Tri As We Might

Well, Saturday morning was our mock triathlon at Lake Nokomis and it was a mixed bag.

We were nervous about it all of last week, knowing it was looming on the horizon like a storm cloud. (Yeah, I know, not a very positive analogy.) Coach Ingrid informed us to try and get a great night's sleep on Thursday night as that was more important that getting great sleep the night before. You never seem to sleep well the night before an event.

It just so happened with us that Friday was the better night, but the alarm going off at 5:23 AM on Saturday still came too early. We got everything ready and had the car packed the night before so all we needed to do was get dressed, throw the bikes on the rack, and head out.

When we arrived at Lake Nokomis we were among the first group to show, other than the coaches, of course. We picked our spot for our transition area - under a tree so we could stand our bikes up instead of laying them down - and got ourselves ready for the race. We registered with Ingrid, got our race numbers written on our leg and arm, and started to mentally prepare for the day.

We had 75 fellow TNT participants doing the mock tri with us, along with some great alumni who came out to provide support and do water stops. Right around 8 AM we gathered for a team meeting to go over the course, who would be doing what, asked any questions, got a moving mission moment from alum Fred, and did our final prep for the race.

At 8:15 we moved down to the beach, broke off into our separate groups - those doing the sprint distance and those doing the Olympic distance - had a minute of so of meditation, got focused, calmed the nerves down as much as we could, and we were off!

Those of us doing the Olympic distance did 6 laps around the buoys (2 more than we thought we were going to do), which equated to about 3/4 of a mile, followed by a 24-mile bike, and finishing with a 6-mile run. The sprint distance athletes did 4 laps, a 12-mile bike, and a 3-mile run.

We did a mass start for the swim, which was the first time we had done anything like that. It added quite a bit of stress at the beginning as we jockeyed for position, trying to find our spot in the water and get into our stroke. Very quickly we were winded and frazzled, not feeling at all comfortable in the water. It wasn't until we were on our second lap that things started to settle down.

The swim was tough on us with me coming in just under an hour and Julie not far behind me at just over an hour. Neither of us ever really got into a zone, although Julie was feeling much more confident on her last lap. Coming out of the water I decided to do the "dolphin dive" that Coach Mike had shown us at a previous training, and on my second attempt my right calf seized on me and I got a very painful charley horse. After a few seconds of rubbing my calf I was finally able to put some weight on my leg and I hobbled out of the water over to the transition area.

Under advisement of the coaches I drank some electrolytes and had a Gu in hopes that the muscle would loosen up during the ride. Julie and I both did well during the transition and we were on to the bike portion of the race.

Since we didn't have enough support to actually bike the race course we ended up doing 8 laps around Lake Nokomis to get our 24 miles in. Everyone was doing well, my legs (other than my calf) felt good, but Julie's legs were feeling heavy. I finished the bike in about 1:40 and Julie came in around 1:50.

The second transition went even better than the first. I quickly learned that I was not going to be able to run at all, in fact I could hardly walk without limping. I made it over to the water station a little more than half-way around the lake and was greeted by Fred and Diane who had a cold towel and a cup each of water and Gatorade. They also had fresh fruit and pretzels, along with some good tunes on the radio.

I finished the first lap at 59 minutes and, after discussing the situation with Ingrid, decided to stop there. We didn't want to do anything to hurt myself any further only being 3 weeks from the big day. Julie did her lap around the lake in around 45 minutes but was still not feeling well, so Ingrid had her stop as well.

All in all, it didn't go as we hoped, but it was a tremendous help to us in terms of getting us ready for the event, understanding the mental aspect of the race, going through transition, understanding how our bodies will respond going from one discipline to the next.

We're very glad we did it. The support everyone showed for each other was so very typical for TNT. We were all out there together, encouraging each other, supporting each other.

We still plan to swim twice a week so we get more used to the open water, and we'll continue doing BRicks to keep ourselves focused. The next 2+ weeks will be the big push to event day. We have anticipated all along that from here until July 14th we'd become more anxious with each passing day. After having done the mock tri on Saturday we won't be getting as anxious. We know we'll be ready. We know we'll do well. We know we'll finish. And we'll be proud of the work that we and the rest of the team has done for the Society, the money we've raised, and the people we've helped.

Thank you to all that have supported us and encouraged us. Your help is greatly appreciated. If you still would like to donate please do so by clicking on either Julie's or my link on the right side of the page. Thank you again.

Julie & Patrick