No weekly workout post for me this week, because I just returned from vacation. Flew in on the red-eye flight from Honolulu to Detroit Friday night/Saturday morning to be exact! Yep, 6 hours lost on my Friday night (time zone change). It was an 8 hour flight. 6 hour time change is a lot!! I thought I’d try to stay up on Saturday morning so I could get back into my sleep rhythm easier, but I ended up coming home and crawling straight into bed. Saturday was a blur.
With vacation last week I did end up with a few miles though: 27 running, 25 biking.
Fast forward to today (Sunday) and my husband and I had a big race on our calendar… the Sylvania Triathlon! This event has been held for 39 years. I’ve only participated once before, and that was last year for the Sprint Triathlon. I was happy with my performance last year, so at the encouragement of my husband, we both signed up for the Olympic distance this year. What I didn’t realize, because I was blocking it from my mind, was that the Sprint was a 400m swim, but the Olympic was a 1600m swim (!!).
While I have been swimming a bit in my pool the past month, and trying to get my stamina up, I went on vacation for 17 days and no real swim training was done. Or biking. So I went into the race a bit underprepared, but what I was prepared for was the swim to be my weakest sport. And it delivered!! Man, oh man, I was pretty bad in the swim. My friends (trained swimmers) were completing it in 30 mins, I finished in 42 mins. Yep, I think I was almost the last one out of the water for the whole triathlon. I felt like I hadn’t trained one bit when I started swimming, so I just did the breast stroke the majority of the time. Pokey. Everyone passed me.
Moving on to the bike portion. 25 miles. I did fairly well, but I’m certainly not fast there either, so I got almost 16 mph average. Not stellar. I was wondering where everyone was by this point!
I thought I’d really catch up in the run. 6 miles. Uh, no. I mean I did pass a few people just because they were slow, but there weren’t a lot of people out there at that point. After my first two miles, it turned into a run/walk situation because I was just A) exhausted B) hot! Phew!!! So my average pace for the 6 miles was around 10 mins miles. Quite a bit slower than I had hoped. Total triathlon time: 3 hrs 20 mins.
This was my husband’s first triathlon and he ended up being quite happy with his event. His swim went better than he thought (38 mins) and he cruised on the bike. His run was a bit slower than he hoped, but still, it was solid. He finished in 2:57. Well done!!
After the race we hung out and had a drink and burger to refuel. They started with the awards ceremony and we cheered on some friends who had won awards.
As we were leaving, they just happened to be doing my age group, and you know what? They announced my name as 3rd place winner in my age group!!! What the what?? I was honestly on the verge of shedding some tears because I was bummed about my race. This changed my day for sure! I had no idea because the results page wasn’t working at the time. Look at the shocked look on my face as I ran up to grab my award. No time to even put my beer down! LOL!
Hours after the race, the results page finally worked. Oh guess what? I was the third out of three people in my age group. That kind of puts a slight damper on my excitement because I could have crawled to the finish and I still would have got 3rd place. But on the other hand, you never know how many people will show up in your age group, so really there could have been someone slower than me if more people were there. Eh, it could go either way.
I really didn’t catch a love of swimming yet, or really enjoy the longer swimming distance of this race, so I don’t think I’ll be trying another Olympic distance race again, unless I had a more formal training plan for the swimming or even getting some swim lessons. And, improving my cycling speed, if that’s a thing. (I guess that’s called “training more” haha) But overall I do really like the Sylvania Triathlon because there are so many things going on – Duathlons, Triathlons and even Aquabike. Aquabike is swimming 1600m and cycling 25 miles with no running. Even with all of that stuff going on, I think this is one of the best managed events around! Kudos to the race director.
So for now I will display my trophy proudly because I finished it, and didn’t drown. Wasn’t that really my goal anyways? 🙂
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Q: Have you ever heard of the Aquabike event?
This is a newer event for the race. I guess some people don’t like to run?? Crazy! 😉
Q: Have you ever won an award like my situation? Did it change your outlook on your event?
Huge congrats to you both! Wow way to score an AG placement. I was not going to do a tri this year bc we have had a lot of travel but I just signed up for an SUP tri. should be interesting! Thanks for linking up!
Deborah Brooks recently posted…Weekly Run Down Hello August
I wish I would have had a little more time on vacation, because there was a lot of SUP going on in Hawaii! I had no idea people were “professional SUP riders” either, which I also learned on our trip. That does sound like an interesting Tri concept, good luck!!
What? People would choose to swim and bike and NOT run???? Umm, I’m the one searching for duathlons because the water thing ain’t my thing (YET). ANyways, even though you were 3rd out of three…you finished!! After a long vacation AND a long flight coming home. I think that’s pretty amazing!
Oh, and I had the undivided attention of the lifeguards in the canoes due to my slow speed. Extra safety is a bonus. haha! 🙂 Thanks!
Wow, you finished it and you coped with that LONG swim and all with jet lag, I’d call that a win! And you were the third woman in your age category to even turn up and try so I’d say that is a win right there, winning over all the people who didn’t even try.
It was a loooooong swim for sure! I’m glad the jet lag is over now. We were so exhausted for a few days. Not fun!
Well done on your award! Even if there were just 3 of you in the category – you went out there and did your thing so it counts 100%!! Loved how shocked you were. Such an awesome story. Well done to your husband too. 🙂 Swimming for me is a no-go area – I think I could possibly swim to save my life (would probably need rescuing pretty quickly though) so a triathlon is out for me! LOL!
Shathiso recently posted…Run the Berg Training – June/July
I think what made the situation even more funny was that the race director was shocked to see me there, since he knew I had been in Hawaii just before that. Shocked faces all around!!
First of all, congrats on the 3rd place finish. Completing a 1600 m swim is an awesome accomplishment. It seems like a really big jump from the sprint to the Olympic distance.
I have run several races where I am the only one in my age group. My name is announced as the winner fo the age group and I am elated, then no other winners are announced and I realize…Awwww…I was the only one in the age group! 😀
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Thanks! I think everyone in my swim group was a little surprised when I told them I hadn’t swam that far before, right before we started the race. Or maybe they were looking at me like I was an idiot. Fair enough haha
wow! amazing you did the olympic distance after your vacation and not really training during that time! and I say if you got an AG award you are officially badass! who cares there were only 3! you got an award! congrats!! and congrats to your husband too!
I’ve never won any awards. I don’t even run 10 minute miles so, there’s that hahaha! I have come in dead last a few times does that count for anything? 🙂 my husband did get 2nd in his AG years ago when we did our very first trail race while on holiday in New Mexico. The other guys must not have had a great feeling about their race because AG 1 and 3 never made it up to the podium!
Winners 1 & 3 must have had a rough day!! I think I was 10th from the last place at this race.
I have also come in next to last before too! 😉