Yesterday I did my first sprint triathlon. It was an interesting intersection of my family and my adaptive training (EXPAND) team mates.
First, it was a family affair: my husband, daughter, son and sister-in-law all did it as well. My husband has done this triathlon for about the last fifteen years, and the kids have done a bunch of them (not as consistently as their dad, of course). My SIL came out from Seattle - she did a triathlon (one of the Danskin series) 4 years ago, but hasn't done another until now.
Team: since I was signing up, my coach talked to the race director about actually having a wheelchair division, and she was open to that. We had hoped for 6-8 wheelchair competitors, but wound up with 4 (which was fine, too).
The swim:
It's a 525 yard pool swim, which means 10 laps plus an extra length. This triathlon (unusually) is organized such that the slowest swimmers start first. One of the other wheelchair competitors persuaded me (and the race director) that it was best for all of us to swim in the first heat, thus getting us out on the bike/run course sooner, with less traffic.
I was very ambivalent about this, and woke up worried that this would mean that I would have to swim in a lane with 4-5 people who were twice as slow as me, and that my swim would really suck as a result.
But it turned out great - Karen (race director) put the four of us in 2 lanes, which meant that we could split the lane (each swim up and down on one side, at our own pace) rather than having to worry about passing each other. So the swim went really well. I was the second one (of the wheelchair athletes) out.
The bike:
A 12 mile bike course, composed of three times around a 4 mile loop. My daughter and some of the EXPAND volunteers were ready to get me into my shorts, shoes, sunglasses and helmet and out onto the course. The other guy was slow getting going, so I was the first one out. I wasn't overtaken for about 2 miles. The volunteers on the course were all very supportive - lots of cowbells. The other three wheelchair competitors all overtook me at some point on the bike ride (not unexpected).
The run:
So everyone was hot for me to just jump into the racing chair and get going, since I was now last, but I really, really had to pee.
So I got into my day chair, went into the portapotty, did my thing, and then, coming out, the door was so tightly sprung that it knocked me over onto my back and then the door slammed down on my head. Thank goodness I was still wearing my helmet!! I was shocked but unhurt, so we just hauled me back up again and into the racing chair.
The run segment was 3 miles, and they felt really, really short. It seemed like no time when I was back at the finish line. It also felt good to get in the racing chair and sort of stretch out everything that was all cramped up from the handcycle. Afterwards I told my coach and the others that maybe I liked racing better than handcycling, which is a big change from my first month racing...
Oh, I came in last (of course), but not by much (3 minutes). My time was 2:00:00. Here are some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/b.....093960121/
