KC Triathlon….part 1
I’ve been training for months in preparation for today. The Kansas City Triathlon is the first in a line of events to test my conditioning this year. I have wanted to complete a triathlon for years but never could muster up the strength to do so. After 7 months of CrossFit training, I was in the best shape I’ve been in since high school. I added in some additional swim and bike training and signed up for the short course.
The morning started at 5:00 am. I wasn’t really nervous about today’s events til this morning. When I woke up, there was already some butterflies brewing. I had set out all of today’s necessities last night so I all I really needed was to clean up and eat, then be on the way. My belly didn’t feel like finishing the two scrambled eggs I fixed and the butterflies sparked a few extra trips to bathroom. So I headed off to Longview Lake. I thought arriving a little before six o’clock would be good, but apparently so did everyone else. I had to park nearly a half mile from the swim beach and walk all my equipment down.
Race officials drew my race number on my arms and legs when I arrived at the transition area and then marked my age on my left calf. The magic marker proved difficult to wash off later but did the job. Next task was to get my tracking chip. It fits in a little velcro ankle bracelet and tracks each time you make a pass over the special mats. It’s a fantastic way to keep track of time and get instant results. With the necessary requirements taken care of, my buddy Josh and I walked down to the swim beach to check out the area. The course looked kind of long standing on the beach.
The transition area was full of lots of people, so I started getting stuff ready. With that set up, the last thing that needed done before the race….visit the porta-potty. Lines were long and I had to hurry back and get finished dressing before we were forced to move from the transition area to the beach. It was also full of people. The race official making announcements was ill-prepared for the large crowd and his speaker didn’t pierce the noise. I hoped I wasn’t missing out on important information.
There were eleven scheduled waves of participants to enter the water. We were in wave 9. All the long course racers went off first and there was about a fifteen minute wait before the sprint racers were ready to start heading out. I made my way to the side nearest the buoys and planned on making a straight swim and cornering tight. Slower racers were starting towards the outside to keep from getting run over. That might have been a smarter plan. Once we entered the water, pandemonium started. It reminded me of feeding the fish at the lake. It was so thick you could probably walk across the water. People were swimming over me, against me, kicking me, going across my legs, and everything else you can think of. I hoped to start off at a decent pace and concentrate on technique. Well, that went right out the window. I started to think more about surviving than swimming. With the sun shining directly in from the direction we were headed, I couldn’t see the buoys at all. All I could see was splashing. I tried to put my head down and swim but every time I did, I ran into some one. Plus, the waves of water kept smacking me in the face when I was trying to breathe, so I spent some time choking and swallowing water (good call on that one Chandra).
It was about 150-200 meters out that doubts started took over my mind. I remember thinking…what have I gotten myself into….I hope I don’t drown. I finally make it to the first turn and needed to go left and swim parallel with the beach. It was at this point that I finally started to get some swimming space. I think everyone in my wave was in front me and the next wave behind us was starting to catch up. But it was nice to be able to start concentrating on my technique. The swim across to the next turn took much less time than the previous section. It’s amazing how much faster you can go when other people aren’t in the way. I think I started to make up some time here.
Around the next turn, I started to even out on the pace. The first part of the race was crazy and I was out of breath really quick. But now I was able to breathe regularly and keep my head down. I felt like I was really moving along. The beach still looked like it was a long way away but the racers were pretty spread out. I think this was one of the few times all day that I started passing other racers. The only problem I had on the return swim was the large waves. There must have been a boat out in the lake that created some good size waves. That made it hard to breathe when I turned my head and was being hit by a wall of water. I held my breath a little longer on the next strokes and tried to time to breaths between wave crests. This worked out ok. Finally, I made it back to the beach.
Up the hill I went trying to strip my wet suit off. It fit pretty tight (it’s borrowed..thanks J) and is a bit uncomfortable in some rather delicate areas. I was glad to finally being getting it off. It did an awesome job keeping me warm and helping with flotation. But stripping it off was the signal to my brain that I might actually live through this race.
Next up…the bicycle.
