So I competed in my last Indoor Triathlon of the season last Sunday. These races have you swim, bike and run for a set amount of time, in this case 20 minutes each. You basically go as hard as you possibly can in each discipline for the time allotted and then move on to the next. The scoring is weighted as to equal out the value of the disciplines, otherwise the bike portion would overwhelm the run and swim.
I normally do not worry about the point system. My participation is based on proving to myself I can still do it and being amongst the amazing people that also participate. They are truly inspiring. The reason I detail out the scoring system is that for this last race…well…I did worry about it.
My wife, Kimm has challenged herself to compete in the races. She did one a few months back to establish a baseline of what she could do…without any real training. She then joined a “Trizelle” program put together by Gazelle Sports that runs 10 weeks and prepares you for an indoor tri. She has been getting up Friday mornings at 4:30 for the organized trainings and has religiously followed the training schedule of 6 days per week of gradually increasingly difficult workouts. She has approached the program like a warrior. Her program culminated in the race this weekend. Many of her fellow program mates were also competing. I was so impressed with the program, I am going to go through the next session starting in late May.
When our heats were e-mailed, we checked to make sure we were separated so one of us could watch the boys and assist/cheer on the other as needed. She was in at 7:25 a.m. I was at 9:55 a.m.
That’s when I found out I cared about the scoring…
It turns out in the Male 45-54 age bracket, there was only one other racer. Again, I rarely beat people so I joked that I only had one person to beat… “Sure” said Kimm. “That’s Doug Smith from Trizelle. He’s in my heat. I work with him at Stryker”. Now I had heard her speak of some others in the Trizelle program…mostly women…but I remembered her speak of one man who would make me “look small”. It was then I blurted out a question that I did not expect to be in a position to ask… “Can I take him?”
“You will beat him in the swim but he will clearly beat you in the run”.
Now…I don’t like to think of myself as “overly competitive”. I can go to the fair without winning a stuffed monkey and be fine with it. Something deep inside was stirred though…
I envisioned a big bear of a man that I would attempt to out work. Hopefully, my swimming advantage would more than offset his running advantage. We would find out on Sunday. As Doug works with Kimm at Stryker, I knew he would be a classic “Type A” personality and be pushing himself to succeed. It’s just how they are wired. This would not be a cakewalk.
Race day arrived and Kimm and I packed out gear in the car with the boys. We arrived and found a good spot for the boys to camp out by the pool while Mom got ready. Of course, one needed to find the bathroom. I walked them through the locker room to the bathroom. On our way out, a gentleman asked me if I was Kimm Mayer’s husband. He introduced himself as “Doug Smith”.
I had met the enemy…and he was a really good guy. Damn. For starters, he was not bigger than me…he probably weighed what I did in High School. This was not going to be easy. We chatted before the race. He said he enjoyed the training program so much he was going to be in the next one. Cool. I already made a friend with someone in the class. Damn…I had to race a friend.
Kimm and Doug’s heat started on time and they were off. Kimm did very well. She completed 34 lengths in the 20 minutes. This was an improvement of almost 20% from her first race! Not bad for a person not fond of swimming. Upon moving over to the bike portion it was clear from the start that Kimm was moving faster than those in her heat. She ended going 8.11 miles which was also a great improvement over her first race. In the run, she once again improved covering 2.4 miles to round out her efforts. In a word…she rocked. Okay, that’s two words but you get my point.
I could not help but make mental notes of Doug’s scores as well. Doug swam 27 lengths, biked 7.53 miles, and ran 2.34 miles. Kimm called it spot on…it was going to be a horse race…and this horse had to swim, bike and run well.
Now I knew that the scoring provided you get @ 1.5 points for each lap swam, 1 point for each tenth of a mile biked, and @ 16 points for each mile run…forgetting the “decimal dust”… That meant that Doug had scored @ 154 points more or less. I figured out that if I swam my normal 38 lengths, could match his bike, it would come down to me running 1.3 miles. Not my strong suit to begin with and especially after the swim and bike, it would be achievable, but not easy.
When my heat started, I felt pretty good swimming but not as strong as normal. I had Lasik surgery on my eyes in March and had only been cleared to swim a few days before. I had only swam once in the previous 3 weeks. I could tell I was not where I wanted to be and getting to 38 lengths was going to be harder than expected. I managed to squeak out 37 lengths. I prepped for the bike knowing I had a lead, but questioning if it would hold with my weaker two disciplines ahead. “Make it up on the bike.” I told myself.
I got to the room with the spin bikes and focused on getting the seat to the right height and my feet strapped in correctly. I made sure to hydrate and soon enough we were off and racing. I had a good pace going. About a quarter way through I realized that the handlebars were still set for the petite woman that was on the bike before me. This was causing me to lean far more forward than I was comfortable with. And when I mean “comfortable”… I mean “bike seat”. Kimm helped me get the handle bars set higher and that eased the discomfort associated with the incorrect setting and I could simply focus on getting to 7.5 miles, or more, behind me. With 10 minutes to go I was exactly 3.75 miles along… Not good. Half way to go with half the time gone and my legs were burning already. Giving it everything I had I was able to get to 7.34 miles. Again, I was behind where I wanted to be. During the transition I was trying to rework the numbers in my head. “If you can get to a mile and a half…you should be okay…” I took some water and stretched my legs (who were not happy with me) as much as I could.
Getting on the treadmill I was familiarizing myself with its operations…and trying to figure out how fast I need to go. A competitor beside me asked what my goal for the run was. “I need to go a mile and a half”. “So do I” she said. “4.5 mph”. As the run kicked off I dialed it up to 5.2m.p.h. and found a comfortable trot. My thought was to get ahead of the pace as much as possible as I knew the 20 minutes would require some stretches of walking. Fortunately, my knees co-operated and I really only had to deal with muscle fatigue and lung capacity concerns. My pace changed up and down as my body would allow. I mentally kept trying to run the math through my head. I had the overall scoring calculations in my head as well as the changing pace on the run. I knew I had to keep moving because a “kick” at the end can only cover so much. At the 10 minute mark I was just over half way through. I knew I did not have to save anything for another day. That said, my body was now beginning to fight me. Trying to run multiple calculations through my head while running and dealing with the pain left me confused about where I was and where I needed to be. “Am I stressing myself over a lost cause?” I laughed. I figured with 5 minutes to go, “screw it”. Just push as hard as you can and let the chips fall where they may. I abandoned my calculations.
Without anything to keep my mind busy, the voices of my lungs and legs had a direct line to my brain. I needed a distraction…anything for a couple more minutes.
I mentally found myself on a rugby field lining up for a kick. I saw the faces of my teammates. I felt the wind on my face. I smelled the grass underfoot. I saw the ball kicked high, arching over the field I moved down in coverage. As I got to the first breakdown the ball spun out to the wide side of the field, I continued "running" in pursuit.
It worked. The time passed and I was able to “manage” those last minutes.
They counted down the last 30 seconds and I went as hard as my body let me. At the end… I looked at my mileage: 1.49 miles. It was further than I had planned. It was further than I had gone before in a race. After I caught my breath I headed over to where Kimm and the boys were. “How’d you do?” she asked. “It’s going to be close” was all I could say.
At the awards ceremony they listed the top 3 finishers in each category. Kimm finished second in hers. Considering her bracket was amongst the most competitive, she did great. When they read the results for the Male 45-54, it turns out I had done enough. I won. It was a good day for the Mayer family indeed.
Yesterday, we got the e-mail from Gazelle with all the final numbers. As it turns out, Kimm’s score was even more impressive. She actually beat the winner in the bike by over half a mile. Kimm was right on her tail in the run. The winner, however, had swam 48 lengths…thirds most of any competitor that day! Kimm actually had distanced herself from the 3rd place finisher by 10 full points. Her score would have handily won the race last year. Not bad for her first “real” race.
In looking at my results I expected that my victory would have been by a point or two. I was amazed when I saw the final tally: John Mayer 154.403, Doug Smith 154.140. I had won by .263 points! The “decimal dust” I had written off so easily was now the size of boulders! Basically, Doug’s score was 99.8% of mine. I literally, won by a nose.
I laughed with Kimm because I am well aware that I had the advantage of knowing where I had to get to and if the positions were reversed Doug would have found a way to win. Regardless, I will take the win and move on. I now have a month before my Trizelle program starts and I prep for an outdoor sprint triathlon. I have a lot more work to do.
I know in the big scheme of things, my winning a silly race doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. However, to paraphrase Leslie Nielsen as Officer Frank Drebbin in one of the Naked Gun movies: “Well… this is MY hill…and these are MY beans!” That said, I am truly grateful for one of life’s little victories, especially one coming by the slimmest of margins.
