My First Half Ironman by: Jenny Wojnar
I was in Myrtle Beach and participated in the USAT Club Championship on October 8th. There were a few reasons why I decided to sign up for this event. This course is known to be a fast course. In other words, it should be easy. I wanted to do one more race before the yearend at a location where I will have support from Joella and Get Fit Families members racing together. I also wanted to check out Myrtle Beach - it seems to be a very popular vacation spot for Pittsburghers.
Most of you know that it's unlikely to find me sunbathing at a beach and Myrtle Beach wouldn't have been a choice destination otherwise.
Deciding on a race was much easier than making a commitment to a race distance. International (1000 yard swim, 28 mile bike, 6 mile run) was a logical choice since I have only done Sprint distances. With such a long distance to travel why not go for ½ Iron man (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 12 mile run) was my thought but I was pretty sure Joella would suggest International. I wouldn't have verbalized it if there was a slight chance that Joella would agree that I should go for ½ Iron man distance.
I lost about two weeks of training in August on the worst vacation ever, which left me with four weeks to train for the long distance. My plan was to train for ½ Iron man distance and see how I get through the workouts and make my decision. While I was spending most of my waking hours training if not working I bought a book The Athlete's Guide to Recovery: Rest, Relax, and Restore for Peak Performance by Sage Rountree. One of the first subjects that the book covered is on over training and using the post workout journal as one of the monitoring tool. Counting up the number of positive and negative words used in the journal entry combined with a few other quantifiers will provide a good indicator to the progress of the training. This is simple enough but most of you know that I am not a journaling type and very far removed from feeling words. I was also not ready to face my negative thoughts which probably mean that I really shouldn't try to do a long triathlon but I gave it a try. Within a few days of journaling I was unexpectedly surprised to see that I was mostly positive with workouts. This helped me to decide to go for ½ Iron man distance. I had my fanciful thoughts but the only goal I had going into this race was to cross the finish line. It turned out to be a bad race for me but I gained experience for my next race which will be sure to come next year.
Once I was out of the bed on the race morning, the time went very quickly. I packed up my breakfast and food for the bike and we headed to the race. I ate my breakfast at the transition laying out bike and run gear and loading food on the bike. I tend to blister easily so I had Body Glide on my feet, under side of arms and neck. I was glad that we had an opportunity to warm up in the water. The water temperature was good but it was very dark. I couldn't see past my upper arm. Trying out the water was good but I was very cold waiting for the race start even in a borrowed shirt. Next time I will have a throw away hoodie, flip-flops on and a bottle of water with me.
Before I knew it, it was the time. Most of the people jumped into the water but I hugged and hung onto the dock as long as I could to get into the water . Once I was in, the fog horn went off. What was I thinking? What am I doing here? Swim 1.2 miles? Shortly after I started swimming I felt my heart rate soaring and my breathing became labored. I knew these will pass but it's never easy to swim through it. I treaded water a couple of times but I started to settle down. I did pretty well staying on the course going out but I was zigzagging on the way back to the finish and had to change my direction to be on the right side of the buoy a number of times. It was unreal that I actually managed 1.2 mile open water swim and I wasn't the last person out of the water. One advantage of being slow in the water is that there isn't much chance of being kicked around by other swimmers. It's more like that the entire water way was opened for your leisurely swim except the brief time the next wave catches up to you. So, here is my first goal for the next race. I would like to finish the swim before the next wave of people swim over me.
After the swim, I ran to the transition and was not surprised to find it pretty empty except a few bikes. I got the bike started and looked forward to an easy flat ride. Half hour into the bike and I am still looking for the flat ride. As far as I can see was a gradual hill with cross wind. There is still hope. The return ride should be easier but not with the wind knocking you around. There was no reprieve from the wind the entire bike leg and no place to coast. It was nonstop pedaling from the start to finish and top it off I had a stomach ache during the entire bike leg and a backache about an hour into it. The bathroom at the transition was a little ways off so I decided to make a quick bathroom stop at the last turn around on the bike. That's where I noticed that both under sides of my arms were chafed. This was not a good sign. How did I get my arms chafed from biking? Time on the bike was just about what I anticipated. Here is my second goal for the next race. I will be stronger and more efficient on the bike.
A quick change and I was off to the run. I made an assessment of my physical condition. Chafe on the arms are only going to get worst during the run. I still had stomach ache but I wasn't tired and my legs felt pretty good but shortly after the start of the run I started wheezing. I'm thinking this can't be happening. I had problems with wheezing a couple of times during brick workouts that had a short run but I attributed that to being very tired off from the bike. I was mentally prepared for side stitches that I frequently get but not the wheezing and didn't have a plan for it. Only thing I could do was walk and run once my breathing returned to normal. The wheezing and stomach ache stopped after about three miles but I was feeling a major pain on the bottom of my foot. But you don't get blisters from only three miles of running that was more like walking. Now I started to look for a swarm of locust. I never had a problem running and running has been my strength but it became the most disappointing part of the race. I think I spent more time walking than running but I was glad that I was able to finish the race. The third goal for next race is to be better at sucking up to the pain. This was an extremely disappointing race for me. In a lot of ways racing is very similar to performing. You prepare for all possible circumstances hoping and striving for a perfect performance which I am not sure if it is possible.
This has been a year like none before. One thing for certain is that if I stopped to think too much I wouldn't have made it this far. From showing up at the pool to meet Joella after I was able to swim across one length of the pool to my first road bike session with cleats where Ken did more work holding me up right than I did biking to driving the car into a ditch in the snow on the way to the running club to getting left behind and lost on a group bike ride. Here is my fourth goal. Next year I would like to be able to help others as I have been helped. I'm still not sure what I got myself into but I think it's going to be a very long time before I find myself bored with triathlon and in search for something else to try.
Deciding on a race was much easier than making a commitment to a race distance. International (1000 yard swim, 28 mile bike, 6 mile run) was a logical choice since I have only done Sprint distances. With such a long distance to travel why not go for ½ Iron man (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 12 mile run) was my thought but I was pretty sure Joella would suggest International. I wouldn't have verbalized it if there was a slight chance that Joella would agree that I should go for ½ Iron man distance.
I lost about two weeks of training in August on the worst vacation ever, which left me with four weeks to train for the long distance. My plan was to train for ½ Iron man distance and see how I get through the workouts and make my decision. While I was spending most of my waking hours training if not working I bought a book The Athlete's Guide to Recovery: Rest, Relax, and Restore for Peak Performance by Sage Rountree. One of the first subjects that the book covered is on over training and using the post workout journal as one of the monitoring tool. Counting up the number of positive and negative words used in the journal entry combined with a few other quantifiers will provide a good indicator to the progress of the training. This is simple enough but most of you know that I am not a journaling type and very far removed from feeling words. I was also not ready to face my negative thoughts which probably mean that I really shouldn't try to do a long triathlon but I gave it a try. Within a few days of journaling I was unexpectedly surprised to see that I was mostly positive with workouts. This helped me to decide to go for ½ Iron man distance. I had my fanciful thoughts but the only goal I had going into this race was to cross the finish line. It turned out to be a bad race for me but I gained experience for my next race which will be sure to come next year.
Once I was out of the bed on the race morning, the time went very quickly. I packed up my breakfast and food for the bike and we headed to the race. I ate my breakfast at the transition laying out bike and run gear and loading food on the bike. I tend to blister easily so I had Body Glide on my feet, under side of arms and neck. I was glad that we had an opportunity to warm up in the water. The water temperature was good but it was very dark. I couldn't see past my upper arm. Trying out the water was good but I was very cold waiting for the race start even in a borrowed shirt. Next time I will have a throw away hoodie, flip-flops on and a bottle of water with me.
Before I knew it, it was the time. Most of the people jumped into the water but I hugged and hung onto the dock as long as I could to get into the water . Once I was in, the fog horn went off. What was I thinking? What am I doing here? Swim 1.2 miles? Shortly after I started swimming I felt my heart rate soaring and my breathing became labored. I knew these will pass but it's never easy to swim through it. I treaded water a couple of times but I started to settle down. I did pretty well staying on the course going out but I was zigzagging on the way back to the finish and had to change my direction to be on the right side of the buoy a number of times. It was unreal that I actually managed 1.2 mile open water swim and I wasn't the last person out of the water. One advantage of being slow in the water is that there isn't much chance of being kicked around by other swimmers. It's more like that the entire water way was opened for your leisurely swim except the brief time the next wave catches up to you. So, here is my first goal for the next race. I would like to finish the swim before the next wave of people swim over me.
After the swim, I ran to the transition and was not surprised to find it pretty empty except a few bikes. I got the bike started and looked forward to an easy flat ride. Half hour into the bike and I am still looking for the flat ride. As far as I can see was a gradual hill with cross wind. There is still hope. The return ride should be easier but not with the wind knocking you around. There was no reprieve from the wind the entire bike leg and no place to coast. It was nonstop pedaling from the start to finish and top it off I had a stomach ache during the entire bike leg and a backache about an hour into it. The bathroom at the transition was a little ways off so I decided to make a quick bathroom stop at the last turn around on the bike. That's where I noticed that both under sides of my arms were chafed. This was not a good sign. How did I get my arms chafed from biking? Time on the bike was just about what I anticipated. Here is my second goal for the next race. I will be stronger and more efficient on the bike.
A quick change and I was off to the run. I made an assessment of my physical condition. Chafe on the arms are only going to get worst during the run. I still had stomach ache but I wasn't tired and my legs felt pretty good but shortly after the start of the run I started wheezing. I'm thinking this can't be happening. I had problems with wheezing a couple of times during brick workouts that had a short run but I attributed that to being very tired off from the bike. I was mentally prepared for side stitches that I frequently get but not the wheezing and didn't have a plan for it. Only thing I could do was walk and run once my breathing returned to normal. The wheezing and stomach ache stopped after about three miles but I was feeling a major pain on the bottom of my foot. But you don't get blisters from only three miles of running that was more like walking. Now I started to look for a swarm of locust. I never had a problem running and running has been my strength but it became the most disappointing part of the race. I think I spent more time walking than running but I was glad that I was able to finish the race. The third goal for next race is to be better at sucking up to the pain. This was an extremely disappointing race for me. In a lot of ways racing is very similar to performing. You prepare for all possible circumstances hoping and striving for a perfect performance which I am not sure if it is possible.
This has been a year like none before. One thing for certain is that if I stopped to think too much I wouldn't have made it this far. From showing up at the pool to meet Joella after I was able to swim across one length of the pool to my first road bike session with cleats where Ken did more work holding me up right than I did biking to driving the car into a ditch in the snow on the way to the running club to getting left behind and lost on a group bike ride. Here is my fourth goal. Next year I would like to be able to help others as I have been helped. I'm still not sure what I got myself into but I think it's going to be a very long time before I find myself bored with triathlon and in search for something else to try.