The triathlon that almost wasn’t

Susan and I decided to do a triathlon shortly after the end of RAGBRAI (that we, incidentally had not trained for … at all). We wanted to continue our fitness journey by doing another event and this one qualified. We figured we could walk the run part (I have a knee injury that prevents me from running anymore), we would trike the bike part, and we could manage the swim even though neither of us had seen the inside of a lap pool in a very long time.

Susan was supposed to pick me up at 6 AM that morning and arrived at my house promptly at 6:02 AM. She had texted me before she left her house to let me know she was on her way. She waited for me, but I didn’t come out like usual. She tried calling. She rang the doorbell … nothing. While waiting, she realized she had left her participant number at her house, so she texted me and said she would be right back. She retrieved her number and came back. She called again … and again. Six times total. The dogs didn’t bark. In fact, they didn’t even move (she could see them through the window). She began to wonder if we were all dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. She finally saw one of our dogs looking at her through the window as if to say, “Oh yeah, it’s you again”. She called one last time and I FINALLY answered very groggily. As it turned out, my alarm had been silently going off for an hour and a half! “Give me 5 minutes”, I said and proceeded to get dressed, grab my number and my swim goggles, and ran out the door.

We arrived at the venue around 6:50 AM, just ten minutes before the transition area closed. The transition area is where you leave your bike prior to the race so you can transition on and off of it after the swim and before the run.  We literally raced to get in on time and barely made it! Whew! One hurdle down! Hooray! The guy at the transition area had us put our “special bikes” off to the side because they obviously wouldn’t fit on the bike rack. He seemed surprised by our trikes, but he didn’t kick us out, so that was good enough.

We then made our way to where the race was to begin at the pool. There we were in our swimsuits with our half-farmer’s tans in all our glory. Tan on our arms, necks, and legs from about thigh down … but on the front only. We don’t get much sun on our back side because we are usually sitting in our trikes when we are outside. Quite the mental picture, no? I so wish I had a picture of us, but alas we were in too much of a hurry to even remember to take any.

We entered the pool based on our expected swim completion time, so Susan and I were near the end of the line. Susan went in with no issues. And then it was my turn. I put on my dollar store goggles and prepared to jump. In I went and my goggles promptly filled up with water. I put them on top of my head and started to swim with my head above water … slowly! On the last lap, I heard a kindly older woman with a heavy southern accent say, “Come on, baby. You can do it!” And I did!

Susan was already in the transition area. We got dressed quickly and started the bike portion of the event. One item of note – I put my shoes on without socks in order to get dressed quickly and the shoes were new. This tidbit is important further down in the story.

We completed the 7-mile bike ride with no issues and we found this part was easy considering the fact that we had just completed RAGBRAI. We once again entered the transition area, dropped off our trikes, and began our 5K walk.  We both agreed that this was the hardest part of the triathlon. It was HOT and we were slow and neither of us had any water with us. About halfway through the “run”, I started complaining about my shoe rubbing my left heel. Wow, it was really hurting, so we stopped to take a look. Well, it was hurting because I had rubbed my heel raw and it was bleeding all over the back of my shoe! So much for not taking the time to put on socks! We stared at it for a minute and contemplated our options. We really couldn’t quit because we were in the middle of the course. And there was no one to come rescue us. And it was going to be hard to go on considering my heel was hanging on by a tendon (ok, not really, but let’s go with it for the sake of the story).

Susan noticed some folks up ahead that were operating remote-controlled racing boats on the lake beside us and asked if they might have a band-aid. Luckily, they did! We bandaged up the heel and I walked on the back of my shoe for the last mile and a half.

On the upside, I did manage to find a dime on the ground while we were walking! (Weirdly, I seem to find money on the ground when we walk. Susan has even started to find some too. I think we are rubbing off on each other!)

Finally, and I mean finally, we managed to cross the finish line. Susan was half carrying me and my leg was dragging behind like dead weight (again, go with it for the sake of the story), but we did it. It wasn’t pretty. It was brutal. But we got it done.

I checked the results of the 2022 Huntsville Sprint Tri online after the event – and we weren’t last, which I consider a win! Go ahead, check for yourself – we are on page 4 of the results. <Susan’s note: the motto of this Tri is “To finish is to win” … so we definitely won!>

The following week, Susan was complaining about being very sore in her upper inner thigh area. She had switched from doing freestyle to breaststroke during the pool part of the event and apparently hadn’t used those particular muscles in some time. Other than that and my gross heel, we seemed to be none the less for wear!

And that, my friends, is the story of the triathlon that almost wasn’t. Unfortunately for us, we have already signed up for the Soggy Seals Triathlon put on by the YMCA in September. So, we get to do it all again in less than a month. Oh goody!