My first race (very long)
Joshua Webb
 
My alarm went off at the extremely uncivilized time of 4:45 this morning as I set off to do my first triathlon, The Splash, Pedal, Dash in Schaumburg. I struggled out of bed to start getting myself ready leaving our cat Nigel, who I've touted as the best bad cat in the world, to wake up my wife. Teeth, restroom, fill water bottle, grab bag of transition goodies and bike and head down to car. I put the bike on the rack and Mrs. Webb tumbled out the front door about the time I finished. I had my trusty Google Map ready to go and we made the commute from Evanston to Schaumburg. I'm not much of an expert on Schaumburg. I worked for a week in Hoffman Estates at diploma mill, errrrr online university before deciding that wasn't for me. However, the Google Maps would point the way so nothing to worry about. We made all our turns and then had 7.1 miles on Golf Rd. before our turnoff. We kept going, kept going, mile 7, 8, 9, 10. Where the &*#% is the turnoff. I started zigging and zagging trying to find it looking for any roads that are on the bike map. Eventually I started to give up. I'm never going to make it in time. Darn, 6:15, the course talk is going on now. Finally, we see the road we were looking for about 6:25. 5 minutes until the race starts and I don't even have my bike in transition yet. I tell my wife to set up my transition for me and I run inside to get numbers written on me. I hurry past the endless toilet line on my way to the pool. I get outside and ask somebody what's going on. He looks at my number, 393 and says, "No hurry. You won't be going for an hour or so."

Well, I guess all my panic was unnecessary. I collect my thoughts, go to sort out my transition a little better and wait. I went to the restroom again. I had already conceded that I wouldn't be able to go for 2 hours, so this is a huge blessing. The first swimmers are making the way down the pool. Yes, it was a pool swim, not open water. The format was such that you would swim all the way down the 50 meter pool in one lane and then push into the next lane for your next lap and once you finish lane 8, you're done. I worked my way into the line about an hour after arriving and made chit chat with another first timer. I had almost become numb to the fact I was going to swim I had been waiting so long. Of course, my stomach was churning with anticipation, but somehow it felt like I was just there to watch.

Suddenly it was time to swim. After 392 took off, I dropped into the water and got the countdown. My first thoughts as I swam down the lane was that I was actually doing this. How cool. I couldn't stop smiling down the first two laps. I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. I somehow didn't seem to have much traffic until about lap 5. I passed about 5 people and 1 passed me. Oh, I should mention I didn't do freestyle. I decided to stick with my trusty breaststroke which has accounted for most of my pool laps until recently.

Around lane 5, the bottleneck started. I had practiced drafting off my wife in the Bally's pool and planned to do that, but most the people I came up upon were more of the dying animal variety so I figured I should just press on. However, people were starting to pile up. At the end of lap six, five of us arrived at the wall at the same time. The two of us in the back pushed off and jumped forward of the cluster. I cruised for the most part from there enjoying hearing my wife's claps when my head came out of the water. I had one last cluster as I was getting out in lane 8. Three of us went up at the same time and then somebody came up from behind and grabbed and pulled on my leg twisting my ankle pretty bad. Of course, having your ankle twisted in any race is not fun, but I've been on the sidelines with shin splints for about 2 to 2 1/2 months so I really didn't need that. I let out an obscenity I'm none too proud of and the leg twister just took off, no apology, no nothing, but I guess that's how tris go. I took my first steps after the incident and just about fell over. It really hurt. I slowed down and walked to my bike hoping this would all be resolved by the run. I quickly got my swim gear off and bike gear on and took off riding. I'm currently riding a Schwinn mountain bike with equal parts rust and paint. From the advice of the Tri Club folk, I put some road tires on it and took off over the hills of Schaumburg. When I said I would put the road tires on, I agreed to come back and tell everybody what the faces looked like when people realized they were getting passed by a mountain bike. Well, I'd like to tell you, but they were just part of the vapor trails. I felt fantastic on the bike. I zipped over the hills, thanking all the volunteers and policemen who were doing traffic control. Over the entire bike portion, there were three people who passed me and I passed two of those three later. I think I passed somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 people. My bike computer told me I did about 18 mph over the course. I have no idea what fast is, but on a rusty mountain bike through plenty of hills, I was really pleasantly surprised by my speed and frankly this was about me, not anybody else :-)

I rolled through all the intersections really smooth until there was about 1 mile to go. At this intersection, the officer had no interest in waving me through and I got frustrated as I never had to stop before. I shouted if I could go through. He waved me off. That really pissed me off and then I looked off to my right and there was a really terrible looking accident with probably about 5 or 6 cars, some of them totaled pretty bad. I pray that everybody is okay. I'm sure the cops stopping up traffic on green lights didn't help. The cops waved me through. I said a prayer for the people in the cars and went on to the run transition. My wife had made her way down 2 miles from T1 to T2. I was really starting to hit the wall at this point. I was expecting Gatorade along the way and had only had water and all I could really taste was salty sweat pouring into my mouth. Very unpleasant. I took a last chug off my water bottle and took off on the run.

My wife yells, "I'll go with you". I have to say, I know this race is called a Sprint, but there's nothing short about it. An hour and a half is a long time to do anything and I was really thankful for her company. With my shin splints, I resolved to take it really easy on
the run going somewhere between a slow jog and a fast walk. My legs felt much better than I expected and I tried to run, but I was having a hard time for totally different reasons. I felt really dehydrated. The sun seemed to be coming in from all directions. Where was the aid station? The first station came halfway through the 5k. At this point, I was really fighting it. I wasn't in near as good a shape as I thought. Anybody in the Tri Club who is
doing any distance is in really good shape...period, end of sentence. Even a short triathlon is a heck of a challenge. Once we hit the two aid stations, I drank a couple cups of water at each and poured about 4 cups over my head. I kept alternating slow jog and fast walk just thinking I have to keep moving forward. Finally, the crowd was starting to gather and I knew the end was near. I decided I'd run the last half mile or so and put on my best face crossing the finish line. Once I got there, people were cheering me on and it was that last boost I needed. I crossed the line to congratulations from the wonderful spectators.

I did it. I'm a triathlete. Regardless of time, that's a great accomplishment I'll be forever proud of.

However, that last sentence shouldn't mean I'm done. Despite the dehydration and exhaustion, I can't wait to do it again. It was a blast. I have no clue what my time was and I really don't care. I just greatly enjoyed the experience. However, I'm really tired now. I'm going to take a nap.