Who Won the Mini-Triathlon? Wait and See.

Yesterday, I participated in my first ever triathlon, or rather, mini-triathlon. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my goal was to complete the challenge in 42 minutes. Well, I made it: I finished in about 41:15. I'm not sure of my official time yet, however, because the results have still not been made public.

Why? Well, in Japan, you often hear that participation in an event, whether it be a meeting, a party, or a race, for example, is more important than any other aspect of the event. So when yesterday's triathlon was over, there was no announcement as to who won the race. Instead, everyone was thanked for their hard efforts, drinks and snacks were passed out, pictures were taken, and everyone milled about for a while talking about the race.

I suspect the results will be announced soon, perhaps as early as Monday. There might even be an awards ceremony at some point during the next week or two before school lets out for the summer break. So I won't have to wait too long to find out how I did compared to everyone else. But as a competitive sort, I find it pretty disheartening to have to wait. You know what I mean? I busted my butt competing, so the least you could do is tell me what place I finished in.

In any case, one thing is for sure: I didn't win. I figured that out as soon as one of my pre-race favorites passed me during the run.

Until then, as far as I can remember, I had passed countless people throughout the race, some maybe even more than once, but no one had passed me. So I knew I still had a decent chance to come in first. But near the end of my fourth lap (out of six), I saw this guy catching up to me, and I didn't have the energy to kick into a higher gear and not let him pass. I was still hoping that maybe he was on his third lap or so and that I could hold him off for the rest of the race.

But just after he passed me, he turned left to detour off the main course and toward the finish line. I was the next-to-last swimmer to start the race, so the guy probably started about 2 minutes ahead of me, 3 minutes at the most. I knew that my two remaining laps were going to take me about 4 minutes, so that's when it hit me that there was no way for me to win the race.

Another one of my pre-race favorites passed me, too, right around the same time. I think. I honestly don't remember. Maybe I made it past the detour point just before he turned left. But I have a vague memory of him catching up. And there's a telling picture of him catching up to both me and the other guy.

In any case, from what I understand, those two guys finished 1-2, with perhaps only one second(!) separating them. So I'm really hoping for third place. But with the staggered start (swimmers got going in 10-second intervals), there was really no way for me to keep track of who was in what place. I mean, I remember passing about 7-10 guys in the water, so I'd certainly be willing to bet I finished in the top 10. But were the bikers and runners I passed later on the course ahead of me or behind me?

As for my individual times, well, I more-or-less achieved my goals for each discipline. I swam the 400 meters in 9 minutes flat, I biked the 8 km(?) in 19:22, and I ran the 3 km(?) in about 11:42. Add in about 1:10 for transition time from swimming to biking and you come up with about 41:14.

What could I have improved on? A lot!

For instance, I swam the first 200 meters in 4 minutes, which was my goal. But the final 200 meters took me 5 minutes. Why? Exhaustion must be the answer. Or inexperience? A little of each? It's hard to say. I probably just didn't push myself hard enough, especially over the last 200 meters.

And even though I passed many other bikers and no one passed me, there was one guy I just couldn't catch up to. So again, perhaps I didn't push myself hard enough. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the race, I didn't remember (or bother?) to record my split times after each bike lap (and run lap, for that matter), so I have no way of looking back and seeing where I might have gone too slow. (Unless the official timers recorded that information.) But again, I'm happy overall with my bike ride.

And, yeah, well, as for the run, again, "exhaustion" is the operative word. I'll just have to push myself next time.

One more area of improvement is certainly the transition phase. I got out of the pool quickly and got my shorts, socks, and shoes on as fast as I could have hoped. But then I struggled with my shirt. I probably stood still for five seconds trying to get that sucker on before a little voice in my head finally said, "Run, you idiot, run!"

So off I ran, over to where my bike was. But while I was running, I was still trying to put the damn shirt on, with no luck. And when I finally got to my bike, I continued the pursuit. Luckily, that little voice took over again and said, "Idiot! Enough with the shirt! Just drop it and get on the damn bike already!"

So I'd say I lost a good 15 seconds or so wasting time with the shirt. Next time, I'm not even going to mess with that!

And hopefully, next time I get started on the bike, I'll be able to make a cleaner getaway. I swear, if you had seen me trying to get started, you would have sworn I was drunk: My hat wasn't on straight, one of my feet came off of the pedals right away, I nearly crashed into a parked bike, and I couldn't go in a straight line for the first 5 seconds or so.

So yeah, overall, I probably could have saved 30 seconds on the transition phase. That still wouldn't have been enough to bring home the gold, but would have made me even happier than I am!

The most difficult part of the whole race was probably the swimming.

One problem I had during the swim was that there were 20 other guys with me in the pool, splishing and splashing their way through the water in every possible direction. So the water was rather choppy.

Another problem was that I couldn't just concentrate on swimming back and forth in "my" lane. You see, the biggest surprise of all was that the pool was divided into four "double" lanes. (I expected all the lane dividers to be stored away for the race, but they weren't!) Since I was sharing each "double" lane with several other swimmers, I constantly had to be on the lookout for traffic in both directions.

And I spent several valuable seconds fighting for position as I passed other swimmers, especially when it came time to switch from double lane to double lane. (I wasn't exactly the nicest guy in those situations, but heck, a race is a race, right?)

That's right, we actually had to go under the dividers and then make our way up and down the next double lane! Over and over. Which meant I could only make a flip-turn at the end of every other lap. What a pain in the butt!

Anyway, besides the 30-second foot cramp I got while starting on my second 200-meters of swimming, I am happy to say I came out completely unscathed. And I'm feeling pretty good right now, as I write this, about 24 hours after the event. So I don't think I'll need very long to recover. (I guess I'll know more when I go swimming later today!)

And I'm already looking forward to next year's triathlon. Now that I have one under my belt, I think I can do even better next year. Heck, I'm a fighter. There's no way I won't beat this year's time next year!

And screw what some of the teachers and administrators said to me: "Yama-san, one of the students has to win the race, understand? This race is for the students. It's their race." (If so, why was I invited to participate, along with several other teachers?)

Look out, yonensei (the current fourth-graders who will be participating in the 2009 mini-triathlon). Next year, I'm out to win the damn thing!