The Triathlon Decision - Where to Start

The Decision to Do a Triathlon


Usually, at least for me, in order to take on a huge new task I need some sort of inspiration to kick me off. After having run a few 5K races over a couple month period I was told I would probably get into other types of endurance sports like swimming and biking. Well I didn't have a bike, and I hadn't swam in years. I mean, I have gone to the lake on our boat and jumped in the water and played, but not serious swim training. The farthest I had run was about 7 miles. I had built up my endurance though and I was feeling strong.


Our friend Margaret was doing the half distance Silverman Triathlon out at Lake Las Vegas, and we decided to go and watch the race and see what Triathlon was all about. Silverman has the reputation of being one of the hardest triathlons around. It attracts top level athletes in the triathlon world and finishers get tons of respect for putting themselves through the grueling course.


The place was crowded. We got there and I had brought my camera, because I am somewhat of an amatuer photographer. That is to say I have a camera and I have Photoshop, so I can do cool things with the pictures. We camped out above Lake Las Vegas at the swim start by T1 (transition area 1) on the bridge overlooking the lake. Watching everyone get into the water in their wetsuits for about a half hour reminded me of a seal colony. Everyone looked the same, except for their different color swim caps that signified which race each athlete was running. You have to tread water by the start line for a while, which takes alot of energy before the race even gets underway.

We watched as the horn sounded, releasing the racers, who suddenly turned the water into a chaos of swimmer, looking like salmon swimming upstream. This part of the race can be brutal. Many racers swim over others, and there is alot of both intentional and unintentional kicking and smacking going on while racers jockey for position. It didn't look like alot of fun at this point.


We watched as everyone eventually got out into the course and we saw athletes of all abilities swimming away. Some smoothly, some not so much. There were plenty of lifeguards on hand for less apt swimmers, and people began to cling to kayaks and boards along the way after a while. Still, I was amazed at the stamina it takes to swim the distances that they had to do. Silverman only had Full and Half distances, so the Full swim distance was 2.4 miles (4K) and the Half was 1.2 miles (about 2K). I couldn't imagine swimming that far. Margaret finished around 45 minutes and she was out and on to T1 to get on the bike for the exhausting 55 mile bike ride, followed by a half marathon distance 13.1 mile run to finish off.  We left Lake Las Vegas because T2 (transition area from the bike to the run) was at the Henderson Multigen complex quite a ways away. Knowing that it would take her a while to complete the bike, we went to our house, which is conveniently located right on the bike course! We grabbed some chairs and sat out on the road to watch as the athletes pedalled by. Margaret came by as happy as could be. Atleast she looked that way! We had signs for her and rang cowbells cheering her on. I snapped a couple photos as she rode by flashing us a peace sign.

We ended up at the finish line a couple hrs later and Renee saw Margaret running with a few miles left to go and I went to the finish line hoping to get some shots of her finishing the race with the time overhead. We had also printed out the above photo for her, and went and got it framed so we could give it to her when she crossed as a gift. With a little over 9 hrs elapsed in the overall race (gun time), Renee called me and told me Margaret was heading to the finish line area. I was in a great postion to get a shot and whe nI saw her coming down the finish stretch I got a few shots of her coming across the line. THAT was the moment. Seeing Margaret accomplish that goal gave me such goosebumps! I was proud of her and all her hard work. I never really understood just how much tme and effort she had put into it, btu  iwould soon get a little taste of it in my own preparation to do a race.


So here was Maragret. Our friend, someone we knew had extraordinary inner strength, completing a half-distance triathlon. Inspiring.  Renee and I both felt the inspiration and we made the decision to try one ourselves. I know the previous story was a little long-winded, but without that story it is hard to understand the motivation involved in making the decision to do a triathlon. I mean, you don't just wake up one morning and say "hey, I know, I'll do a triathlon..."


We went home afterward and checked out the local triathlon scene. Not much was going on, as Silverman was pretty much the end of the triathlon season until March. We wanted something that sounded fun, but not too taxing to start off with, so we found a reverse triathlon (run, bike then swim) in Pasadena, California at the Rose Bowl complex set for March 19th the next year, giving us around 4 months to train. The distances were shorter than most triathlons.  For those of you who aren't familiar with triathlon, there are basically 4 levels, with some variations thrown in.


Levels of Triathlon


When most people hear the word "triathlon", they think of "IronMan" and they imagine the longest race, when, in fact, "IronMan" is more of a brand-type name like "UFC" is to MMA, although there are many triathlon organizations out there. There are 4 basic levels of triathlon:


1. Sprint (AKA Short Course) - Usually this level consists of a 750-800 meter swim to start, then a 12-16 mile bike leg, depending on the race and then a 5K (3.1 mile) run to finish.


2. Olympic - Usually double the previous distances, again depending on the race. And yes, this is the distance that Olympic athletes compete in at the Olympic Games. 1000-1500 meter swim, 25-30 mile bike and 10K (6.2 mile) run.


3. Half Triathlon - Again, double the distances to make it 1.2 mile swim, 50-60 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.


4. Full Triathlon - 2.4 mile swim, 100-110 mile bike and 26.2 mile run (full marathon).


Now the Pasadena Triathlon was an odd creature. This race was what was known as a "short sprint". The distances were somewhat shorter than a regular sprint tri at 5K run (normal), 10 mile bike and a very short 150 meter swim (3 laps) in the heated Rose Bowl Aquatic Center pool.  We figured it would give us the experience we needed to learn transitions and let us know how hard we could go on each leg and still stay within our limits. We figured that was a good way to get our feet wet in triathlon. The next challenge was to get bikes and to get into the pool to train!