Saturday the 21th of August will go down as the day on which I did my first Tri. A Olympic Distance Triathlon - 1,5km swim, 40km bike ride, 10km run - to be exactly.

The last months I had a decent preparation trying to build speed, strength and endurance. This time I wasn’t bothered by the ear infection which kept me out of competition two weeks ago.

I was ready. Felt ready, confident and couldn’t wait to measure myself against the challenge and the rest of the field. Want to know how it went? Please read on to find the race report.

Pre-race

The race was going to happen 1 p.m. I had a good night’s rest and woke up 07:00 AM. Went out of bed to eat an bowl of oatmeal before heading in. 08:30 AM the alarm sounded,  I toke a shower, had 3 banana pancakes (with jam), a cup of coffee and some chocolate milk.

I finished pre-race nutrition 4 hrs before the race and made sure all things were packed. Stuffed it all in my car, picked up my girlfriend and headed to Veenendaal (where?). Pre-race I had some good nervous but nothing to serious. I looked forward to the event and the experience. With 5 minutes left before the start I was getting scared and looked up to it. Couldn’t wait to start so that we could get over with it.

Swim - 32:55

*Bang* and off we went. The chaos wasn’t as big as I imagined and I tried to find some sort of rhythm.  I soon noticed that I found it very (very!) difficult to orientate during the freestyle stroke. Zig-zagging my way through the course I decided to switch to the breast stroke which would cost me some speed but what I would made up by covering less distance. When I exited the water I was happy with the time but even happier that the swimming part was over (not the first triathlete to think this).

T1 - 02:46

I came wobbling out of the water running to the transition area. 150 meters needed to be covered to get to my bike. Here I wondered for a sec if I should dry my feet (which I didn’t) before putting on my helmet, glasses, race belt, socks and shoes. I blasted my face with some water, collected my gels and off I went.

Bike - 1:10:48

4 laps of aprox. 9,5km - basically up and down one street . First thought on the bike was to calm down, let the impressions of the swim sink in and to let my heartbeat drop. I really focussed on nutrition taking 1 gel in the first 5km, one in the last 5km and drinking every 4km / 7 minutes.

The bike section went nice and smooth. I felt strong. On one straight I had the wind in my back and was pacing between 36 - 38 km p/hr during the 4 laps. Riding back I had the wind blasting in my face while I was averaging  31km p/hr the first lap. 30km p/hr the second, 29 the third when an alarm bell went off. I wasn’t ‘taking it easy’, I felt good and I went hard… too hard. Last lap back to transition I tried to pace and hoped that I would find my running legs in T2.

I entered T2 in 1:46:28 and dreamed about a 2:30 finish.

T2 - 1:22

This went pretty well. Hung my bike, threw off my helmet, switched shoes, blasted my face with some water before taking off.

Run - 57:24 (round 1 - 26:31 , round 2 - 30:53)

2 rounds of 5km. The first km went pretty well with a time of 4:40. And the rest… well… wasn’t as pretty. While I was able to run the first 5km in an okay 26:31 (5:18 pace) the second round was a battle of survival. My core was completely killing me (or was it the other way around), my upper legs were jelly while I tried to convince myself that walking a.k.a. quitting wasn’t an option. My soul entered the dark side, my vision narrowed and I fought for every step.

4km, 3km, 2km, last km and finally the finish where my girlfriend was waiting for me. Damn was I happy to stop moving. Completely exhausted was the feeling that dominated.

But I made it. Yes!

Overall - 2:45:13

I’m happy about the result; finished my first triathlon MOP, didn’t stop or quit and accomplished my time goal (3hr). Now it’s been a couple of days and I have bigger sense of accomplishment. I must say that I underestimated the intensity; damn it was tough.

It was my first, but certainly not my last. Still haven’t decided if my next challenge is going to be a 70.3 Ironman or a full distance Ironman. Key learnings from my first tri: focus on building a strong core, temporize and enjoy the experience.

That’s it. Up to the next. Thanks everybody!