My First Triathlon - Bottomless Lakes Triathlon
When the alarm went off at 3AM yesterday morning I wasn’t in a foul mood about it like I normally would be. It didn’t matter how early it was, I had a big event to get to. I got all my gear loaded into my car and took off toward Roswell, NM. It was a 3.5hr drive.
The event I was heading towards was my first ever triathlon. I was confident that it was going to be my first in a long list of triathlons that will one day be my athletic resume. The event, the Bottomless Lakes Triathlon. Now, I did my research, the lake isn’t bottomless, but it is 90ft deep (that’s scary enough).
I was flying down the highway when I pass a truck with two bikes in the back, it looked familiar, like it may have been O’s truck, so then a while goes by and they pass me, I look and the person in the front seat wasn’t M so I thought, hrm, that’s not them, but then they were waving at me from the backseat and I realized it was them. So I traveled a good 100 miles in their caravan. It was comforting because I knew that they knew where they were going. I wasn’t going to get lost.
When we got there, I got to meet some more members of the New Mexico Outlaws (they’re now my local tri family). GeekGrl showed me around, showed me the transition area, it was a first come first serve set up so I set up fairly close to where we’d take off with our bikes. She showed me the water, where we’d start, what we had to do, which direction to go when we got on our bikes and which direction to go when we headed out for our run. I was extremely grateful at this point to have met her at the NM Tour de Cure. She’s a great asset to have in terms of me doing local events and getting into this whole Tri scene. In fact, all the Outlaws that I’ve talked to are extremely helpful.
Pre-tri setup: 2 hrs before the event was to begin I dropped my insulin take down to 25% of the normal. I knew swimming wrecks havoc on my blood sugars but I didn’t want no insulin in my system. The thought of going into ketosis because there’s no insulin in me scares me more than my blood sugar going low because there is insulin in me. 1 hr before the event I ate a powerbar and took 70% of what I would normally take for it. I needed my number to be around 180 when I started an at this point I was 92. Right before we headed to the water I did one last check and was thrilled to see that I was 196. I was going to be good for the swim.
400m Swim: The water we (fellow Outlaws and I) estimated was about 68 degrees, it was really nice, and as such, I didn’t wear my wetsuit. The swimming was an in water start and it went off in waves. Women first, then men, then the seniors. Just for the sake of not getting run over, I wanted to start with the seniors, but I didn’t. I made sure I was off to the side when I began swimming and that all the women had gone in before me. I didn’t want to get caught in the crowd. It didn’t take but a few minutes before I ran over my first person. That freaked me out. I practically swam over another person. I apologized and swam more towards the side of the group. Then a hand grazed my leg, and at about the same time, my hand grazed a leg. I freaked. It was a reminder of when I was younger and there was an incident in a pool where I got grabbed and held under water. I really didn’t want to be dragged under and drowned. This happened at about 50-100m into the swim. I flipped over at that point and began backstroking. I was in deep deep water (the deepest point being 90ft deep) and I really didn’t want to drown, and I was freaked out now, really freaked out. This is one of those things I’m gonna have to work on. I was not quite to the buoy when I heard the horn for the mens wave go off. I freaked out again because I knew the men were going to run right over me. I quickly got around the buoy and swam to the side where I was sure I wasn’t going to get run over. A life guard asked if I was ok. I said I was and continued on. The next life guard I passed said I had to get back into the main crowd. That freaked me out, the men were over there, they were going to swim right over me. But the guard said they’d rescue me if something happened. I did have one guy run over me, that wasn’t thrilling, but he apologized. I have a feeling that these apologies aren’t normal, when I start getting into the big races I don’t think I’ll be saying them or hearing them. I finally got back to the beginning, my swim time being 16.15.28. It seems so slow to me as I think about it now, but as I was told in the beginning by a GeekGrl, “it’s not about speed, just focus on your stroke” and thus, I was just thrilled that I made it out of the water without drowning.
T1: I hurried to my transition area but once I got there I was a bit disoriented. The first thing I did was check my blood, it was 29. I was in the water swimming for only 16 minutes and my numbers went from 200 to 29. That wasn’t good news. It pissed me off. I knew that I probably should’ve just counted my blessings that I made it out of the water and declare my race done there, but I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t. I wanted to finish, I needed to finish. Diabetes was not going to get me down today. I ate 2 GUs, washed them down with water that had e-fuel in them, managed to get my shoes on and went on my way. (time spent transitioning: 4.16.80)
14k Bike: I had trouble clipping into my pedals, it was probably a good eighth of a mile before I managed to get clipped in. Early on there was a hill. I had no strength in me at this point to get up and stand to push myself up the hill so I kicked my bike into my lowest gear and pedaled up it. I didn’t find it easy and it wasn’t exactly the worse hill I’ve even ridden up. Even so, I was ok with it, I was going about 9 mph up the hill. When I got up the hill and was on flat road I was staring at it because it was really b-b-b-uuuum-m-m-m-py, so I was watching it. The rocks in the road were speeding at me as though I was in a warp tunnel. If I had to compare it to something, it’s as though I were in the millenium falcon and we had just gone to light speed. You know when the stars turn into bright blue lines, that’s what the rocks looked like to me, except they weren’t blue. And they kindof tunneled, it was interesting to say the least. I didn’t have much speed in me during the ride. My fastest coming down the hills was 27mph which excited me. On average though I was only going about 12mph, that’s not as fast as I can go, if I push it I could’ve done 14-15mph, but at this point, I have to remember, I was setting the bar, time wasn’t a factor. So really, my time of 36.24.21 was good. I was beat though. I could tell during the ride that my numbers weren’t ok. I was just so tired and exhausted, the tiredness and exhausted feeling that only comes from my sugars being out of whack, not from oh, I just rode 75 miles on my bike kind of tired. When I finished cycling, people were already finishing their runs. I had to get on my game if I were going to not be the last one (yes, I have issues being last. yes, I am that kind of competitive. yes, I did break my “setting the bar” rule just so I wouldn’t be last)
T2: This transition went better than the first one. I shed my helmet and sunglasses, and put on my ball cap. I ditched the cycling shoes and put on my running shoes. I checked my blood, holy crap, 360-something. Not happy with that number, I checked to make sure my site was still attached. It was, I bolused half as much as I needed to get that number back into normal range. I grabbed my water bottle (which was dumb, I hate carrying that crap, and I know it, but my meter was in the pocket) and I took off for my run. (time transitioning: 2:15.31)
4K Run: I couldn’t really run, I was sapped of all energy at this point, it was quite pathetic in my book. I was being passed and I couldn’t even run to keep up with the people that were passing me. I was walking, and walking, and walking some more, oh here, I’ll run a few steps, nope can’t do that, let’s walk some more. I did that all the way to the cone that signaled the turn around point. At that point I realized there was lines in the road, you know, the yellow stripes that exist to keep cars on the proper side of the road. I was all, OH! I can do this! And I started running for 5 yellow lines, walking for 5 yellow lines. I did better in the second half of my run than I did in my first. I managed to pass 2 people (which was good enough for me, I wasn’t coming in last). Around the last big corner I could see what looked like GeekGrl down at the end waiting for me, that put a smile on my face. I started jogging because I had been walking. And then there was a small corner where she was and I rounded it and the people there were yelling and one guy was all “come one, let’s see it, give it all you got” so I actually sprinted that little itty bitty part. I passed through the finish line and I was excited. I had just finished my first triathlon. The run took me 39.00.50.
Results: I finished in about an hour and a half, and that’s all that matters (this race), in the future, I’ll start figuring out how to place, not freaking out in the water is a great place to start, doing something about those darn blood sugars will help too.
It was cool at the end to actually have a good group of people around that I knew and I could talk to and I quickly was pondering my next race. They told me to register for Socorro so, I checked my calendar and I will be joining my fellow Outlaws on August 9th for the Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon.
I can tell already, that I’m going to have a lot of fun competing in triathlons, plus as an added bonus I’ve got the Outlaws as my local tri family.
13 Responses to “My First Triathlon - Bottomless Lakes Triathlon”
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
That is so amazing!
I cannot imagine ever doing that!
I guess the tailbone is fixed.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Yeah, the tail issue is fixed, I can still feel it a little, but it’s not too much of a pain in the ass
July 14th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Fantastic job Courtney I am very proud of you!
July 14th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Courtney
Thanks for the thrilling description and CONGRATULATIONS on completing your first triathlon. Especially with the wacky numbers.
I’m due to do my first in early August, but I’ll have my Dexcom for the bike ride and running. So that’s helpful (hopefully).
The swimming sounds scary. Maybe I need to get my kids to swim over me a few times so I’m used to it!
July 14th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Congratulations Courtney.
I was there, too. This was the second triathlon my wife talked me into, and the first one that was not in a pool where I was never more tha a few feet from a reassuring rope. As an older, male competitor you had a ten minute head start on me in the water, but due to my stunning speed while simulating drowning you were only 27 minutes ahead of me when I came out of the water. (I am pretty sure my 33 minutes in the water made everyone else look like olympic swimmers by comparison.)
On the bright side, since I started at the back of my wave I did not have to worry about anyone “running over” me. Although if someone had done so, perhaps I could have grabbed them and been towed to shore faster than my own feeble strokes did.
Maybe I’ll see you there next year when I hope to improve on my 90 minute performance.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
The water thing does sound scary and I love to swim. Way to Go on finishing! You should be so proud! Can’t wait to see how much better you do on the next one!
July 14th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Courtney, CONGRATS on finishing!!!
Thank you so much for posting such a detailed summary of your experience, including details about your bg numbers during the race. This is so helpful to those of us who may want to do a tri in the future. Congrats again– I can’t wait to read about the next one.
July 14th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Yay! You did it! You are a triathlete.
I cannot believe that you pushed through till the end with those roller coaster numbers. Way to kick diabetes ass!
Keep training. You rock!
July 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
OMG! You are wonderful Courtney!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:22 am
I am very proud of you. Keep up the good work!
July 30th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Courtney this too was my first triathlon, but un-like you I didn’t have to worry about diabetes. My only down fall was my weight, the day of the race I weighed in at 287. I will say for my first race I did it. I completed my two goals, 1, finish the race 2, don’t come in last. And I did them both, yahooooo. I didn’t know about this race in Socorro, but I’ll look into it now. I am training solo now for the one in Rio Rancho on the 14th of September, and I look forward to this one mainly becasue the swim is in a pool. I am deathly afraid of water, and when I got into the BOTTOMLESS Lake I thought I was going to drown, and I hadn’t even got in the water yet. hehehehe.
Just wanted to say congrats to you completing the race, and maintaing your diabetes. Also for posting this it was a great read to see that I wasn’t the only one on their first race.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
[...] was my second triathlon and it went so much better and incredibly more smoothly than my first one (Bottomless Triathlon). I had a good deal of anxiety over the last week because of the way my blood sugars ran during my [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
[...] is dealing with my blood sugars while swimming. I don’t know if you recall but during the Bottomless Triathlon my blood sugar went from decently high to dangerously low in a very short amount of time. Let me [...]