This weekend is my first triathlon EVER!

kviehe1

 I am doing the White Lake sprint this weekend, which is my first triathlon ever.  I am super excited as well as a little nervous.  I have been with EN since February and have been working hard on my fitness.   I am doing this sprint and then an olympic in June which will help prepare me for Racine 70.3.   I feel great and am not  worried about the distance.  What I am worried about is all the peripheral stuff that is part of triathlons!!  The transitions are especially daunting. For example, how do you organize your stuff???  I thought it might be helpful if people could think back to their first few races and provide some helpful hints about their mistakes or things that they wish they would have known or done differently.  

Thanks!!!

 

 

Bill McKinney

You'll be fine. The main thing is to have fun. Whatever you're worried about that you can think of you can practice. There's only a few things that can really go wrong in a sprint, so my advice is to plan for the things you can plan for (e.g. practice changing flats if you can't do it, practice laying out your stuff and doing transitions, etc.), and keep a sense of humor if/when something you didn't think about happens (e.g. your crank falls off your bike, you forget your goggles, you wear your helmet out of T2, etc.). In terms of tranistions for a sprint, I would recommend doing as little fiddling around as possible. For sprints I wear my full kit for the swim. T1 = put on shoes, watch, helmet, and sunglasses, grab bike and run for mount line. T2 = change shoes grab race belt and hit it. Put sunscreen on before the race, don't bother with changing clothes or wearing socks, and move efficiently but not in a hurry. I organize my stuff really simply. I lay out a towel under my bike with both pairs of shoes on the towel. That way I can run out of the water, wipe my feet on the towel, and put on the shoes. I put my helmet on my handlebars with my Garmin watch and sunglasses in it (and race belt w/number if they want you to wear it on the bike). Once my shoes are on, I quick put on my glasses, watch, and snap on my helmet (and race belt if needed) and go for it. Once I get rolling, I start the watch, maybe have a drink of water and settle in. For T2, you just switch shoes. If you only need the race # for the run, I put it on top of my shoes so I don't forget to grab it.

The first "real" triathlon I can remember doing was the Turtleman in ~1987 or '88. I remember it going reasonably well except that I took a wrong turn on the bike and about a dozen people followed me. I can still picture it...I was coming up to an intersection and there was a policeman standing on the corner, he sort of gestured to his left (in retrospect I think he was swatting a mosquito or something), so when I got to where he was standing, I took a left. About 3 blocks down the road I came to a dead end. Somehow I figured out that I shouldn't have turned, so I quick u-turned and went back. Turns out a bunch of people followed me, and they all were giving me dirty looks as I lead the group back onto the course.

My biggest snafu was when I did my first (and come to think of it only) HIM. It was Square Lake (in Stillwater, MN). I committed to doing an Ironman in 2008 as my 40th birthday to myself, and the HIM was my BIG interim goal (pre-EN). I was super nervous about the distance, and I had been training for over a year (lots of LSD!). I got to the race venue and set up all my stuff next to a friend. About 30 minutes pre-race, we started to walk down to check out the swim start when I realized that, yes, despite a full YEAR of prep I had left my goggles at home. It was a lake swim, so I immediately knew I COULD do the swim without them, but nevertheless, I was totally panicked. My friend sort of laughed at me, but didn't have any advice. I happened to hear the race announcer mention that "a pair of car keys was found..." somewhere, and I thought, "why not...maybe someone has an extra pair.". So I went down to the start finish and asked the race announcer if he had any idea where I might get a pair of goggles. Without skipping a beat, he said, "oh, you can use mine...they're in my car, and I'm not racing, so they're all yours"! That quickly problem solved. Something like that or the wrong turn is bound to happen, and my only advice is to remember that this is a hobby, and no one is going to live or die based on how you do. Have fun, thank the volunteers for coming out to help, and encourage the other people in the race!

scottwstewart

I have two recommendations. The first is to spend some time on Youtube and do searches for "Triathlon transition" or "Triathlon T1", ect. You can find some great videos of different coaches showing you exactly what to do. The second thing is to make sure you are prepared for whatever weather could come your way on race day. The only mistake I've made in races gear wise is not having a jacket or arm warmers ready to throw on if I needed them.

kmepham

+1 on YouTube transition videos.
And learn from my mistakes (my first sprint was just last year):
Jog all the transition paths, maybe more than once: swim finish to bike rack, bike rack to bike exit, bike finish to bike rack, bike rack to run exit. You can waste a lot of time going the wrong way (especially if the bike and run exits are in opposite directions), or searching for your bike.
Oh, and when you exit the swim, make sure your feet are on dry land before you actually take anything off such as goggles and cap. Cuz if you drop those goggles in the churned-up water, chances are you'll never see them again.

Al Truscott

There's a wiki post on transition tips from EN members compiled a while back.

The number one thing I wish I'd known about transitions for my first tri: have a small towel dedicated to wiping the dirt and sand off my feet from running up the beach.

The other tip I found most useful early one: wear my cap OVER my goggle straps, so they goggles don't get knocked off by accident during the swim.

Coach Rich

I'm sure you'll get lots of good feedback and tips from the Team. My advice is to have fun, expect to make mistakes, and have fun with the mistakes you make. My first triathlon:

• Wore a black speedo for the whole race.
• Was my first time riding with aerobars, eva
• Small hill right out of T1. Didn't get clipped in, fell over and had to waddle up the hill.
• Rode with 48oz camelback full of Gatorade, drank the whole thing, for an Olympic...
• Ran out of T2 with my helmet on

 

Gordon Cherwoniak

Keri,

My biggest mistake was not having run off the bike and hammering it through the 20K, the legs were rubber at the start of the run.  As for the transition just make sure you have the essentials for a sprint on the bike and run.  When you rack you bike take good note of where you are, locate the swim exit and how you will get to you bike rack and then to the bike exit.  Do the same for the re-rack at the end of the bike and on to the run.

Bike - shoes (socks, roll them up to help with wet feet), helmet (make sure you do it up or it's a DQ), sun glasses and gloves.  For me just one bottle with water and I don't take on too much fluid for a short race.  If its a cold race have arm warmers or a jacket set out as well. 

Run shoes, watch/GPS .  If you use a garmin make sure you turn it on before coming in to transition or the race could be half over by the time it picks up.

Good luck

Gordon

kurshing

Damn coach Rich...you sound like you were a moron in that first tri. That would make a great movie!

kviehe1

Thanks everyone! That is exactly what I was looking for. Turning on the Garmin, arm warmers, youtube videos (super helpful), small towel, wrong turns, goggles under cap, knowing the layout of the transitions, that is the stuff that I wanted to hear about.

Coach Rich - I burst out laughing at that one. I think you made that up.

I can't wait for the race. I have been having the best time training these last few months. I am so glad I went to the Milwaukee Multi Sport Expo and stumbled across Coach Patrick's talk.

Thanks again everyone. I am looking forward to getting my first race under my belt.

Keri

Coach Rich

Nope, not making it up. I was also quite hairy and about 176lbs vs 164lb now, to complete the picture for you :-)

J.T. Thompson

Keri - as said before - make sure to have fun and take time after the race to enjoy sharing your day with others...don't rush away if don't have to.... And we all make mistakes in races - in my first, I fell flat on my back in T1 trying to get my wetsuit off...at least I got a few claps when I finally go it off...

X2 on the transition link from Al....some really great tips there that I'd never heard in lots of transition discussions/reading!!! Another reason why great to be part of EN.