Team Effort

I did my first relay race this weekend and it was a hoot. I highly recommend doing one of those, especially if you haven't done a tri before -- lots of races (generally sprint distance) have relay teams, either 2 or 3 people to do the swim, bike and run as a team. It's fun to cheer on your teammates; easier on you because you only have to do 1 or 2 events; and for your first race it eases you into the atmosphere of transitions, timing chips, clothing, etc.

We did a family duathlon (a duathlon is run-bike-run) with my 16 year old stepdaughter as the lead off runner, my spouse as the biker, and me as the anchor runner. The distances were easy--2 mile run, 9.3 mile bike, 2 mile run--and although it was VERY hot we managed to eke out a 3rd place of six in the mixed relay division. The first and second mixed relay teams were young strapping athletes who eat older slower athletes like us for breakfast, so we never had a chance against them, although we might have posted better times if my husband hadn't gotten confused on the bike and briefly turned around at the RUN turnaround sign. :-)

I ran the 2 miles in 20 minutes 16 seconds (10.8 min mile) which was fairly fast, but I coulda gone faster--I was terrified of the heat, which at 8:30 a.m. was already 94 degrees, and so I made myself go slow the first 1.5 miles in fear I would simply wilt. At 1.5 miles I realized I still felt very strong so I turned it on, unfortunately the last .5 miles of the run was all uphill so it was harder to run faster. In retrospect should have gone harder on the first segment which was downhill and I think I would have still had plenty of gas for the final push. This is why running races sometimes as workouts (like this one was for me) is so important, so that you can find out just where you are and what you need to do to run smarter (not faster, just smarter, and smarter usually ends up being faster).

I had a bagel and peanut butter about an hour pre race, and sipped a lot of water before my start, and afterwards found a banana to devour.

It was a lot of fun to cheer Sarah off on her run leg--it was her first real timed race-- and wait anxiously for her return and when we saw her, to start jumping up and down and cheering her into the transition area, where she high fived Jim, and he ran out with his bike. Sarah and I then paced nervously awaiting his return--I had thought he would be done in 33 minutes (it was actually 32) and around 30 minutes I got into transition, warmed up with some jumping jacks, and sure enough here he came, jumped off the bike and ran to high five me and I was off through transition and onto the course. When I came around the corner for my last quarter mile before the finish, both Jim and Sarah were there cheering me and encouraging me to go faster up that darned last hill. It was a lot of fun and we'll do another one before the summer was over.

So find some friends and sign up for a relay if doing a full tri scares you. Pick a cool team name, train together at least once, and go out and have a blast.