My first tri

WOW! As a cancer survivor and a first time participant I was honored to start in the second wave of the Danskin Chicago-land Triathlon. IT WAS AWESOME! Lining up in the gates with other survivors was powerful. My eyes overflowed with tears as I looked at the swim course ahead of me, felt the strength within my body, and recalled that it wasn’t that long ago when an event like this was just an out of reach goal.

As the countdown to the swim finally began, I pushed the tears aside, shoved my goggles on, and dove in. The water was calming, clear, and cool, wonderful on such a hot morning. I was amazed that the lake wasn’t a crowded with swimmers as I feared it would be. Carefully I stroked on ahead of other swimmers with great ease, soon my goggles clouded and navigating the straight swim across the lake became more difficult. I was able to find one tiny spot in my left goggle that wasn’t clouded and used that spot to find the way to the end.

My transition from swim to bike was quick, and easier than I anticipated. I dried off my feet a dusted off the sand then shoved them in socks, pounded on my shoes, threw on gloves, helmet, sunglasses, and grabbed a power gel. I ran my bike out of transition and hopped on for the ride.

The course had a couple slight inclines and tight corners, but what no course map could predict were the strong winds. Cross-breezes and headwinds blew against my wheels with every mile. Shifting down to an easier gear helped me sped through some of the hardest winds. Each two miles a marker would appear with some great encouraging slogan. The mile two markers read “I ride for those who can’t” reading it filled me with strength. I thought of when I couldn’t ride due to the fatigue of treatment, those doing treatment now, and those who have recently been diagnosed. As my ride finished up and I drew closer to the transition area a powerful tailwind pushed me all the way to the end of the bike route.

As I climbed off my bike and walked it back to my spot, I was feeling aching in my quads, and a burn in my lungs, so I took my time racking my bike and taking off my gear. I slurped down another gel with water, and walked to the run start line. My run felt like a heavy trod as I smiled through mile one. I walked for a small section of mile two, then found a runner who I could keep pace with until I got back into my groove and sped into the last half of mile two and sprinted across the finish line!

I’m happy that I finished, and was impressed when I found my times latter that day.
Swim: 15:56 (rank 833! That's the top quarter overall!)
T1: 2:49
Bike: 45:10 (17.2 mph!)
T2: 4:54
Run: 33:31 (about an 11 minute mile)
Total 1:42:22
Overall rank: 1140 / 3919
Age group rank: 171 / 363
(I completed in the top half of both groups! - not bad for a first timer!)

Looking ahead, this sprint tri has me excited about the longer distance Olympic Tri I’ll do in August. My training plan will have lots of brick workouts that include biking then transitioning to running- exactly what I want to work on!