Jay Benson Race Report

It's official, I have successfully completed my very very first triathlon.

The Jay Benson Triathlon was a sprint. I told myself it was a very do-able sprint. This particular sprint tri was a 3mi run, followed by a 12mi bike, followed by a 400m swim. Anytime other non-athletes would ask me, I'd imply that it was so easy your Grandma could do it. In theory, this is true -- if your Grandma were a pretty fit gal...

I don't know why I talked it down so much, I guess maybe it was so that I wouldn't get too freaked out about it.

I've been training for it since November, when I finally got brave enough to admit to one other person that it's what I wanted to do. It was hard even admitting it -- it seemed like such a tough sport to train for. I'll be the first to admit that I like a challenge, but it took me about a year to work up the nerve to get to this point. I only started running last year, I didn't even own a bike, and swim? I had more success with drowning. So here's what I did:

• I finally worked up the nerve to tell a professional trainer that I wanted to train for a triathlon. He didn't laugh at me immediately, so he was hired. Seth told me what to do, and I made it a point to do everything he said and then some. He inspired me because he was working off a nasty soccer injury, and I'm an incontinent old lady with scoliosis -- you can see the parallels here.
• I made friends with a really nice guy who has about 400 million years of experience (he owns the Bike Coop) and didn't laugh at my stupid questions. My friend Dave thinks nothing of 300 mile weekends in the saddle. He told me it's not the bike it's the engine. Dave is sure smart, and patient.
• My sponsor (AKA mommy) bought me my bike in December - a beautiful used Schwinn Super Sport. It is much lighter than my beloved's bicycle, I like to remind him of that often. I've been out on it every chance I could between then and now. I went on brutal rides with some fantastically talented riders (including a few of these people) -- there they were, waaaay up there in the distance. Boy did their asses look good. And they were surprisingly nice people. Some of them laughed at me, I don't ride with them any more.
• I hired another trainer to teach me how to swim. Jimmy is as patient a teacher as there is, and he has a baby so he knows what it's like to be a parent and a wannabe athlete. And he didn't laugh at me either.
• My beloved laughed at me sometimes, but I've learned to put up with his insolence. Plus, he bought me a CycleOps trainer for Christmas. You could tell our household had changed profoundly at Christmastime -- he bought me the fluid trainer, I bought him a Garmin ForeRunner. Many of our friends don't know what either of those things are.

Though I've trained each of those distances and then some since November, I'd never put them together back-to-back (well, there was that one Saturday, but that was a 4hr deal...) until yesterday.

Let me just say, it was a record turn-out, there were like 400 and something people there. The race was sold out. All of these people had trained for it forever, they were all extremely fit. Who knew there were so many super-studs in New Mexico?!

Beloved started in the men's race early, and he flew away from the start like he'd been shot out of a cannon. His goal was to get ahead of as many as he could, he hates to pass people. Plus with a whole DAY off (the shortest taper ever), he was like a caged tiger.

The women's race started about half an hour later. I was pretty much unprepared when everybody just started running away. My stomach fell out of my pants into my shoes. It's very hard to run with your stomach in your shoes.

I ran hard. I could tell I was running hard because it was hard. I had opted not to take a watch or a heartrate monitor, but I was close to (if not in) the puke zone. I stayed comfortably mid-pack, I didn't get passed. I ran past a prairie dog town, and there was a pissed-off prairie dog out of his hole squeaking at me with everything he had, fist in the air. I fantasized that he was cheering me on and I shook my fist back at him.

I got to T1, ran to my bike and got out. The bike course was a y-shaped affair. Out was fast fast fast -- I was on fire! I passed a lot of people. I clocked my maximum best highest speed ever on the Schwinn -- because it was downhill with a tailwind. Sweet! I remember thinking, if the bike course goes like this I'll finish in no time! But of course, we had to come back up hill into a head wind. Crap! On the plus side, nobody passed me after that.

I finished the bike and got to T2, my kids were shouting at me! My mother was there! My husband coached me (he had just finished) told me what to expect. I racked the bike, put my shoes on and grabbed my swimcap and goggles. At 1:10 I was trotting through the parking lot to the pool.

And that's where I have room for improvement.

I got into the pool STILL fucking with my goggles and swimcap. Women were jumping in before me, pushing me away. I started swimming, and I had the hardest time catching my breath. It wasn't like I was out of breath, but swimming is a totally different cadence and breathing discipline from biking and running, and I was suddenly gasping for air. And that pool was deep - like spooky deep! They told me it would freak me out, and it did. What's up with that?!

Not my personal best time for the swim, needless to say. But I finished, and hopped out of the pool and over the mat. I was ready to go again! That had to be the Gu talking, ready to go again? No way.

By the time I stood still for a bit (much later), I was ready for a nap.

By the evening, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

I took 2 naps, and then I ate everything. I went into the kitchen and daintily cut up everything I could find, put it into a bowl and ate it.

Results here. 66th overall in the women, 11th in my age group.

I then read my e-mail to find out that Beloved and I got into this race - we made the lottery (oh shit!).

I took today off, I'll be back at it tomorrow because I'll be training for this next and this right afterward.