WoodLake Triathlon, 1993

(found in the archives of usenet's rec.sport.triathlon 8 years after the race!)

 

Woodlake Triathlon:  .5 mile swim, 15.8 mile bike, 3.1 mile run

This was a very small race with only about 200 competitors.  Everyone
has a race every once in  a while where everything goes wrong.  This
was my "bad" day.

During the swim, for some strange reason, I kept swimming to my right.
I have never had a problem staying on course before, but it was very
difficult for this race.  The problem started near the beginning.  I began
drafting off a strong swimmer, so I didn't bother to watch where I was
going for the first 3-4 minutes.  When I looked up, we were about 10 yards
further out then any other swimmer.  I left the drafter and started swimming
towards the course.  However, the rest of the way, I still had problems
getting back on course.  I finished in 17 minutes -- about 4-5 minutes slower
than what I should do in a half mile.  After the race I found that everyone
had a slow swim, so the course must have been a bit long.  Unfortunately,
I lost time from staying off course and the longer distance, so I lost more time
than most.

The bike was 15.8 miles of hills.  This wasn't so bad, but my bike kept pulling to
the right for some reason.  About half-way into the race, it pulled me right off
the road and I crashed!  I was fortunate to be going uphill at the time, so I
wasn't going fast enough to hurt myself.  I got right back on and kept pedaling.
Since the bike was pulling so much, I found myself working extra hard to go
alot slower than I should have been.  In the  transition area, someone had
just thrown their bike on the rack, and knocked my towel somewhat so I
didn't see it as quickly as I should have.  I passed it by about 5-10 yards -- not
much, but still disappointing.  I wish people would have more respect for other
peoples stuff in the transition areas.

I thought that my legs would be dead during the run since I worked so hard
on the bike, but they weren't.  Unfortunately, I did develop a blister from some
new insoles I had recently got for my shoes.  My heels have been hurting a bit,
and the new insole make a much softer run.  The blister didn't slow me down
much, if at all, but by then I was really getting frustrated with the race.

I crossed the finish line in about 1:37, almost 10 minutes slower than what I
think I should have done.  Luckily for me, this was not an "important" race -- it
was basically a workout type race.  When I say important, I only mean that
I only treat some races as big.  I am by no means competitive in rankings or
anything.  Important to me is trying to beat a previous best of mine on that course
or at that distance, etc...

After the race I took my bike straight to the bike store.  I told him what happened,
and he took the handle bars, twisted them all around with no effort, and pulled them
right of the bike with no effort.  He said I was lucky to be alive after riding on handle
bars broken like that.  I don't know much technical info about bikes, but apparently,
there is some thing that twists into place inside the stem to lock the handle bars in
place, and mine had come undone.  He fixed it right there for me.

But the most important thing of all is, that even through all the bad things, I had a blast!
Triathlons are great!