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| Me, when I still had no idea what I had gotten myself into... |
Bike. Contrary to all the friendly suggestions I received, I was too cheap to buy the right type bicycle and ended up doing the race with the one I had. I always thought it was a mountain bike, but apparently it's some type of hybrid. Whatever it is, though, it's not a road bike and wasn't the right one for this triathlon. I had nothing to compare it to, but my friend took a ride on it and told me it's too heavy and bulky and it's no wonder I couldn't finish the race. Add that onto the huge hills that I faced and I was done.
Water. The night before the race, I was afraid that I would have to get up to use the bathroom all night and not sleep well. So, I solved that by not drinking any water past 7pm. Then, when I woke up in the morning, I was afraid to drink too much and have to use the bathroom during the race. So, I solved that by only drinking about 16 oz. So yea, I pretty much started out my first triathlon dehydrated. On top of that, it was a day of record breaking heat and humidity, so I didn't stand a chance.
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| I was actually as happy as I look at this point! |
Food. Although I ate breakfast before the race, I didn't take any snacks to have during the race. I didn't know that it was important during such a short race. However, I was later told that I should have had some type of gummy snacks and water enhancer for the electrolytes and salt.
Training. Finally, as I was training, I was doing so on flat ground. I didn't factor in that we would be racing in Greenville, where there are hills everywhere. The swimming was fine, but biking on hills is much different than biking on flat ground. I never even got to the running part, so who knows how that would have gone on hills.
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| Me, on the first hill, and I already was dying. |
So, here's how it went down. I started the race all excited, with the goal of just crossing the finish line. I wasn't trying to beat anyone or break any records. Just cross the finish line. That's it. The race started and I jumped into the water. Because so many people were swimming in the pool, I got stuck behind a slow swimmer. Plus, the water was so choppy, I swallowed tons of salt water. So, by the time I jumped out, I felt a little nauseated. I ran over and got on my bike and took off on my already jello legs. After the first hill, I knew this was going to suck. My legs were on fire. I couldn't catch my breath. I don't know how much time passed when I started to fill sick. I was super thirsty, but every time I took a sip of water, I would feel like I was going to throw up. All of a sudden, I started blacking out. I tried to stop by bike and just stand there, but I was shaking so hard I couldn't hold myself up. I laid my bike down on the road and sat down in case I fainted. It wasn't too long before some women caught up with me. They gave me something salty to drink, some type of gummy snack to eat and called the police. Within minutes, I felt significantly better. A police officer showed up and had me sit in his car with the air conditioner blowing on me to see if I improved, but since I still couldn't stand up and get on my bike, he called the ambulance. The ambulance showed up and checked me out. They said that I looked like a ghost, my blood pressure was super low and that they didn't want me to continue the race. I was so disappointed to quit, but at the same time, felt too sick to care. So, I got my first ambulance ride back to the finish line to find Ironman there waiting on me, worried. By the time my friend Emily finished the race, I felt mostly back to normal, but the rest of the day was a combination of feeling disappointed and exhausted.
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| Trying to keep a good attitude after not finishing the race. |
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