How Do You Meaure Success?

I did it! I completed my first race. It was a sprint distance so about half the distance of an Olympic distance (which is what I am signed up for in Hawaii). It consisted of a 700 m swim, 20 km bike, and a 5 km run.

How did it go you ask? Here are the official times:

Place	Time	Place/Gender	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
203/208	2:06:08	87/89	00:28:26	00:04:15	00:52:23	00:04:09	00:36:56

Looking at the numbers it might be hard to tell how the race actually went. Each one tells a bit of the story.

Looking at my overall place - 203 out of 208 competitors is the first number. During the race I got passed. A lot. I passed one person on the downhill portion of the bike but the next time I looked around that person was ahead of me again. So, I kinda thought I would be in last place overall. Nope! So that is a success for me. Not last.

Let's talk about each event individually. First was the swim. The part I have been working the hardest on and the part I felt most nervous about. Ward also raced so the organizer put me in his heat and informed me I should just go to the back of the group.  No problem. It was my first time in a 50m pool and it actually felt pretty good. Overall the swim was slow. I was by far the last one out of the pool. In fact a few of the people in the next heat (which was made up of the fastest group) passed me. Luckily I am used to getting passed from Masters Swimming. :)

Transition was good, no problems, just took my time and got ready.

On to the bike. Would it surprise you to know this was the first time I had really ridden my bike on the road? I went around the cul-de-sac a few times but this was my first real ride.  UBC is great for that since the bike course is closed. It was a two lap course and I even saw Ward on the course. It took a little getting used to the gears though and I really need to go out again. Another thing I realized is that I was not totally comfortable. I did not drink any water or look at my watch. I will need to do that in Hawaii as the weather is just a bit hotter! I was talking to some of my swim group today and they mentioned that they will stop their bikes to take a drink.  Always an option! The big thing about Hawaii is that part of the course is not closed. It runs along the highway. The rule is that if you cross the white line you are disqualified. Something to watch for!

Transition two was also good. I was freezing at this point. The ride was in the shade and my tri-suit is sleeveless. I had some trouble tying my runners!

By the time I got to the run my legs were not happy with me. It did not feel good to run. The course runs along the sidewalk though and was very narrow (both directions on the same sidewalk). The fact that it was so narrow and that it was only 5 km kept me moving. I kept telling myself there is no way you are walking on a 5 km run! I did take a couple 10 second walk breaks but I mostly kept running.

Then the finish! Hooray! I was so glad to be done and Ward treated me to a Triple O bacon cheeseburger on the way home which was soooo good!

Anyway, back to the title of this blog. Some people might look at my numbers and just see how slow I was. I look at it and see how far I have come. The fact that I was able to finish despite the fact that I basically spent 6 weeks on the couch makes me happy. When I started swimming in September I could barely swim 25 m. Saturday I swam 700 m without much rest and then today I swam for over an hour no problem. I feel good about that and I feel great about the race.

Of course now that it is behind me I am thinking - oh, if I would have went faster at transitions and a little faster on the bike I could have been close to under 2 hours. Ha ha, that's the way it goes!