My First Triathlon....Sort Of

Sometimes letting my mouth lead the way is a great way to get something done. When speaking to my friend Ryan about the Triathlon Relay at Guelph Lake I offered myself up as the runner. Having only ever competed in one run prior this was a bit of a leap. I only started running in May and here I am in August competing in an event full off some serious athletes.

I trained for this bumping my distance up slowly knowing that if I was too aggressive I would injure myself. We were lucky enough to have pulled in John Carson for our swimming leg and Ryan was on the bike.

We all knew I would be the slow leg of our relay, but that didn't matter. The support and team atmosphere knowing that we were all going to give it our best was paramount.

I had never timed myself on a 7km run. When I ran in the Classic Mile 5km run I finished with a time of around 37 min or a 7.4min/km. Hey I was just happy I finished!! Since, I had run 4km in around 20 min so I knew I had 5 min kms in me somewhere. My goal in the tri was to be under 42min and strive to get 40 min.

As I head out in a very unfamiliar course I felt good. Plenty of prep and a good warm up had me feeling pumped. I still ran at a fairly slow pace as I knew I had 7km to get in. With lots of water stations I was careful to only take a sip or two or even just rinse my mouth at each so I didn't cramp up. As I passed the 6km marker I realized I could pick things up a bit as I still had legs left under me. With about 700m left Ryan appeared to run me in. He kept me breathing good, talked me through the rest of the course. I was able to sprint the last 200m full out to finish with a time of 40:57 or 5:51 per km.

All in all I am extremely pleased with our performance. John did the water in 14:55 (9th of 24), Ryan finished the bike in 56:15 (7th of 24) and I was 19th of 24 allowing us 13th of 24 overall.

I am planning on more events including a tri-a-tri next summer. I guess I should hit the pool soon!!! Anyone interested in the triathlon series in Ontario should visit www.trisportcanada.com