The Rivuh Sprint Tri - In the books!

Well, the 1st annual running of the Rivuh Sprint Tri is history. After waking up at about 5:15, getting my stuff in order for the transitions, having a gatorade energy boost, eating a powerbar, drinking a little gatorade and trying to settle my nerves, I woke my Dad up to watch my swim and got in the water.

Leg 1: ~650m swim - 15'49"
Started out from the dock doing the crawl. I quickly realized that my breathing was going to be tough in that stroke. I'm not sure why other than I am extremely out of practice. I would breathe every right arm stroke and I just never felt like I was getting a full breath. Consequently, I started getting winded fast which just exacerbated the problem. I switched to the breast stroke and alternated between that and the back stroke most of the rest of the way. I did throw in some more crawl, but only in short bursts. All in all, the swim was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

When I was finished, I hit the dock, dried off, changed shorts, drank some gatorade, put on a shirt and my bike helmet. I grabbed the bike and hit the road. Now all of that sounds like I was doing it quick, but in actuality, it took around 6'30". I was not in a big hurry needing to catch my breath a bit.

Transition 1 - 6'30"

Leg 2: 21.5km bike - 53'15"
Getting out of the water was a real win. Getting on the bike with tired arms and legs was an unknown. But truthfully, I did fairly well here. The route is a really fun one to ride with all of the down hills, but it is equally as hellish since you have to go up everyone you come down. The pace I was able to avg. was just under a 4' mile. I know that is not extremely fast for a bike, but remember, the 11 miles from Friday was the first bike ride I made all year.

The hills were incredibly difficult. I handled Mtn. Dr. fairly easily but Lickskillet and Harrisville had some long hills and some that really ended with a steep crest. I guess, the wave analogy really holds cause on some of these I really felt like I was heading straight up the face of one. The toughest hills were one coming on the return on Harrisville and then the first one I hit on Lickskillet on the return. After cresting the one on Lickskillet, I knew I was going to make it. I rode past the cabin and down the driveway, laid the bike down in front of the porch and came up on the porch, on mighty wobbly legs, for another spot of gatorade as well as an energy gel (gatorade again).

I put on my Auburn visor, added my iPod (kind of wish I'd remembered it on my bike ride), and headed back out for the run.

Transition 2: 5'30"

Leg 3: 5k run - 27'20"
It would be hard for me to stress how weak my legs were after the swim and bike. I literally thought I might fall down going down the steps walking out for my run. I'm pretty sure that Stac, Mom and Dad all thought I was crazy...and likely that I wouldn't make it out of the yard.

They were almost right. Starting out on the run, I had never felt as unsure of the next step as I was then. My stride was abbreviated and steps were as light as they could be. I really thought there was no way I was going to finish, but I pressed on. Hitting the first few hills on Mtn, I managed them well enough. My pace was slow, but I was still moving. It wasn't until the big hill before the straightaway that I thought I might die again. Getting to the top of it, I walked for about 20 seconds before picking up the jog again going down the back side of it. After making the turn at the end of the road (14' on the out leg), I started back and something strange happened...I was able to stretch out my stride again. Not that I really sped up that much, but I did kick it in a little. One or two of the hills on the way back slowed me down again, but I ended up finishing in 27'20"...So I returned 40" faster than I went out. That is pretty awesome!

So I finished my first unofficial sprint tri in 1:48:20 with about 12' spent in transition. It is hard to express how excited I am at the accomplishment, particularly since I did it on my own with nobody really spurring me on (that's mostly true). In fact, the fam was a bit skeptical that I'd even finish I think (course so was I to be fair).