, and I liked to ride my bike, but I NEVER thought I could run.  Three marathons later, I think I've got that portion covered.

It may have taken a much longer time to accomplish this goal than it should have, and I may have come to accomplishing it in a roundabout way through years of sedentary life in NYC and then a few years of running, but here it is...a picture of childhood dreams come true:

Double thumbs up for childhood dreams.

I may not have been super prepared for this race, because I hadn't been on a bike or swam in weeks.  I also borrowed almost every item of clothing I wore in the race from Ironman MacKenzie (new winter goal: save up money for wetsuit, tri shorts, race bib belt, and bike jersey that fits my abnormally long torso).

Despite this, I finished.  And I'm pretty proud of how I did.  I finished 4th in my division (granted, there were only 19 people in my division, but I still think that's pretty good!).  

This was a small, local race with only about 300 participants total.  I loved the size for my first tri.  Nothing was too overwhelming, overdone, or intimidating.  And there were lots of other first timers, so I didn't feel as anxious as I could have.

Jamie also competed and finished her first tri in this race.  It was great having another friend there in the same boat as me.  Here were are, all bundled up pre-race.

As promised earlier, a picture of our awesome height differential.  Just under
a full foot between us.

We also had an amazing cheer squad there for us.  Ironman MacKenzie, Ironman Jason, and Half-Marathon Woman Dorothy all came out to cheer us on.  Unfortunately, we did not take a picture of the cheer squad, but they deserve as much credit as us for being out there on a gloomy September Sunday in Seattle just to cheer us on.  Thanks friends!

Now let's get down to the details.  I completed the Escape From the Rock Triathlon in Mercer Island, Seattle.  Somehow, this race is in fact linked to the Alcatraz Escape From the Rock race, but I'm not really sure how.  Escaping from Alcatraz sounds way cooler than escaping from Mercer Island, but I'll take what I can get.  The swim and the transition area is in Luther Burbank Park on the northern end of Mercer Island.  This is a beautiful little park, and if you've never been and live in the Seattle area, get out there and take a look.

The Swim

The swim started from the beach at the southern end of Luther Burbank.  It was one big loop in Lake Washington, and the water was about 72 degrees, which seemed perfect to me.  Before the race, we gathered by the beach to listen to the details of the race.

The man standing on the lifeguard chair made announcements and he was
AMAZING.  He seemed to love to hear himself talk and wasn't happy
until the entire crowd was laughing before the race start.

They started the swim in 4 waves of 75 people.  You could tell it was a low key race when they had to encourage the crowd to get in the water to fill the first wave.  I waited until the second and then hopped in the water.

The start of the swim is what I've been most nervous about leading up to my first tri.  I've heard Ironman MacKenzie recently tell of her swim experience in her Ironman, a race where there is a 2,000 person mass start.  That's right.  2,000 people--and they just say "Ready, Go!"  My 75 person wave was intimidating enough for me at this point.

After they started us, it took me a couple minutes to find a clear path to swim in.  I still am just not comfortable kicking and hitting people as I swim.  This is apparently something I will need to get over as I become a triathlete, but it's going to be hard for me.  I also inadvertently swallowed a lot water (eww, lake water) at the beginning, which made my tummy feel funny.

Once I found an opening, I settled into a steady pace, looking up every now and then to make sure I was headed towards the buoys where I was supposed to be.  The water was really wavy (much wavier than calm Green Lake), which took some getting used to.  My arms weren't as tired as I thought they'd be, and I felt like I was just getting warmed up as I rounded the last turn to head into shore (this will be a recurring theme).

Running in a wetsuit on jello legs to the transition.  Not the most comfortable
feeling I've ever had.

Swim Finish: .5 miles in 13:06

Swim to Bike Transition

After the swim start, the biggest thing I was worried about was the transitions.  I had no mental picture or physical practice with transitions, so I felt like I was entering completely unknown territory here.  Luckily, the race volunteers had let friends and family into the transition area until the race start, so Ironman Jason helped me to set up my transition area.

Some key pieces of advice from Ironman Jason:

1)  Bike necessities laid out first, followed by run gear.

2)  Sun glasses in helmet so you won't forget them.

3)  Roll your socks up like a ________ (you fill in the blank here) so you can put them on when your feet are wet, then stick them in your bike shoes.

4)  I'm sure there were some other pointers, but I don't remember them anymore.  Oops.

I probably took way too long in this transition, but I wanted to give myself time to wrap my brain around what I was doing and make sure I didn't forget anything.  Also, it was a really long run from the water to the transition area.  And at some parts we had to pick our way over a gravel path that wasn't quite covered enough.  In transition, I stripped off my wetsuit as quick as I could (how do you get those legs over your heels quickly??), threw on my bike jersey, unrolled my socks onto my feet, buckled up my bike shoes, and downed a GU, some Nuun, and a little water.  After strapping on my helmet, I was off.

Caught with my pants down.  Don't let my white tummy
blind you.

Swim to Bike Transition: 5:03

The Bike

The bike course of this race had you start in the north parking lot of Luther Burbank, climb up the hill to I90, and then ride the I90 express lanes across the 90 floating bridge.  The view from the bridge is gorgeous, but it was incredibly windy.  A couple times, I could feel my whole body tip as I was blown sideways.  This made it hard to gain much speed.

And I'm off!

As I started out the bike, my legs felt like absolute jello.  I felt like I couldn't push them hard enough to get any real speed up the hills, so on the downhills I shifted into my highest gears and pushed as hard as I could.  As flat as 90 may seem as you are driving across it, there are actually a lot of ups and downs between those tunnels and the bridge.  

There were 2 turnarounds on the bike--one at the end of the 90 tunnel on the Seattle side, and one at the end of the tunnel on the Bellevue side.  The Bellevue side is the last turn around, and this is right where my legs finally felt like they could do some work.  This allowed me to push up the steep off ramp back on Mercer Island.  But again, it felt like I was just getting warmed up as soon as it was time to stop.

Overall, I'm actually quite happy with how the bike turned out.  I was able to pass a number of people and only got passed by two or three others.  And I was pushing it as hard as my jello legs would let me.

Coming up the final hill into the finish.  I kinda almost look like a triathlete
or something.

Bike Finish: 12 miles in 40:31 (avg. pace 17.8 mph)

Bike to Run Transition

This transition was much easier.  A quick shoe change, down another GU, some more Nuun, and some water.  Threw on my Nike+ GPS watch, which luckily caught it's signal very quickly, and I was off.  I still feel like I could have done this much faster though.  But I'm keeping in mind that this was my first tri.  Slow transitions are allowed.

Bike to Run Transition: 2:26

The Run

As much as I love swimming and biking, running is still my strong point.  But although this was a short run, it still wasn't easy.  By the time I started out, my legs felt like jello again, except this time jello made of lead.  If that's possible.  It must be, because that's what they felt like.

It didn't help that the first half of the run went straight uphill.  From the transition area, up the trail to the I90 overpass until the halfway point, and then we turned around and came back.  My legs felt like they just did not want to go up this hill.  At some point towards the top, I even stopped and walked for about 10 seconds to give my legs just a little bit of a break.  Despite the jello lead feeling, I was quite surprised with my pace as I climbed the hill.  I knew if I pushed it hard down the hill on the way back, I could clock a pretty quick pace for the entire run.

Again, my legs just started to get warmed up to running as I re-entered the park for the finish.  I powered through the end, and crossed the finish line feeling pretty great.

Look at that speed.  Why aren't my feet blurry like the guy in front of me?  It's
OK, I passed him in the end cause the nice lady volunteer I saw before this
turn yelled at me and told me to.

Run Finish: 2.5 miles in 19:07 (avg pace 8:15 min/mile)

Total Finish Time: 1:20:12 and proud of it.

Finishers!!! (Yes, I'm squatting in this picture)

Overall, I felt like this was a great starter race for me.  Yes, there are places where I could have done better.  Yes, I can definitely smooth out my transitions.  I also think that a little bit of a longer distance tri (maybe Olympic) would be better for me, because then I could actually get some miles in with warmed up arms and legs instead of trying to function with jello.  But I did the best that I could for my first tri, and I couldn't be happier with how things turned out.  After all, racing (of any kind) is about an addiction.  An addiction to knowing you can always do better, be better, and try harder.  It only gets better from here.

Now I just have to wait out the winter and see what next year's tri season will bring!  Can't wait.

(photo credits to Jason, Dorothy, and MacKenzie, an awesome and dedicated picture-taking cheer squad!)

Have you done tri's before?  Any advice for a newbie triathlete?  Or an easier question: did you do anything this weekend you're super proud of?  Tell me!