So, I did it! My first triathlon is under my belt, I loved it (in retrospect!), and I'm totally ready for more. It was NOT a breeze though, it turned out to be much harder than I was expecting. i went into it a bit blasé. At some points during the race I decided it was the worst time of my life and I would NEVER do this hideousness EVER AGAIN. Ha!
My husband has now banned me from mentioning the T-word, the I-word or the R-word in his presence (I'm sure you can guess what they are!) but that's why I have a blog, right?
Writing race reports is hard work! I was composing things in the middle of the race, but somehow don't seem to remember all the witty comments afterwards, so here goes....
Pre-race
I caught the train with my bike with no problems and arrived in Zürich. Once there, I needed to go first to the race site, by the lake, to pick up my race pack. I decided to walk and immediately got lost. I ended up spending a fair amount of time that day walking and cycling round Zürich, all the while carrying my heavy backpack, which was possibly suboptimal race preparation.
Once I found the race site, it was exhilerating. I had forgotten that on the Sunday, the day after my race, Ironman Switzerland was taking place. As soon as I got in the vicinity of the lake I started to see lots of buff men (surprisingly few women) riding divine bikes and I even spotted my first ever M-dot tattoo (I tried to surreptitiously take a photograph but the guy wouldn't keep still) . The race site was huge, I was kind of expecting a tent and some portaloos, but this was more like a rock festival. I picked up my race pack, checked out the transition area, mooched round the Expo and then sat by the lake and watched people.
Pre-race
I caught the train with my bike with no problems and arrived in Zürich. Once there, I needed to go first to the race site, by the lake, to pick up my race pack. I decided to walk and immediately got lost. I ended up spending a fair amount of time that day walking and cycling round Zürich, all the while carrying my heavy backpack, which was possibly suboptimal race preparation.
Once I found the race site, it was exhilerating. I had forgotten that on the Sunday, the day after my race, Ironman Switzerland was taking place. As soon as I got in the vicinity of the lake I started to see lots of buff men (surprisingly few women) riding divine bikes and I even spotted my first ever M-dot tattoo (I tried to surreptitiously take a photograph but the guy wouldn't keep still) . The race site was huge, I was kind of expecting a tent and some portaloos, but this was more like a rock festival. I picked up my race pack, checked out the transition area, mooched round the Expo and then sat by the lake and watched people.
I felt simultaneously proud and very intimidated to be in the company of all these amazingly athletic people. I felt so totally unprepared, while everyone else seemed confident and knowing exactly what they were doing. Never have I seen such a collection of amazing-looking people or gorgeous bikes. And I have to say that female triathletes must be the sexiest women in the world. Definitely some of the best people-watching time I have ever spent. I had to drag myself away, I could have stayed there for hours just soaking up the atmosphere.
But it was time to head over to my friend's flat, where I was spending the night. I made a huge hooha of trying to buy the correct ticket for the tram, and then another big hooha trying to get my bike actually onto the tram (Basel trams have a lower area where you can easily take pushchairs and bikes on and off - most Zürich trams don't and you have to haul your pushchair or bike up the steep steps. Another reason why Basel is way better than Zürich). I ended up in everyone's way, covered in bike grease and feeling extremely silly. Not very triathlete-y at all. In all the dippiness, I lost the ticket I had bought for my bike, and ended up cycling half the way anyway.
I finally made it though, and I had a really fun evening catching up with my friend, and she cooked some delicious pasta and sent me off to bed at 10.30. What a star!
I slept well - except for a classic anxiety dream involving public nudity and my PhD supervisor - and woke up at 5.30 before my alarm went off. I crept around the flat and was out of the door by 6. I had decided to cycle to the race site, to save messing around with the trams again, and luckily I didn't get lost this time. Once I got to the site, I was really feeling my inexperience and dearly wished that I was not on my own. The race packet contained several numbers, but no instructions on where to put them. I basically spied on everyone else to see what they had done with theirs. It was pretty cool that my race number had "Charlotte" on it, but I was seriously disappointed that there was no body marking! I wanted to be body marked!! I checked my bike in, found my spot and set up transition. I didn't take long to set it up - I felt as though I should spend longer, but I really couldn't find anything else to do. And it felt strange to abandon my bike, race number and all the rest of my possessions in the transition area.
The start
Because I was so unsure of myself, I was ready way, way too early and hung around in my trisuit getting really cold and working myself up for a good 45 minutes. I wanted to watch the earlier waves do the swim start so I knew what to do and where to swim. I was really scared of not knowing where to go and getting lost (this turned out to be a completely unwarranted fear!). I was so nervous, I thought I would actually explode. I wasn't nervous about the distances, or finishing or anything like that, just that I didn't have any clue what I was doing. I felt like I was about to do a vital exam in a subject I'd forgotten to study for. I tried to stay in the moment and enjoy the experience, but I was supercharged.
The waves were 10 minutes apart and mine was the 4th to go. I had a quick dunk in the lake, and then we all stood on the beach waiting. The gun went off and the tape was lifted and we all charged into the water.
The swim
500 m: 15 min 21 sec
Do we even have to talk about this? It was HORRIBLE. I was expecting it to suck, but not how much it totally sucked. I was totally over-hyped and threw myself enthusiastically into the water and began swimming. I felt great and then suddenly, something happened. I was surrounded by women and I couldn't go anywhere. I was stuck. There was a bottleneck and people around me and in front of me began swimming breaststroke and so did I. And I there was NOWHERE TO GO and I started to panic. I didn't feel scared, but I couldn't catch my breath, I was hyperventilating and gasping. Everytime I tried to swim crawl again, I would get a wave in my face and start to panic. I confess that I ended up swimming breaststroke for a fair bit of the race, which really pissed me off after all that training, not that my crawl is much faster than my breaststroke, but anyway. I was at the back by this point, with all the slower swimmers, and everytime I began to swim crawl I would crash into someone in front and get into the "nowhere to go" situation again. It took me until two thirds through, to begin to calm down, get myself into a bit of space and swim a bit more crawl. I think if the swim had been a bit longer, I might have got myself into a bit of rhythm and enjoyed it a bit more, but I was very, very, very glad to get out of the damn water.
T1: 2 min 15 sec
The bike
20 km: 39 min 48 sec
I was freezing cold and shaking when I got back to transition and I just couldn't calm my breathing down. I was quick in transition, and thought that if I could start cycling, I would feel better. People were flying past me - it seemed like hundreds of people. The bike course was a two lap course along the very straight, flat road by the lake. With all the athletes from all the waves on it at the same time, it was very crowded. The drafting rules were ridiculous, because you were pretty much always less than 7 m from another other rider. At this point, I was thinking how much I would never, ever, EVER do this again. No swimming and no cycling. Nope, no way, not ever. It took me at least 5 km before I began to feel ok, calm myself and enjoy the ride. Then I began to ride pretty hard and even passed a couple of people. I felt much more positive and the race began to seem like fun. Maybe I would consider doing this again, just maybe.
The best part of the ride was when I heard my name being called and saw that two of my friends had come all the way from Basel to support me, unexpectedly. I was so touched. They even had a sign with my name on, and they took some great photos too. Superstars!
T2: 1 min 34 sec
The run
5 km: 25 min 32 sec!!!!!
The run was one of the best experiences of my life. Absolutely. I felt strong and fast and fired up. I was finally warm and my nose finally stopped running, and I was finally doing something I actually felt confident about. I KNOW how to run. I was passing and passing and passing people. All my bike-run bricks have been done on hills because of where we live (I have the most hideously hilly 5 km training circuit you can imagine), and this course was totally flat. It felt easy. In fact, if I'd known how fast my time was, I would have pushed harder because I had plenty left at the end.
The results show that after the bike leg, I was in 66th place (out of 75). By the end of the run, I'd moved up to 56th. I had the 66th placed swim time, 68th bike (Ack!) and the 24th fastest run!
I wasn't too disappointed with my swim time - I expected to be one of the slowest - but I'm a little disappointed with my bike. I did take the first quarter of the 20 km very easy, and I guess that's when I lost all the time. But my run? I'm absolutely blown away!!
I wasn't too disappointed with my swim time - I expected to be one of the slowest - but I'm a little disappointed with my bike. I did take the first quarter of the 20 km very easy, and I guess that's when I lost all the time. But my run? I'm absolutely blown away!!
Post-race
Finish time: 1 hour 24 min 32.5
The finish line was a little weird, because once you ran under the clock, there was just a dead end. I wasn't even sure I'd actually finished until a guy came and tore the strip off my number. I felt a surge of pride as I came round the final bend and my friend was taking photos and I thought "I've done it"! I didn't have the post-race euphoria I was expecting though. Maybe all the nervousness drained me more than I realized, but I just felt a little flat. Not having my husband and daughter there felt a little sad. My friends were amazing and enthusiastic, and I am overwelmed by the support I got from them all. Even better, Sarah was mumbling something about maybe having a go herself next year....
I'm glad I got a finishers shirt and some pictures, because it all seems so surreal now. I'm not entirely sure it really happened. I do know for sure that I'm itching to have another go, this time knowing what to expect and without all the uncertainty and awkwardness. For so long, I've been working up to this one day, and now it's over, I feel like I need something else to focus on. And there's a little voice in my head that's saying "you could be good at this, you could go faster". Evil voice!
What I learned for next time!
- First and most importantly, there WILL be a next time!
- Take more food and drink with me, and spend the time before the race staying calm, and warm.
- If possible, I'd like to have someone else with me, it was horrible doing this all totally alone. I felt really awkward. This will feel better next time though, now I'm not such a noob.
- Aim for a steady, calm swim! I was so nervous and so excited and so scared that I went off like a bat-out-of-hell. I was relying on the adrenaline at the start to help me with the swim, but in fact, it had the opposite effect.
- START AT THE EDGE OF THE PACK AND FIND SOME SPACE! I've read it a million times, and now I know why. Maybe it's something you have to learn for yourself…
- I really do need a wetsuit so I don't get so cold, and I need to get as much experience of swimming in open water as possible. The waves totally freaked me out.
- I need to look for some swim coaching, otherwise I'm wasting so much energy on the swim
- I need to get on the bike and be up and at it straightaway, not 5 km later.
- I was so cold and shaken following the swim, next time I would take a little more time in transition to BREATHE and calm down. My transition times were really fast, and I could have taken it a little more calmly. Basically the overriding message here is to calm down!
- I need to train more on the bike to increase my power and get faster.
- I can be confident enough to push much harder on both the bike and run. An evil little voice is telling me that with better training maybe I could be quite fast.
- It would be great to train more and with company, maybe I should get over my fear and join a triclub? Hmmm.
