Am I a triathlete?

This was another in this year of first timers ( my first 5k - 04 March, my first 10K - 12 May).
It was my first Sprint Triathlon.

I knew something wasn't right when I have noticed individuals with one bag and a bike heading into the transfer area. Without any help? How can you do this? - It crossed my mind for the moment that maybe I did bring too much equipment with me. I had my wife and my son with his girlfriend to help me with all my necessities to the transition area. Nobody wanted to help me with my foot basin, so I had to do it myself, they kept distance from me, my bike and basin. I felt that they felt a little ashamed. Embarassed as we started to unpack they questioned if my long shoehorn was indeed that necessary. It all changed when they noticed that there was another person with a foot bowl. I wanted to find this person and talk for a moment expecting that he, a well prepared athlete, could be my closet rival. But time was running out, 30 minutes to go so I started the process of putting my wetsuit on.

This is from my wetsuit test day before:

started 17:29 with body glide( left upper corner)

almost ready 17:44 (bottom right) - 15 minutes!!! 3 minutes to take the wetsuit off felt short.

To make this story flow faster than my transitions here is the necessary background.

(edited: After reading this report I realized that my story is in spirit similar to my race - slightly chaotic)

Sprint Triathlon:
Swim 750m, Bike 19km, Run 5km

Goal: 1:25:00 (swim 16, bike 40, run 24, T1 3, T2 2)
to be in the first half both total and age group.

Result: 1:25:20
212/491 (accomplished total goal)
22/42 (missed age group goal)

swim 16:52 169/491 19/43 - in the first half both total and age
bike 35:18 84/491 13/43 - in the first 1/4 total and the first 1/3 age group
run 24:48 219/491 21/43 - in the first half both total and age
T1 5:23 longest in both total and age group
T2 3:01 longest in age group, a few people from total managed to have a few seconds longer time.

I am happy with the overall result, and very disappointed with my performance in transitions.

Answer to the title question: Not yet. At least not until my T1 time goes down below 5 minutes.

Unnecessary Accessories taken:
- bowl - to clean feet from the sand - after soaking one foot I realized that sand was cleaned during the run on the grass.
- watch - to check the time - taken off when I was putting the wetsuit on - attached again after the swim - never used, my gps edge was good for all my time and pace info.
- chair - to sit while cleaning feet and putting up shoes, I have to blame organizers, which did an amazing job with everything, but didn't provide a place where my chair could be steady. After washing my left foot I abandoned the chair and did everything else sitting on the ground.
- shoehorn - why should I question importance of this item? Although I couldn't reach it, as it was behind my chair and basin. So there are my missing seconds.
- sweat bands - I am usually using them to swipe sweat from my forehead - I couldn't use them for this purpose with the helmet(later hat) and glasses on.

Pain in the T1 and my chair and my bowl:



Comment of the day:
My sons girlfriend gave me my gps edge 305 while I was running from the lake to the transition area. This gps is in a shape of a cell phone. A few seconds later I heard someone saying "Look this man was swimming with his cell phone".

Side effects:
Sunburns



Conclusion:
Have to do a lot of swimming, and some transition practice.

Details:
Preparations:
swimming: Total 17 km in 9h since 21 of May 2007, less than 1 hour in 2006.
bicycle: 675 km on stationary, 800 km on the road since 01 of January 2007
running: 490 km on the treadmill, 500 km on the road since 01 of January 2007
taper: started earlier then planned, after my long 19 km Wednesday run one week before the event, I had some kind of a virus infection on Thursday, so didn't do any workouts until Sunday night, Moved my Monday swimming to Tuesday and still wasn't yet 100% cured.

My swimming and cycling time predictions were based on theory. I have never competed in any cycling race or swimming event. So my prediction was only 20 second off. Not so bad.

Race:
Swimming:
Planned 50m/50m crawl/breaststroke, this system was working well in the pool. In the pool I was able to use crawl continuously for 400 meters and then switch to 25m/25m alternations. During the race I did no more then 20m/80m crawl/breaststroke splits, I never done any test in the open water. Every time somebody hit me ( happened very often) I was switching to breaststroke. I wasn't very tired, started to race a little during the second half. I have a lot to learn.

everybody is already undressed, I have plenty of time



Bike:
Difficult to imagine. Nobody has permanently passed me during the race. I have passed at least 50 people. One 55 years old passed me, I passed him 50 meters later. Than somebody in the 30 age group passed me for a moment and finally 16-20 years old girl, passed me, I was following her for maybe 4-5 km. She was passing people and immediately getting back to the first line to use draft of person in front, passing again and going back to the first line. Sometimes she was in my way when she was passing two people riding side by side. I was for most of that time following straight path. I have passed her on one of the final uphills. I was very happy with my biking performance. I didn't have time to hydrate during bike ride, I made choice to pass people instead of water breaks. I think I paid the price during the run, I was weak and thirsty.


Running:
I didn't see all age numbers painted on legs during the bike ride. It was much easier to see those numbers during the run. I did try to race people in my age group and older, and I was able to get ahead of few. It was fun. There was one strong person from my age group, he passed me and was slowly getting away. Moment later somebody with I think mark 55 passed me very quickly. Near the finish I was able to accelerate, pass and get 2 seconds ahead of racer no 632.
I didn't have any brick effect during my run, but my pace was very slow. It was around 2 p.m., no clouds, sun at the highest point, hot, and not windy. My pace was much slower then my tempo workouts lately. I had plenty of water during the run but I think I was weakened by not taking water during my bike ride.
racing:


finish:



Extra pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/wskoczen/SprintTriGuelph

Results
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