Sink or...?

Its August 2nd, which means my first triathlon, Iron Girl Columbia, is officially less than 3 weeks away. I've known for awhile that my training is not where it needs to be, and I got an excellent reminder of that this past Saturday. Iron Girl stands out from other sprint tris in a few ways, and this weekend highlighted two of them:

(1) It is longer than most sprint-distance events. According to Triathlon Training for Dummies (which I have indeed read), most sprint tris consist of a .5 mile swim, a 12-16 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. Iron Girl, however, is a .62 mile swim, a 17.5 mile bike ride, and a 3.3 mile run. Those sound like tiny differences, but they are actually quite significant when (a) they involve sports that are totally new to me, and (b) the course itself is very challenging.

(2) Iron Girl offers a free "dress rehearsal" to all entrants: a chance to practice en masse on the actual swim and bike courses. That's what happened this past Saturday, and I am so grateful that I participated!

Prior to Saturday, I had done two open-water swims as part of my tri training group. I did not know the distance we covered in either, nor did I know how that distance compared to the Iron Girl swim. Now I know: the Iron Girl swim is much, much longer. .62 miles is a LONG way when you are not a very strong swimmer. I really struggled with the swim; in fact, it joins a very short list of athletic endeavors where I really was not sure I could finish. The only thing that got me through was the backstroke. In my recent pool workouts, I have been working on my breast stroke and backstroke, so that I can use them when I need to rest during the tri. This turned out to be a very good idea, because I probably backstroked 50% of the practice swim. You may be wondering how I did this without running into anyone. Answer: I didn't. I had a few minor collisions and one bigger one, in which another swimmer (accidentally) punched me in the jaw and then dragged her nail down my neck. I happened to be speaking at a church that evening, so it was a little unfortunate that I looked like I had been in a fight.

This swim definitely put some fear into me. I really need to step up my swimming over the next 2 1/2 weeks because I do not want to rely so heavily on the backstroke in the actual event. It was hard enough to avoid other swimmers at the practice; I know it will be even harder in the actual event (which is much bigger).

After I finished the swim, my friend Marie and I decided to try the run course. I think we both set out with a mindset of "Its only 3.3 miles, how hard can it be?" Answer: hard. The run course is very hilly, and hilly in what I would call a "Baltimore-esque" way: it seems to have much more uphill than downhill. Marie and I both struggled through the course at a 10:35 pace, which is definitely slower than either of our usual 5K paces. I can only imagine how the run will feel after both the swim and the bike!

Later this week, I'm going to meet Marie again to try out the bike course. I'm imagine that this will also be a fear-inducing experience, but if fear makes me work harder for the next 19 days, then I welcome it!