My First Triathalon!
11:33 AM Edit This 6 Comments »
It's a Saturday morning. What better thing to do than watch a triathalon? One of my friends has been training for one for quite some time but she wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. (Get it? I AM SO FUNNY!) Instead, we decided to go watch. It was at our favorite lake anyway.
It was a very small one - just over 50 participants - only six of which were women! Miss M will have little competition around here, that's for sure.
She was mostly interested in watching the transitions from swim to bike to run. So we stayed at the staging area most of the time for that purpose. There were some really serious competitors, but there were also people out there just to have fun and see if they could finish. That will be her goal - to finish, so we were glad to see those types of people participating as well.
Here's what we learned from the fasties:
They all wore wetsuits and peeled off to dry clothes while they ran from the beach to the bike. They did NOT wear socks with either their biking or running shoes. Their biking shoes were attached to the bike, already clipped in and they somehow got their feet in while peddling away. They didn't stop for water and they did NOT sit down to take off their wetsuits or put on their running shoes. And the first three men in were all wearing red shoes. I'm convinced their success had to do with these last two facts. The non-sitting and the red shoes.
Here's what we learned from everyone else:
You need a towel spread on the ground that houses your shoes, water, socks and goggles. Everyone had a bucket of water to wash the sand off their feet before they put on their shoes. When you transition from swim to bike? Sunglasses, then helmet, then shoes. Seriously. Everyone did it that way. I kind of half expected people to just dump their bike and run at the next transition, but nothing doing. They were all very careful to park them at their station.
All in all, it was a great morning. I feel terribly athletic and incredibly tired. It's exhausting, standing around watching people exercise. I can't wait until Miss M actually does one. I get to be her groupie. Her number one fan and her best cheering section. I love that role.
It was a very small one - just over 50 participants - only six of which were women! Miss M will have little competition around here, that's for sure.
She was mostly interested in watching the transitions from swim to bike to run. So we stayed at the staging area most of the time for that purpose. There were some really serious competitors, but there were also people out there just to have fun and see if they could finish. That will be her goal - to finish, so we were glad to see those types of people participating as well.Here's what we learned from the fasties:
They all wore wetsuits and peeled off to dry clothes while they ran from the beach to the bike. They did NOT wear socks with either their biking or running shoes. Their biking shoes were attached to the bike, already clipped in and they somehow got their feet in while peddling away. They didn't stop for water and they did NOT sit down to take off their wetsuits or put on their running shoes. And the first three men in were all wearing red shoes. I'm convinced their success had to do with these last two facts. The non-sitting and the red shoes.
Here's what we learned from everyone else:
You need a towel spread on the ground that houses your shoes, water, socks and goggles. Everyone had a bucket of water to wash the sand off their feet before they put on their shoes. When you transition from swim to bike? Sunglasses, then helmet, then shoes. Seriously. Everyone did it that way. I kind of half expected people to just dump their bike and run at the next transition, but nothing doing. They were all very careful to park them at their station.
All in all, it was a great morning. I feel terribly athletic and incredibly tired. It's exhausting, standing around watching people exercise. I can't wait until Miss M actually does one. I get to be her groupie. Her number one fan and her best cheering section. I love that role.
6 comments:
How funny - I spent the day at a lake too. I, too, just stood around while people fished and it was fun but surprisingly tiring. Guess it will be quite a while until I'm quite ready to watch a triathalon!
"It's exhausting, standing around watching people exercise."
They say there really IS a physical benefit to doing this. Not as much as actually exercising but, hey, I'll take it!
I have watched only one triathlon because of a friend's participation. I had to pretend to be interested. I think you have to be a bit OCDish to get involved with tri's or marathons. The latter can be dangerous to your health. That, I believe, is irony.
When will you be competing?
I did a "Tin man"(swim 1/2 mile, bike 19 miles, run a 10K) Triathalon once. I was about 34 and had partied the night before... I was a lousy swimmer, decent cyclist, and OK runner.. the people who do a lot of these are crazy about being fit! I finished, but was beaten by a huge portion of the field.. But I did it.
I've always wondered how that transition went down. I'll have to remember, red shoes are key. :)
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