Tuscaloosa Triathlon, 21 April 2007

Collegiate National Championships

My triathlon club, Tricats, participated recently in the annual national championship for collegiate triathlon teams. This is a race in which all the college triathlon teams across the country compete for triathlon laurels, and a wee bit of prize money. This year 73 schools and about 1000 athletes participated. There's no qualifier for this race: any college student or club can enter, so you'll find all levels of ability here. This was the big race for which all year our club had been training, and also fundraising and planning. We were competing not only as individuals but also for a team score, and wanted to see Tricats do well.

On Thursday, April 19, we flew through Denver to Birmingham, rented four minivans there and drove to Tuscaloosa. As one of the few on the team over 25 years old, I got to be a driver, which seems sort of funny since I've hardly driven at all in the past nine years. Tuscaloosa strikes me as a nice, medium-sized college burg, somewhat sprawling as is typical with American cities. Friday morning, the day before the race, we wanted to stretch our muscles a little bit, and also to see the course and the transition area (that is, the crossroads of the event, where you park your bike and store your running shoes). So we unpacked our bicycles, which arrived separately in a big white truck, and we all rode from the hotel to the transition area, and back again. We didn't know how far that would be, and as it turned out it was too much -- about an hour, instead of the 20 minutes we had hoped for. Then we ran for a few minutes, and went for a short swim in the river. Unfortunately I tore my new wetsuit in the process, but I repaired it that evening. The swim was in the Black Warrior River, which flows slowly through Tuscaloosa. It's easy to be fussy when one is going to do an open-water swim, but the Black Warrior seemed very nice: clean as far as I could tell, not too cold, and the stones on the banks were not too sharp for bare feet. The bike was on the rolling hills of a parkway built along the river, all pleasantly wooded and green. The run looped around from the river and eventually to the campus, which as you might imagine was uphill.

Unpacking bicycles before our warmup ride	Team photo, Friday afternoon

We went to bed early, and left the hotel at 5:20 AM Saturday morning to set up in the transition area and get all our gear ready. Of course a triathlon starts with swimming, but very often (including this race) they don't start everyone all at once: each racer is assigned to a "wave," a group that starts together. There were ten waves of swimmers, one leaving every five minutes, each with about 100 athletes. The logic of wave groupings is sometimes byzantine: for this race, the first wave was the fastest-seeded men, second was mostly the fastest women, third is mostly the next-fastest men, and so on, in nine waves. The tenth wave was supposedly for alumni, but for complicated reasons six of us Tricats were in the tenth wave, including me, although just one of us was really an alumnus. The good part of leaving late is that I could watch the first few waves swim, and it was exciting. The first wave left at 7:00 AM. One swimmer in the first wave was just phenomenal, and left everyone else far behind. Usually there is a smooth distribution of abilities, but this guy was exceptional. He didn't win, but he finished very well. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. The only down side of being in the tenth wave is that you must start behind the not-so-fast ninth wave.

This was an in-the-water start, so when it was our turn, about 7:50 AM, we six tenth-wave Tricats walked down the bank and waded into the water, along with the other 70 or so people in our wave, and we swam out a ways towards an (invisible) starting line. The announcer positioned us, telling us us things like, "back up now, five more feet," and so on. We waited, treading water. Then, "Go!" There were buoys and kayakers in the water to help mark the course. It was basically 750 meters downstream and 750 meters upstream, in a wedge shape. As usual I didn't feel very good for the first 500 meters or so, but then I got warmed up and started to get into a rhythm. I was slow. You could roughly put the swimmers into four categories: fast, medium, slow, and leaden. Every wave had a few in the last category -- people who had to breaststroke, or backstroke, or dog-paddle. One thing I like about triathlon is that the sport has room for people across a wide spectrum of ability -- from ultra-fast to (how do you say?) infra-slow. I got to pass one guy from the ninth wave in the I.S. band, which is no great accomplishment, but still for me it was encouraging to pass anyone. Every little sign of swimming competence makes me happy, because almost everyone else on my team swims faster than I do.

A wave about to start	Second wave on the bank waiting for the first wave to go
Race is underway! Note the multiple waves.	More swimming. Prior wave is close to the far bank.

I had a middling swim-to-bike transition (called T1, for obvious reasons), almost 3 minutes, and then started the bike. On the bike I did better than last time, 1:15:32, and I am satisfied with that. I passed a lot of ninth-wave people, most of whom wore sneakers and had pedals with straps. I passed a few of the Cervelos and Kuotas, and I think only once did I pass someone who then overtook me again; even then, he did not dust me, he barely managed to stay ahead of me to the end of the bike. Our coach advised us to push the bike fairly hard until we felt a slight burn in our legs, and that's what I did. I want to do better next year, but I'm pretty happy with the level of effort I gave this time.

Chris during T1	Some other Tricats during T1
Sarah in T1	Siobhan starting her bike

Of course the run was last and it was a hard run. It was hilly. There was an out-and-back side trip on the route that went up a hill and down again, and then uphill again into town and on campus. Our coach also advised us to push the run aggressively, starting faster than we were used to at the beginning, then speeding up at mile 4, and going for broke in the last mile: "You can do anything for a mile, it's all mental." Mentally it was hard going. They only had a few of the mile markers, and it's tough to know how much effort to expend when you don't know how much is left. Also there were well-meaning spectators who shouted, "You're almost there! It's just around the corner!" Mais non. At that particular corner, yes the finish line was just around the corner, but the running course didn't go that way: it still had to weave about a half mile out before coming back again to the finish line. Something like that messes with your head. Again I got to pass a lot of people, but I also got passed a number of times. We got cheers from the onlookers, which is always nice: there were a lot of U. of Alabama fans on campus for a spring football game, and the tailgate parties were just starting at the time we were running by. So we had quite a few more spectators than we expected -- a pleasant surprise. Anyway, I really gave it my all, which is just what I wanted to do, and was so unbelievably relieved to reach the finish line. You know what it's like, when you feel like you are probably just going to make it, but if you do it's with nothing left in reserve? This was one of those moments. I didn't collapse, but I was so tired. Then after sitting for awhile, drinking Gatorade, and eating some food, I felt a lot better.

Antoño, the fastest Tricat	Phalyn sprints for the finish
Yours truly going for broke at the finish

It turned out that I finished in 2:41:07, faster than 303 other finishers, and slower than 597 others. I'm happy with that. If I ever get my swimming fixed I should be able to drop quite a few more minutes.

A friend of mine in the same wave finished about 7 minutes before me, and told me he started to puke about 100 yards from the finish line -- but managed to do so turning his head a bit to the side, not breaking stride in his final sprint. That's impressive. Another friend had an history of puking during his triathlons -- which is terrible: unless you are right at the finish line, it is devastating to your performance. However, this race broke the streak. He kept it all down all the way to the end, and the whole team was happy for him.

Virginia Tech fielded a team and they got a lot of props. Our team wore maroon and orange ribbons around town, and lots of people yelled "Go Hokies!" and painted on their cars "We support Virginia Tech!" I think if I had been on the team, it might have been too much. I don't know how they felt about it.

After milling around for awhile, waiting for everyone to finish, eating and drinking and relaxing, finally it was time to get up and get our bikes back.

Time to load the bikes back onto the truck	After the race we are all smiles

Saturday afternoon we napped, and Saturday evening we went to the awards ceremony. Navy swept the team awards, winning for men, women, and combined teams. Our team took 19th place nationally. We had hoped for higher, but the race was very competitive. The women of Tricats took 11th place as a team, and the men took 29th place. There was a crazy party that night, too crazy for me, and Sunday morning we flew back to Tucson, uneventfully. I was sore for days, literally, and then there's the tendinitis, but don't get me started. Hey, none of that matters. I'm really happy I got to go and I intend to do it again at least one more year. To those who supported the team, thanks for supporting us! I hope you've all enjoyed the story and the pictures.