I had tentatively planned to complete a triathlon with one of my college roommates today, but I bailed on her earlier this month. I was having foot pain after running, and hip and hamstring pain with both running and biking, and I was not enthusiastic about the open-water swim leg. (This whole thing was my idea originally. It's not as if I got roped into it. It's just that my enthusiasm waned.) When I texted Amy to tell her I wasn't going to do it after all, she asked if I would still come along and cheer her on. Sure thing, I said.
It was today. It was pretty fun. Well, it was pretty fun for me. Fun is probably not the word that she would use.
We did triathlons together in 2016 and 2017, and then signed up for a 2017 race that was canceled because of thunderstorms in the area. They were women's races, known for welcoming beginners. The swim leg was in an old quarry that had been turned into a swimming area. This race was different: fewer competitors, fewer frills, higher expectations. We were trying to drive the bike course last night, but the process involved a lot of squinting at tiny screens in apps that wouldn't talk to each other. We finally concluded that she'd be able to figure it out in the morning.
The morning seemed better organized, but I was really happy not to be getting in that lake. My open-water swim experience is very limited and I always found it intimidating as a kid to swim in water I couldn't see through. Amy had a hard time with the swim. The water was choppy enough that she kept inhaling water, and feeling panicky, and slowing down. When I saw her getting out of the water I could see in her face that she was feeling defeated. "You did the hard part!" I yelled. "Go kill the bike leg!"
During the bike leg I was sitting next to a guy who had never seen a triathlon before. He was reading from his phone: "A reasonably fit rider can travel 25mph over flat ground." ...Whoa, I thought to myself, that is a different definition of "reasonably fit" from the one I am accustomed to using. As it turned out, the winner averaged a whisker under 25mph for the bike leg, so he might also have something to say about that definition of "reasonably fit." Amy finished the bike leg like a real-world "reasonably fit" person, and headed out for the run.
I think every time I've done a race longer than a 5K I've had a bib with my name on it, and spectators would call me by name as I went by. In this no-frills race there were only numbers on the bibs, and so there was no ready-made cheering squad for Amy when she came in toward the finishers' chute. "Gooooo, Amy!" I yelled. "You did it! You're there! That's so awesome! Go Amy goooooo!"
I met her on the other side of the finish line. "You did it! Congratulations!" She said, "I might throw up." But she did not. She's planning to do another one in two weeks.
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