A New Saga

It’s been a long time since our last wrote from this blog.  A lot has changed in the past few years.  I have pretty much abandoned the marathon running.  But I do have a couple of marathons yet to do.  I am truly a weekend warrior now.  Well... There's this thing called LIFE that always wants to get in the way...  With that, my running has suffered big time.  I am always looking back to when I was just starting to get into shape around 2009 and 2010, I was running probably 30 miles a week at that time, hit or miss.  I know that was a good 7 years ago, but that's when my running life took a backseat.  My daughter was born and I was making moves with my career.  I don't have any regrets.  The only regret that I may have is not continuing running like i had been.  Back then, when there was a race, I was usually one of a handful of people of color.  There was no camaraderie amongst each other.  No one to run with, with "like" culture.  So I did 95% of my running alone during training.  I was not the fastest, but I was getting up there with my age group.  I actually won a couple of age group awards.  Now its 2017 and there are a lot of minority running groups.  I'm not nearly as fast as I used to be and don't run nearly as many miles.  My times reflect that.  But it's ok, I'm moving up the corporate ladder and will try to retire from clinical medicine really soon and do at least 75% admin.

Now I have gotten into this Triathlon thing.  I always said since I was a little kid that I wanted to do an Iron Man before I left this earth.  I didn't realize how much training is involved.  The run part is easy.  The bike is somewhat easy, just pedal until your legs burn!!  Now this swim thing.  I always thought I was a good swimmer, but that's in a pool or at the beach.  In open water, it is an entirely different story.  My hats off to all the triathletes out there that do this week in and week out.  It  is fun, but challenging all the same.  I decided to take up this triathlon thing because the running thing became monotonous and I needed a new challenge.  Actually, i have kind of lost my running desire.  I run to keep in shape and not to balloon like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.  I need to stay under 200lbs.  I peaked at 209 and felt it.  I would love to get down to 187 or less like I was when I was running a lot, but that's a pipe dream.  So here is my new saga in my life called the Triathlon!!

I signed up for the Chicago Triathlon last year for this year.  I did not have any equipment or a Tri bike.  I just wanted to dab in it to see if its something that i would want to do over the long haul.  I had a Mountain Bike, so I decided to enter the Mountain Bike Division at the "Chi-Tri".  Fortunately, I did some homework and found a local tri just before it, to get my feet wet.  Nothing like Chicago, but ok.  I realized that swim was my weakness, but the water was calm on this beach.  So I went to a local community center to practice freestyling and breathing.  Got a little better.  Now I'm ready for the Chi-Tri.  Just go slow and not get anxious in that water... piece of cake!!

RACE REPORT

I get to Chicago the day before the race.  It was so overwhelming.  Go here, do this and that, check in here, do this by this time, drop off bike here, Expo, pre-expo lecture, parking, and it goes on and on... For a marathon, you just go to expo, get your stuff and done!!

The morning of the race, all is well... I go to the bike transition area to make sure that all my stuff was in place and ready.  I got a premier spot, because I checked my bike the night before.  So I laid out all of my stuff for a quick transistion from the swim.  The start of the swim was like a mile from the bike area.  So I walk down the Riverfront to the start and I see the water... Don't even ask what kind of things were going through my head!!  I know if I was ever shipwrecked, I would not survive.  Those waves were crazy!!  This pic shows how choppy the water was about 300 meters from the finish.

LOOK AT THESE WAVES

(The picture does not give the water justice.  That ledge that the water is flowing on is about 3 feet above the water and its STILL overflowing)

So I get to the start area with about 2 hours to kill.  I was placed in Wave 51 which starts around 10am.  They put us at the rear I guess because we were the Mountain Bike division.  Just sitting there watching others was getting agonizing.  I felt I was ready.  My last swim at the pool went ok.  I improved on my swim and breathing.  Just remember, don't try to do too much.  If it was a run, then use a Zone 2 effort.  I met with the BTA group (Black Triathlete Association), and that was one of the coolest group of people I have met.  The encouragement that they gave was incredible, when I started having doubts.  Most of them have done numerous Tri's and even full Iron Mans, and was nice to see a group of minorities doing triathlons.  I didn't eat much because there was no way I was going to cramp up during the swim.  Had a coffee and some juice and a mini muffin.  So its down to like Wave 40, so i hit up the porta john for one last restroom break, then strip down out of my sweats.  I have my Tri suit on under it, LOL.  I reach into my bag and I DON'T HAVE MY GOGGLES!!  Oh now I'm panicking!!  A million things running through my head.  Im thinking "Its just water", and "People on the Titanic did it in the dark", and "Don't panic now, get out of your head".  Well, only 2 options here... quit and dont attempt it and regret it later or suck it up and do dat thang!!  So i sucked it up, I didn't come this far to not even start!!  I later found my goggles in my "other" bag at the bike...

I DIDN'T REALIZE HOW IMPORTANT THIS LITTLE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT WAS UNTIL IT WAS TIME FOR THE SWIM AND I DIDN'T HAVE IT

(I later found it in my transition bag at the bike)

ALL SMILES RIGHT NOW... ABOUT TO JUMP INTO THE WATER... WITHOUT THE GOGGLES!!

So its time for my wave to jump in.  Its not like at the beach where you can walk or run into the water and get aclimated.  You just dive right in, and you cant touch the bottom 12 feet below.  So you tread water until the start.  The water was cold, and I didnt have a wetsuit like a lot of other people.  I "WILL" be getting one of those things... helps float and buffers the cold water.  I was getting tired just treading water for what seeemed like an eternity before the start.  The horn goes off and we are off.  I start my freestyle.  Remember Zone 2.  Breathe on the left.  Face out of the water when you breathe.  This lasted all of 25 meters.  I had to keep my eyes closed and couldn't see where I was going.  Didn't want to lose my contacts, and I was scared to get that water in my eyes and get an eye infection and die!!  All that splashing was just too much. So I decide to backstroke.  With every stroke, I splashed myself in the face when my arm came out of the water.  Then the waves were hitting me.  I would clear my face and catch my breath, just to get hit by another wave and start all over.  Same thing over and over... I decided to do a back float and just kick and propel with my arms in the water.  That was one of the most tiring things i could do to my legs.  I was miserable!!  I went to the wall and was about to give up after about 400 meters to go.  But lo and behold, Tendi was there with her camera telling me to keep going.  I honestly thought I could have drowned. I swallowed so much water and got several brain freezes from it getting in my nose.  I felt like it was not worth it and asked Tendi how long I been swimming.  She had no idea, saying like 45 minutes.  I was like, this is a bunch of crap!!  But I got it together and restarted.  After about another 150, the water got REALLY bad!!  This is when I for the first time panicked for real and freaked out.  I was honestly scared, and thought that I could really drown.  My legs felt like i ran 2 marathons.  I made a B-line to the wall and said "THAT'S IT I QUIT".  There, was Tendi again and some of the BTA members, Lilly Soliman and Heather McTeer Toney giving me the biggest pep talk I ever had.  It was like 200 meters to go and choppy as I dont know what.  I tried to crawl on the wall, but some lady said that would get me DQ'd.  I see the finish and the yellow balloon.  I can do it... 

HA... I GOT CAUGHT TRYING TO GET OUT OF THE WATER, READY TO QUIT... SO I GOT BACK IN AND JUST FLOATED ON MY BACK... 

SHOWING OFF FOR THE CAMERA, BUT I WAS ACTUALLY SCARED AND TIRED

I just "let em hang" and got back in there and finished the last 200.  It went by very quick, I had a lot of adrenaline and was kinda mad at myself for punking out.  So I finally get to the finish.  I have never felt so relieved in my entire life.  That Asian female in some of my pics was next to me the entire swim.  We kept encouraging each other.

GET ME OUT OF HERE!!

So now its a 800 meter run to get to the bike.  It was kind of rough on my feet.  They had a red carpet to run on, but the rocks under the carpet was still there.  I didn't know how I was going to do this Mountain Bike with how my legs were feeling.  Felt like pure jello.  I take a Gu and a sip of water.  So I hop on the bike already in low gear because the start was over a bridge.  I get halfway up the bridge and a guy veers sharply in front of me and crashes into the brick railing to the right.  He falls off of his bike and his body was literally almost hanging over the ledge.  I just knew he was going to fall to his death.  He just have gotten dizzy.  He didn't fall over, and I kept going.  The bike was actually not that bad.  I made sure that I had full air in my tires and they were not on backwards to the tread (like my last bike ride).  Just too much stuff to think about with a Tri.  Pretty uneventful, except for the long incline at the end.  I thought it was the typical 12.4 miles and it ended up being 15.  I thought something was up with my Garmin.  Some lady asked me what mile we were on while riding... I had no idea. LOL.

DOWN THE BRIDGE, THROUGH TRAFFIC AND BACK FOR 15 MILES

So I get off the bike with wobbly legs and all.  I made up some time on the bike, but not much since I was on a MOUNTAIN BIKE.  I was still near the rear.  So I grab a Gatorade, down it, and toss the cup.  I had no intention of going all out, but didn't want to baby the run.  

 My goal was just to keep it at 8 minute per mile pace.  I kept that pace the entire time.  We had to run though grass on a trail which didnt help, then it was on the pavement where I got my pace back to where I wanted it.  Felt good passing people left and right during the run.  These were the people that got me on the swim, and I couldn't catch on the bike.  Now this is my bread and butter.  Got to the last half mile or so, and there was people on the trail that wasn't running and going through barricades which confused me after being gone for 2 hours.  I ask a guy do I go left or through there like the other people, he was like "I dunno"... So i said, you're an idiot and went left which was the right decision.  Then there was a hill which was just wrong!!  Escalate it and its a straightaway to the finish.  I could have sprinted it in, but to what avail, I was just glad it was finally almost over.  I clipped off a few down the straightaway, and if it was a 10k run as opposed to a 5k run, I could have caught a heck of a lot of others, i just ran out of pavement.  It was then also, that I realized how long of a stride I have.  I take 2 steps to everybody else's 3 or 4. LOL.  The finish was great!!

So now I can say that I am officially a TRIATHLETE!!  I conquered a major Triathlon with minimal training.  THIS was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life!!  No more untrained Tri's for me.  It was mainly the swim part.  I swore that i was never going to do another Triathlon again, I will just can that Ironman idea!!  But I did meet some cool peeps during this event.  As i am typing this, it is one week removed from the Tri.  I am now in a solid state of mind.  If I were to do another, I will make sure I am swimmed up so no excuses.  The goggles thing is the rate limiting step to a enjoyable swim... lesson learned.  But I swear up and down that I brought those things to the start.  So as I sit here, I debate... another triathlon or just do duathlons?  I got me a road bike now, so I can compete better without that Mountain Bike.  We shall see...

Oh, and one last thing...  They had roast beef and turkey sandwiches at the finish.. WHO DOES THAT??