This weekend we participated in the annual St George Triathlon. The Jorgensen family triathlon veterans all put out a good performance and Jordanna was the first to go for the olympic length. I learned a lot this year, transitioning from spectator back to triathlete. I was very disappointed in my performance, but hopefully I won't repeat my mistakes again.
All had an enjoyable weekend and we were able to enjoy the mild southern Utah weather, despite a night of annoying wind that deprived us of several hours of sleep just before the race. I gathered pictures from my camera and from Alan's and Susan's cameras. In the past, I took lots of pictures but as a participant this year, I took very few and in hindsight I wish I would have taken more.
St George Triathlon 2008 Pictures
This was my first triathlon since the very first St George Triathlon in 2001. This year might as well have been my first ever, because things are COMPLETELY different now. My triathlon in 2001 was like a race at recess in elementary school and 2008's is like a college track meet. Now it is so much more professionally run it's like night and day difference. Of course, I've been attending the past several years as a spectator, so I should have been a little more prepared, especially after watching and assisting family in previous years. But then, my shortcomings in this race were more equipment-oriented than physical preparation. This year the water was very cold. In 2001, I didn't know squat about triathlons and had no idea about wetsuits. My friends who did it with me were die-hard swimmers from Utah, so the cold reservoir water was a shock to this warm-water Arizona boy. I literally 'survived' the swim and it zapped a lot of energy. This year, I had a wetsuit, but it was a short-sleeved suit and more appropriate for recreational use. Fortunately for me, Alan felt sorry for me and lent me his full triathlon wetsuit. I stood in the cold water for over 30 minutes before we learned that our swim was cancelled due to the winds. They were rescuing literally boatloads of Olympic swimmers. I would have been totally zapped without that warm suit. I was a bit relieved they cancelled the swim, as I expected it to be my worst event since I had practiced so little.
We were all a little disoriented, but my age group was next and we wandered over to the boat ramp. They set us off in one big mass and I happened to be in the back. Needless to say, my transition time was very poor. I look at the other guys' transition times and I am amazed. Of course, it didn't help that I had to wait in a long line to start the bike. The bike turned out to be the most frustrating time of my entire weekend. I hadn't practiced my biking much, but I was hoping that my extensive soccer and cardio work from the past few months would help out. I failed to take into account how important it was to prepare the bike itself. I had bought my bike used off Craigslist and it seemed to be a pretty good deal. I even got two sets of tires, including a nice set of racing tires. Come to find out the night before the race as I was putting on the racing tires, one of my spokes on my rear tire was busted. It caused my wheel to wobble a bit. It was still rideable, but I had no idea just how much this would slow me down. The heavy headwinds didn't help my cause, but I felt like I was getting zero help from the bike. I was busting my butt on the bike and every man, woman, and child was passing me. It was downright embarassing. I really wonder what would have happened if I had used any other bike. There's no way I should have done that poorly relative to the other racers. On the downhill, I had to BRAKE to avoid fishtailing and wiping out because the wheel wobble was so bad. So much for picking up momentum. At the bottom of the big hill people were whizzing past at 40-50 mph and I was just trying to avoid crashing and killing myself, lol.
I was so glad to get rid of that stupid bike. When I set out on the run, I wasn't very winded still, but my legs were beat from battling with the bike. I put out a decent run and felt ok about it, all things considered. I didn't realize that the run would be almost entirely in sand and that we would be running through clouds of dust and sucking it all down. Even in the last 1/2 mile or so, I still didn't feel very winded, but my legs were pretty tired. I finished the race (pretty much a duathlon with a 30-minute warmup of standing in freezing water) not feeling very tired, which was also frustrating. To me that meant that I poorly managed my energy.
Many lessons learned this year...My goal was just to finish in the middle third of my age group, which physically I thought was very doable and I manage to achieve that in the run. Next time around, I WILL finish in that middle third, or else I will seriously think about resuming my triathlon spectator status and return to soccer and other sports that I enjoy. Hopefully I will take the time to practice the swimming and biking more, and the equipment will make up the difference.