Race Report - Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon

Or, "A Comedy Of Errors"

To get the day off to an appropriate start, I woke up before my alarm this morning. The alarm was set for 6:15. I woke up at 12:20. Standing by my alarm clock. It took me a few minutes to convince myself that no, I didn't really need to be up yet. Back to bed. And then it happened again around 1:30. Pre-race nerves, anyone?

At 6:15, I did get up to my alarm, and was up and ready to go. I had already packed up the night before, so it was a pretty simple morning of eating and getting on the road. I got to the gym in plenty of time to register, get set up, and check out the venue. After watching one of the earlier swim heats, I went back out to the desk to make sure my shoes would clip into the bikes. A woman out there confirmed that they would work.

And then, the power went out.

Not a blink, not a light off here or there. The whole gym, and from what I later overheard, the whole street. The staff's faces fell, and from downstairs you could hear a collective groan from the first wave of athletes, who were about two minutes into their 20 minute run. We were informed by a race director that the race would proceed, but we would be moving the run to the ellipticals because they don't require power. Yuck. I know they didn't have a choice, but I can't stand the elliptical. But, it would still be a level playing field, so the best I could do was accept it and go on with the day.

I got changed and made it out to the pool with a few minutes before my heat. There was just enough time to swim down and back for a warm up, and then it was time to go. We all had to share lanes with one other person, and the girl sharing my lane wasn't (by her own statement) much of a swimmer, but she did a perfectly good job of staying on her side. I went out a little harder than intended, but I think I held on pretty well! The swim director was calling out times and when to stop, but I never really heard her. I sort of heard people clap, and then noticed everyone standing at the end of the lanes. Guess we're done. I think I made it somewhere around 24 lengths, or 600m, in the 10 minute swim. That would be a 1:40/100m pace, and a perfectly good start to the day.

On the way out of the pool, a woman was nice enough to hold the locker room door for me.

And I was halfway through the door, thanking her, before I realized that I was walking right into the women's locker room. Oops. The doors at this gym are backwards from the one we go to, and I'm so used to the door on the right, that I just followed the pack. :)

It was certainly the darkest transition ever in the locker room as I got ready for the bike. I must have taken my time, because by the time I got up there, the director called out 90 seconds until the start. I wasn't the only one, as everybody scrambled to get onto the bikes. I got my bike shoes on and got the iPod on my arm, just in time to start up. Then I tried to clip in. Hmm...can't get the right shoe in, let's try the left. No luck there either! I called over the director, who didn't know much about the clips, and said we'd wait for the staff member running the bike portion to check in on me.

So, I started pedaling with bike shoes on, on top of pedals with the wrong kind of clip. Let me tell you, that's no fun. My feet kept slipping off, and since they were spinning bikes, the pedals kept right on going. I'd have to wait for the pedals to stop before I could start up again. Probably 5 minutes of this went on before I had had enough. While pedaling with my right foot, I reached down and undid my left shoe, tossed it to the side, and slipped my foot into my running shoe. I did have to briefly stop to get the other one, and then one of the staff was kind enough to help me get into the toe cages and let me know I was scaring her to death. :) The bike specialist did come by, and informed me that I had the wrong kind of Shimano clips. Sigh. I let him know that the email they sent out just said Shimano. Twenty-five more minutes of running shoe, seat slightly too low cycling ensued, and at the end, it said I had gone 16.4 miles in 30 minutes. Heh. I wish. When I'm finishing the bike portion of Ironman in 3.5 hours, I'll be sure to remember this race. ;)

When they called the finish, I gathered up my stuff and hustled over to the run, intent on having enough time to get settled. I took my gel as planned, went to take a drink, and realized I left my water bottle on the bike. Time for more hustling, as I ran back over, grabbed the bottle, and went back to the ellipticals, which were now all full. A staff member directed the three of us without machines back to some of the older models, which felt more like "stair climber" ellipticals. Nonetheless, it was time to work for 20 more minutes. Before the start, they asked us for our estimated time on a treadmill so they could try and convert the numbers to more run-like distances. I estimated an 8 minute pace, while the guy next to me estimated 10:00s.

Since I didn't really want to know how slow I was going compared to treadmill pace, and so I could just concentrate on working hard, I threw a towel over the machine's display. It had been months since I'd been on an elliptical, so it was a foreign skill to me. I did my best, and just held on as best as I could for 20 minutes. (Of course, 10 minutes in, the power came back on. :P) There wasn't a staff member over by us, and those of us on the leftover ellipticals had started about a minute late, so to make sure it was fair, I hopped off the machine right at 20 minutes so I wouldn't get credited for extra mileage.

And then, before the staff could come mark down our distance, my machine turned off. With my towel still over the distance.

I have no clue how far I went on the "run" during this race. With no way to retrieve the number, they suggested using the distance from the guy next to me. I know I was going faster than him, but I didn't see any other option.

So, it was a comedy of errors. To their credit, I think the Lifetime staff did the best they could given the circumstances, and were very polite and apologetic. That didn't make it less frustrating, though. The good things I took out of this race were:

1. My body was really ready to go - the times all seemed short, and I was able to keep my effort level high the whole way through.

2. Mentally, I was able to calm myself down before the swim and get a pretty efficient stroke going. I believe I led my heat of 10, or came in second at the worst.

3. I didn't have anyone in front of me for most of the bike, so I could watch my form in the mirror. There was certainly less bouncing around going on that most of the other participants. It was hard to judge exactly, but it looked like I had one of the faster cadences, and since all the resistances were set equally, that should mean I had one of the longer distances travelled in my heat.

4. I put together a great, if very eclectic, playlist that kept my mind off the fact that biking and...um...ellipticalling indoors really isn't all that exciting.

This event was scored by your place. 1 point for the shortest distance in an event, 2 for the next shortest, and on up to points equal to the number of competitors for first place in an event. Total the three scores, and that's your overall score. I don't know my official swim or run distances, nor anyone else's, so your guess is as good as mine as to how I placed. Results are supposed to be up by Tuesday at the latest, so I'll post an update when they arrive!