Niantic Bay Triathlon Recap

Well it has been a long summer for me. I will go into how I completely fell off the Noom wagon in another post, but I did train for and complete another triathlon this summer, and I would be remiss if I didn’t write about it while it was still fresh in my head.

A friend and I signed up for this tri, new to both of us, in May. We were excited about the ocean swim and the reviews of the event were good. But as summer progressed and both of us didn’t have as much time as we’d hoped to train, I started to get anxious. My swims seemed slow. My bike rides felt strong, but I knew I’d have to mostly walk the 5K. We couldn’t find a decent hotel nearby the event (over an hour away) to spend the night before.

But race day came anyway despite all of the challenges. We left my house at 430 to arrive right before 6. We hadn’t been able to pick up our race materials ahead of time because of the distance (it seemed silly to do the day before and fight beach traffic) so we wanted to get there right when transition opened.

This race doesn’t have on site parking, so we had to park about half a mile or so away. Strike one: I couldn’t manage all of the gear I’d brought with me on my back to ride over on the bike. But I’d anticipated this and put all of the race necessary items in a separate drawstring bag that I could manage on the bike. Somehow my friend managed to carry a grocery bag with two pop up stools on her bike.

We got to the race site just after 6am. We had no trouble picking up our packets and getting body marked. A local bike shop set up a bike check and I got my tires inflated before we set up in transition.

My friend had a good idea: since we both were likely to be slow on the swim, why didn’t we set up in the back area of transition? It was considered less desirable by fast people and then it was less likely our stuff would be jumbled when we both came back from the bike. We both had experienced finding not very much room for the bike after coming back from the back of the pack. I liked the idea, so I set up right near the wall of my row.

The sky was gloomy and it had rained before we’d arrived so I brought plastic garbage bags to use under our gear. I set up most of my things inside a second bag in case it started to rain again.

We had a few drinks of Nuun ahead of time and used the bathrooms before it was time to walk over to the swim start. We were in the fourth wave of swimmers, which I didn’t love, but I told myself it would likely make for a calmer swim.

The bay was clear and calm when we arrived. The water actually looked beautiful and quite a few were warming up in the water. We were relieved to hear no jellyfish had been spotted as they set up the course that morning; we had been warned days earlier that there had been some in the bay. I probably should have followed suit but didn’t want to be wet while I waited for the swim start. My friend and I were in the same wave together, but I knew she’d be faster than me on the swim, so when the horn blew for us to begin, I said goodbye.

Right away I felt anxious. I tried to find my rhythm but it was so hard. I could see myself headed for the back of the pack, but tried to not let it get to me. There was long seagrass everywhere but at least it was calm; hardly any current or waves. The water didn’t seem too salty compared to my practice swims. Eventually I was able to gulp air down every two strokes to catch my breath. Then I could manage a few four strokes, then back to two. Finally my confidence returned, and I plowed on. Blue caps from the next wave started coming up fast around me but I didn’t let it mess with me. One bonked me in the head when he took a stroke but otherwise I was able to get through.

All of my worry was for nothing. In the end I was over a minute faster than I thought I would be on the swim.

1/2 mile swim: 25:23

I went into transition and peeled off my tank top (didn’t want to just swim in my sports bra and I didn’t want to wear my one piece suit) and put on my dry shirt and race belt. I took a swig of water before sitting down on my friends folding stool to get my socks and shoes on my wet feet. No easy task. Even though I thought I went quickly through everything, I was a little slower than I wanted to be in transition. Next year, I will definitely buy a tri shirt, which saved my friend nearly 30 seconds off of her transition time compared to mine.

T1: 3:46

Bike was up next. This was where I felt most confident but the course immediately started on a hill, which is an energy sap. The course had been billed as flat, but I learned quickly that it was a complete lie. There were hills everywhere. Small ones, big ones. I was glad I’d trained in my neighborhood, which can be hilly. I passed quite a few people but at one point on a hill I didn’t have the energy to pass someone and she faltered. I had to get off my bike and walk up the hill to stay upright. At some point during the third or fourth mile I passed my friend. We knew this would happen; the bike is hear weak point. The course was well staffed with people at every turn. Despite the hills, I knew I was doing well on the bike and feeling good about all of those I passed. Dismounted and walked/jogged down the hill with my bike into transition. I was surprised to see a fair amount of bikes still out on the course.

Bike: 52:24

Back into transition, I took a swig of water. I was out of breath from pushing hard on the hills. I dropped my helmet, racked the bike and paused for a second swig. Time to get out on my feet.

T2: 1:43

A little disappointed with my second transition time. I was so tired that I know I didn’t move as fast as I had wanted. But onto the run. I tried to jog as much as I could but could feel my knee feeling stiff. I made a conscious choice not to “kill myself” on the run. People started passing me here and there, but I just couldn’t go any faster. Someone handed me a bottle of water, but I shouldn’t have taken it. I started feeling nauseous with it and dumped it. I was sweating but fortunately the cloud cover kept everything pretty cool. Sure enough around mile 2 my friend passed me again while I was walking. But the course was flat and there was great crowd support.

As we neared mile 3 the arrows pointed to the beach. We were finishing the run in the sand, and I was wiped.

It was tough going but I could see the finish line. I walked some but ran through the line to finish, very grateful to be done.

Run: 45:11

The clock said 2:17 and change but I knew my wave started 9 minutes later. Good. The time was right in line with where I wanted to be: between 2:05 and 2:10. I didn’t beat my previous tri time of 2:06:51, but considering the bike was so hilly and it was an ocean swim, I was OK with it.

Finish time: 2:08:27

I finished in 305th place (out of 315). And yes, I’m OK with that too. I never go out in these events to set a course record. I will never win trophy or place in an age group. I go out to compete with myself, not anyone else. I do these events to prove to myself that I can do something that isn’t easy for me. And this wasn’t easy. But I did it. I’m glad I did it. And I would do it again next year.