Rock Cliff Triathlon

This past Saturday, on the 22nd, I did my first Olympic distance triathlon up at Jordanelle as part of the Rock Cliff Triathlon.  An Olympic Triathlon, for this race, is 1500 meters swim, 25 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run.  I initially signed up for it just after finishing Ragnar, because I had just found out that I would not be able to do the Echo Lake Triathlon due to having to go to Youth Conference and representing the bishopric there.  I was pretty sad to have to drop out of that one, so I told myself I had to get an Olympic in before doing the Utah Half in August.  I needed some prep.  It was good that I did.  I learned so much from this triathlon!!!  It was so different from the Sprint distance tri I did a couple years ago at Pineview reservoir in Huntsville.  Although I did not get the results I expected from myself,  I took away from this one many positives, negatives and potential learning experiences.  They always say you learn more from defeats than from victories.  Well, this was no different for me.

I finished at 3 hours and 4 minutes.  For me, that was horrible!  I was expecting to be around the 2 hours 30-40 minute timeframe.  I did not do nearly as good as I thought I would.  And, I realized why.  Before the race, I did not sleep well all week.  With work being busy and my church assignments pretty numerous, I entered on little sleep.  So, 1st rule: get a good amount of sleep.  Don't go into a race sleepy and tired! 

2nd rule: Eat well.  For Ragnar, which was held the week prior, I had eaten a lot beforehand...and a lot of carb loading.  I even went to a buffet the day before.  This time, nothing!  I had no nutrients to back up the electrolyte and salt release. 

3rd rule: Be prepared early and don't procrastinate pre-race prep.  I waited until the night before to get ready for the race.  I finished work at around 6:00 Friday night.  I then had to go to the store for packet pick up and to buy a triathlon outfit.  After I got home, I realized my bike's rim was bent.  The last time I went out riding, I got 2 (that's right...2, not just 1) flats.  From that, I found out my rim was bent at around 7:00 pm.  So, I was stressing out thinking I was going to have to withdraw and again be disappointed in not being able to participate in this tri.  However, I am blessed to have a twin brother who is the same size as me and loves to do triathlon as well.  So, I drove up to meet him at about midnight to borrow his $9,500 bike.  Wow, I did not feel comfortable borrowing that expensive of a bike.  It's a beautiful bike, but I was nervous if anything were to happen to it.  So, I not only wasted all my energy beforehand going up to meet him, but I also cut into some valuable sleep time...not good!  I entered the race on about 3 hours of sleep because I had to get up at 4:00 to get ready to leave.  And because I borrowed his bike, I left my gu packets (energy pills) with my bike and thus did not have that for the race.

4th rule:  Leave early.  I arrived to the starting line minutes before it was to begin.  I had to fix a flat tire on Don's bike just beforehand, which took me nearly 40 minutes to fix because the valve stem had broken off.  Figures, just as I borrow his $9500 bike, I break something...typical of me.  I had no pre-race prep time to get my stations prepared for transitions between swim to bike and bike to run.  As a result, I wasted nearly 8 minutes during the race in the transitions.  I would have at least finished under 3 hours if it wasn't for that silly mistake.

5th rule:  Use medicine for the swim.  Open water swimming is SOOO different from the pool.  I've always been an okay swimmer in the pool, but open water is a different story.   I have a super bad equilibrium balancing problem in my head and water accentuates this dizziness problem with me.  The motion of breathing in water makes me very sick.  It's the same thing that occurred to me in Cabo San Lucas where I learned to puke under water with a respirator.  That sensation was so weird, escpecially when hundreds of fish swarmed my face going for that food that I had just vomited.  At Lake Powell a couple years ago when we went with Darin and Sunny, I got sick on the boat with no waves.  Open water is rough on me.  So, yes, I puked at the 1000 meter mark.  Because of that, I had to rest with the lifeguard for nearly 5 minutes to get my equilibrium back in balance.  I did, however, learn that I could still do well on the swim doing backstroke instead of the freestyle.  I did much better after doing that.  I got my balance back even though I did throw up again in the transition station after finishing the swim and into starting the bike.  All the puking I did zapped all my energy for the bike and run.  In fact, I ended on the run doing a 9-minute mile pace.  Compare that to my usual 7-minute pace and I've added about another 13 minutes to my time...puking = energy zapping.  Thus, no good!  Don taught me afterwards about a product he uses which is called "Lightheaded" that you can buy at any nutrition store.  It's like a dramamine that doesn't make you drowsy or tired.

6th rule:  At least look good if you can't perform good (ha...lol).  Man, did I look like a stud on Don's $9500 bike and in my new tri clothes.  Those jammers sure accentuate those nice skinny legs of mine!  The bike was uphill in a head wind.  Energy level...zilch!!  And, I did not take any food.  My bike time was only at 16 mph, where I usually average around 18 to 21 mph depending on the course.

I finished the race 40th out of 51 Olympic racers...not good for me.  In fact, when I finished, I learned what acute hyponatremia is.  That's right, I was administered medical attention.  I never thought that would happen to me.  I pretty much collapsed afterwards.  From lack of nutrition and depletion of what little energy I had, my salt levels were so depleted.  Two wonderful people helped me out.  This is a funny story

I met Jared and Kelly Jones.  Jared administered fluids to me and got me well rested while his wife, Kelly who is a massage therapist, massaged my legs and feet to try and get blood flowing back to my heart and head.  While the medical attention was being administered, the conversation turned to where we lived.  We told each other that we were from Lehi and this naturally trended to whereabouts in Lehi.  They told me their approximate address with street coordinates.  As I pondered for a second, it dawned on me that they were in my ward.  Our boundaries had just changed 2 weeks ago because of the ward split, and they were 1 of 6 new families from a new street added to our ward.  That was pretty comical as they found out that I was a counselor in the bishopric.  They had a good laugh.  What are the odds of meeting someone like that at a random event.  And, to make the matters even a little more crazy...he finished 3rd in his tri category with his wife finishing 2nd in her category.  They responded by saying, "well, it looks like we found our training partner.  It was neat to see them at church the next day in a different setting.

Despite these tough lessons, I am so glad these miscues occurred to me.  I should be able to learn from these mistakes and do better next time.  It's fun to go through misery to hopefully someday enjoy a thrilling moment.  We'll see what the future brings.  Or, maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.