Slow Triathlon Person.: August 2013

To end my stellar tri season I was hoping to feed my obsession for more hardware (an obsession that had begun with a 2nd/AG finish at this very race last year). So when the email arrived listing lane assignments for the race, I began to scour the list in embarrassing fashion:

-How many females are in my age group? (8)

-How many females are there total? (34)

-How many from last year's top ten females are returning this year? (none)

-How many females claim to have an equal or faster swim time than me? (2)

And so on. Why the obsession? The one so-far elusive achievement was finally within reach--the Overall Hardware. And my focus had officially shifted.

So when I found myself too fast to stay behind the dude in front of me in my swim lane but too slow to pass him in one length's time or less, I got frustrated. I didn't have time for this. And when the Lane 4 volunteer frenetically told me I had swam an extra 50 yards because I didn't see him put the kickboard down (distracted with passing Other Dude, no doubt), I was downright pissed. Was my chance at Overall down the drain?

Still grumbling, I whipped through T1 in a rainy mist and discovered in the mount that my wet shoes weren't cooperating with wet feet. Slow shoeless mount, wet slick roads, mist turned to sprinkle, more frustration.

I biked the 14 miles in solitude. We were so spread out that minus getting passed once in the first five minutes and passing a small cluster in the last five minutes, I wasn't within 50 yards of another cyclist the whole time. This helped me calm down a bit. I figured I'd only lost a minute or so, and since everyone else has to transition and bike in the rain, there's no disadvantage there. I continued to give it what I had.

Quick dismount and off on the run. The rain has stopped, I'm still by myself, but ready for this race to be over. Just not feeling it, I guess. And maybe that's a result of the shifted focus. A glance at my watch after the swim showed a swim time a fair amount faster than last year's, despite very little pool training this summer. That's something to be proud of. The bike split ended up half a mile per hour faster than last year's, despite riding in the rain. That's something to be proud of too. And when I crossed the finish line my run split was nearly a full minute per mile faster than last year's. Remarkable. But if I'm all about the hardware, how can any of that be good enough?

In the end, I pulled off 2nd Overall--a source of pride as well as an effective motivator. But spending a fair amount of this race in surliness has been a lesson in attempting to keep my focus on my own achievements, not just as they compare to other's.