Ahh, here we are again, with another weekly whimsy post! And as promised, today will include the story of my first triathlon. So for those of you that either follow this spiffy blog or know me in real life, you are fully aware of the fact that last semester I suddenly became spontaneous and joined the triathlon team at my university, something that no one really saw coming. All throughout high school I never really had the opportunity to participate in sports because I went to a very small school and our extracurricular options were very limited. So when I got to college I decided to try something new… and I definitely got that. I found the tri team and started by going to “just a few practices” to see if I liked it… and then one day I realized that I was pretty much on the team. Pretty much from that moment on I started swimming, biking, and running like crazy in preparation for my first triathlon, which happened last weekend. So I’m going to take this section at a time, because that’s the best way to tell this story.
So for those of you who don’t know much about triathlons, we start with a swim. The swim in this case was 1000 meters, or 40 laps. Simply put, my swim went “swimmingly well”… you see what I did there? Ha. I crack myself up. There were 4 people in my lane and I was the first one out of the water, which really helped to boost my confidence for the rest of the race. On top of this, when the times were released a few days later, I discovered that my swim time was 2.5 minutes faster than it has ever been before! Score! I hadn’t been faster than 19 minutes any time that I had timed my 1000 meter swim prior to the tri, and for the race I only took about 16.5 minutes – clearly I was pumped up for the beginning of the race. There were a few bumps along the way in the swim, mostly because one of the people in my lane was much slower than the rest of us and we all kept getting bunched up into a group behind him. Eventually he realized this was happening and let us pass him, but it happened 2 or 3 different times every time any of us caught up to him again. Overall though, the swim went really well. And my time was still faster than it had ever been before, so clearly I can’t hold too much of a grudge against the slower guy in my lane.
As for the bike…. I definitely experienced some issues. Not only did a bug manage to fly into my face and get stuck between my eyes and my sunglasses on TWO different occasions (seriously, how does that happen?), but I also had to hop off my bike once to put my water bottle in my water bottle holder because apparently the holder is not positioned correctly. I also realized that apparently I don’t drink water enough on my average bike rides because I had never noticed this as a problem before. But the bug and water incidents are nothing compared to what comes next. The entire bike ride is approximately 12 miles long, and just about a mile after the turn-around, I ran over something sharp, and completely blew out my back tire. That’s right – big hole, no air whatsoever. As I was riding I wasn’t completely sure what happened, but what I knew was that I was riding on a flat tire and still had 5 miles left to go. I briefly considered stopping and trying to pump up my tire, but because the flat had happened so suddenly, I had a strong hunch that there was probably a hole in the tire and that pumping it up wouldn’t do anything except waste time. So… I kept riding. At one point I even had to get off and walk my bike for a minute or two because I hit a really steep up-hill and literally couldn’t push my legs hard enough to make the bike move. Once I reached the top of the hill, I hopped back on the bike and kept pushing to the transition area.
So on to the running portion now. At this point you probably expect that I was a bit discouraged. However, it was actually quite the opposite. As I was biking on my flat tire, much slower than the other triathletes around me with properly inflated tires, I was becoming a bit discouraged. However, once I hit the running portion, I was incredibly proud of myself for getting through the bike despite the obstacles I faced along the way. I was ready to get through the run and pass the finish line knowing that I hadn’t given up. So… I started running. Overall, the run went pretty well. There was one mountain trail that went off of the main level-trail that I didn’t know would be part of the course, so it did throw me a little off-guard and I ended up walking a small portion of it due to my legs being on fire from the previous swim and bike. However, I still ended up being in the fastest half of the recorded run times – which is definitely a success in my book. And even with my small amount of walking, my overall time for the run was still less than 30 minutes – which means that for the 5k run I still ran approximately 10 minute miles. Although a 10 minute mile may be considered slow to some athletes out there, I was barely able to run 2 miles without stopping just 2 months ago, so I was incredibly happy with this.
Crossing the finish line was a pretty amazing feeling. I knew that I had worked hard for this, and that I should be proud of myself. I also finished the entire race in 1 hour and 55 minutes. Considering the fact that nearly half of my bike portion was done on a flat tire, I was very excited that I was under the 2 hour mark. As I passed the finish line I had a few friends waiting on the other side, cheering me on. A good friend of mine showed up to support me, as well as my training partner (who completed the race about 20 minutes before I did), and my coach (who didn’t begin his race until later on that day). I wasn’t sure if anyone would be there as I passed the finish line, so having a few people waiting for me really meant a lot. It didn’t really sink in until a few hours after I had completed the race that I had actually completed my first triathlon. I had been preparing for it for so long that it seemed so strange that it had finally happened.
Alright, alright, so you’re probably wondering what ended up happening with the bike. I got back to the dorm room, inspected the tire, and found that yes indeed – something sharp had leaped out of midair and slashed my tire out of spite. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who rides bikes all the time but knows absolutely nothing about how they work and how to fix them when something goes wrong. I had a spare tube and the equipment to replace the old one, but I had never had to do it before. I spent that evening figuring out how to take out the old tube and put in the new one, a process that included various youtube videos, a few screams, a lot of bike grease EVERYWHERE, help from my roommate, and a break in the middle to reevaluate my life since I appeared to be yelling at a bicycle tire. All in all I ended up getting it fixed, with the help from my swell roommate… or so I thought. Later on that week I went on another ride and it blew out again. So at that point I took it in to a bike shop and figured out that either something had still been stuck in the tire, or it simply hadn’t been inflated enough. However, it’s all good now and the bike is working like a pro again.
Anyway, back to the original quote used for this weekly whimsy post….
Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits.
This quote really describes my new triathletic adventures. At the beginning of last semester I was barely able to run a mile without stopping. Last summer I had never really had the experience of biking for fitness. And 2 weeks ago I had never swam 1000 meters in less than 19 minutes. I have come so far in such a short amount of time, and I can’t wait to see what I can do next, because I will continue to challenge my limits. Up next… my first open water triathlon in Texas at the end of June. I have given myself a bit of a break this past week, but starting on Monday, it’s back to training for Laney… and I’m ready for it. Bring it on. 😉
Oh and of course I need to provide you guys with a picture of this exciting experience… 
I hope this inspired some of you to challenge your limits as well, because without challenging your limits, you’ll never know what you’re truly capable of! Thanks for listening bugs! Until next time…
Love, Laney-Bug ❤
lovelaneybug 