It's been nearly a week since race day. Oceanside had picturesque weather, calm water, excellent road conditions and a gentle ocean breeze to greet runners of one of the season's first Ironman 70.3 series events. I had a fantastic time, and was quite pleased with my race times. I was definitely prepared for the physical and mental endurance tests of race day. But I still had a lot to learn from my first half Ironman event! So in good fashion I share a few rookie lessons with you.
1. Don't assume anything about the people who are there with you. The woman to my left in transition was shooting for a spot at the World Championships, the woman across from me had a freshly sprained ankle for the race and the woman to my right was doing her very first triathlon. There will be extraordinary people all around you who have beaten cancer, lived through combat, and have balanced training with work and family to boot. Show everyone on race day your greatest admiration and respect.
2. Do onto others...On that note, I found 3 types of participants in transition: type A knows what they're doing and get bitchy and annoyed when others do not, type B knows not what they do so, and type C knows as much as type A but are nice enough to help out the poor souls who are new. For the sake of the rapidly growing interest and participation in the sport, remember please there are new athletes all around you. Offer a helping hand, a word of advice ("hey, you probably don't want to hang your wetsuit up there, it'll get torn off by a bike..."). I am so thankful for the nice people around me who shared tips about their favorite parts of the course, how to set up the most effective, compact transition area, and what to think about just before and after each transition. To you helpers out there, thank you! You make this sport FUN!
3. Go hard, or go home! That swim surge article I read a few months ago in Triathlete Magazine was SPOT ON! In the swim, I started at the front of the pack, surged for the first 300m or so, and found that I was in great company w/some speedy swimmers to draft off of. This was the 1st triathlon swim I hadn't had to swim around anybody, or had someone backstroke their way into my path. Thanks, Tri Mag!
4. Don't blow your legs on the bike. This course (as are many, in California) had a hilly bike leg. In fact, the first big climb brought a number of riders off their bikes! It took a lot more than I imagined to resist mashing on the rest of the climbs and rollers and just spinning over them. I may have lost as much as 10 minutes on the bike in doing this, but I'm sure I would have suffered an additional 20-30 minutes for it on the run.
5. Speaking of the run, I made a bonehead move of having different socks on race day than I had been running with in training. There are SO MANY opportunities to stray from the path you've tread on race weekend!! Race expos offer so many new gadgets; sunglasses, ZIPP rentals, fast laces for shoes, "An Even BETTER supplement..." Make like Nancy Regan and JUST SAY NO to these temptations. Racing well is largely about how calm and confident you can stay; have confidence in your training, in your fitness level, and in the gear you've been using for the last few months.
So for other rookie triathletes out there, I hope these tips were somewhat helpful. For the veterans, thank you for being great sportsmen and competitors and I'll see you in transition again soon! /Jen Killian
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