Race Report: Chisago Lakes Sprint Triathlon

Alternate title: How to have an awesome first triathlon by doing everything wrong

Step 1: Don't really train
As I mentioned earlier, I swam and biked once in the past month. One time. Uno. Ummmm...not a good idea. I did run a lot...which leads me to step two.

Step 2: Do a long run the day before the tri
I needed to get a long run in (that pesky marathon training is always getting in my way of being lazy and/or tapering for other events) so I ran 12 miles on Saturday. My legs were a little bit pissed after the run...probably because I skipped last week's long run. "Skipping Long Runs" will go on the "Training for a marathon: Ur doin it wrong" post. :)

Step 3: Get approximately one hour of sleep the night before
Knowing that I'd be leaving for the tri at 4:00 In The Freaking Morning, the grand plan was to go to bed at 9pm the night before. Well, 9pm came and went, and I still hadn't been to the grocery store to pick up bananas, balloons and Powerade. Karen and I wanted to get a balloon to mark our transition areas so it'd be easier to find after the swim and bike. The selection at the grocery story was slim, so I ended up with a "It's A Girl!" balloon. I'm a girl. It works, right??

I made the trip to the store at 10pm, got home and packed my tri bag, and was in bed at...12:30. Which would allow for 3 hours of sleep. Faaaaak. But the beautiful part of this was that I Couldn't Fall Asleep. I tossed and turned. I turned and tossed. My legs were twitchy. My brain was twitchy. I couldn't relax. Sweet Baby Jesus. I eventually fell asleep, but it wasn't a restful sleep.

BUT ANYWAY.

On to the actual race report.

Karen and I loaded up our bikes on Saturday night so we'd have one less thing to worry about in the morning. On Sunday morning, we hopped in the car and were on our merry way at 4am. Triathletes are a special breed of crazy. Who gets up at 3:30 to do a race??

We got to Chisago at about the time the transition area was opening. I picked up my packet and we got body marked. We set up transition. I tied my "It's a girl" balloon to my transition spot. We had plenty of time and I didn't feel rushed to get set up. Off to a good start.


Warning: Spandex Abuse

And then I spotted Danielle In Iowa at her transition spot. Okay, okay...I'll admit that I spotted her bike first (loooooove).

So we were chatting and who should appear? Steve In A Speedo, to complete the super awesome bloggy trifecta.


Danielle, Steve, Me
(Photos shamelessly stolen from Steve)

Steve showed us his awesome body marking...a smiley face on his calf. JEALOUS. But luck was on our side...he busted a Sharpie from his pocket and gave Danielle and I matching smileys.


And thanks to Karen for snapping these pics!

Before I knew it, the transition area was closing and it was time to head to the beach.

Allison's Inner Monologue: GAHHHH!! THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!

Karen, Steve, Danielle and I stuck together until our wave starting times. We tested out the lake temperature (warm!), and Steve informed me that I wouldn't be a real triathlete until I peed in the lake. I wanted to be a real triathlete, dammit, so you can bet your ass I peed in that lake!!

Karen and I heard the announcement for our wave...but we somehow failed to take note that it meant that they were lining up IN THE WATER. As in NOW. About three seconds before the gun went off, we dashed into the water with our wave...whew. That was a close one. We were off. Holy crap!!

SWIM (.25 miles):

Dude. DUDE. Do you know what is hard? Swimming...aka NOT DROWNING. My lack of training really showed. Before I even reached the turnaround I was already side and back-stroking like it was going out of style. I never thought I was actually going to die, but I felt like I was in the water Foorrrreeevvvveerr. I seriously would have guessed that the swim took me 20 minutes. I wanted to kiss the sand when I finally hit the beach. I ran up a hill...and into transition.

Time: 13:38

T1:

What do I do? What do I need? What do I grab? What do I eat? GAHH!! My mind was racing as I made a mental checklist of everything I needed for the bike. Shoes. Helmet. Garmin. Bike. Race number? Do I need that for the bike? Grabbed it just to be safe. One less thing to put on later. Annnnd I'm off.

Time: 2:36

BIKE (17 miles):

The first 6 mile were pretty awesome. Well, there was a mile of single-file biking, which was less than awesome...but I am a slow enough biker that I didn't have to pass many people in that stretch. My average speed was 17mph, which is Ridiculous for me and my non-road bike. I was smacked back to reality when we started hitting hills and my average pace dropped to 15mph. That's more like it.

By the time mile 15 rolled around, I was ready to be done. My ass was not pleased. I was anxious to get into my running shoes.

Time: 1:09:08

T2:

I am still trying to figure out why my T2 time was so slow. Probably because I crawled under my bike and read the newspaper, painted my nails and took a quick nap. Seriously. How long does it take to switch shoes and take off a helmet??

Time: 2:19

RUN (3.1 miles)

I had no idea how my legs would feel after the bike, but I was hoping to do 10-minute miles. I was surprised that they were so cooperative after the 12-mile beating from the previous day plus the swim and bike. Maybe it was the calf smiley face that made them so happy. :)

Within the first few minutes, I spotted Karen coming in to the finish (it was an out and back course). She. Was. Rocking. It. Yeah, she's pretty much a rock star.

The first mile felt good - 9:57.

The second mile felt better - 9:27. I was passing people like it was my job.

The third mile felt best - 9:01. *Tapping on Garmin* Is this thing on? This can't be right. I LOVE TRIATHLONS!

As I was nearing the finish, I saw Karen cheering for me...and then I spotted Danielle and Steve, snapping a photo. Steve was in his "bowl full of sunshine" shorts. Sweet Fancy Moses. I'd seen pictures of these amazing shorts on his blog, but you have no idea of the AWESOMENESS until you see them in person.


The photo snapped by Steve

Annnnd I finished strong and felt great. Triathlons? Yeah, they're fun.

Time: 29:47

Total time: 1:57:29

We stuck around to wait for Karen's Dude finish - he was doing the Half Ironman. So we hopped in the food line, posed for a pic...


Freshly minted triathletes

And ate grabbed some grub. And then we ran into Jumper! YAY!!


What a good lookin' bunch! Jumper, Steve, Me, Danielle, Karen

Karen and I changed out of our wet tri gear (it was a real treat to try and figure out how to change in a parking lot without completely exposing myself), posed by the "mount" sign...

Mounting the Mount sign. Unoriginal? Check.

...grabbed some ice cream, and sat with the group of bloggy awesomeness to watch the Half Ironman finishers, including IronJenny, TriMama, and TacBoy.

After Karen's Dude finished with a respectable time, we were ready to head home.

I schlepped my stuff back to my apartment (it kind of looks like a triathlon bomb went off in my front hallway), ate copious amounts of Punch Pizza, showered, and collapsed onto the couch for One Big Fat Nap.

Spent.