My first event back in 2013

I recently responded to the question "what is your most memorable sporting achievement?" Even though I have ran over 240 parkruns, 6 marathons, 3 ultras and a few triathlons, I was surprised to find myself thinking of the very first event that I entered; The Queensland Triathlon Try-it-Out, a very short triathlon back in 2013. 

The story behind this event begins a good year beforehand. Back when I was completely unfit, overweight and in the middle of studying a Master of Business Administration degree.

It was mid 2012 and I was in the midst of working full time and studying part time. My health was not great, but had improved slightly when I changed specialists earlier that year. He prescribed me some drugs which helped calm the Crohn's symptoms that I was experiencing, so I was beginning to feel better.

Ironically due to my ill health and my lack of confidence at even leaving the house due to the Crohn's, I had not been taking care of my diet and my weight had ballooned up to 88kgs!

A benefit of my job back then was a yearly check up with an exercise physiologist, whom I was dreading seeing. Things had not gone well the year before, when I was told that if I continued down this path I could end up with diabetes and heart disease later in life. My waist size was getting larger and I was embarrassed. The tipping point was seeing myself in the changing room mirrors at Myer trying on shirts. Changing room mirrors are unforgiving, they are everywhere giving a nice 360 degree view of all the flab!

I saw the exercise physiologist and the outcome was predictable, if I don't do something soon you will regret it later in life. It was time for change.

Due to work and study commitments, I was struggling to find time where I could exercise. At the time I wasn't prepared to wake at 5am (how times have changed!) to do exercise. It dawned on me that the ideal time would be the commute to work.

I bought a flat bar hybrid bicycle, the kind that is like a mountain bike but with road bike tyres.

I started riding to and from work everyday, without fail. We are only taking about 7km each way, but it was enough to get me started. Especially considering how unfit I was. The first few days and weeks were tough, I would get exhausted and my backside was raw from the seat, but I perservered. After a few weeks I could feel myself getting stronger, although the weight didn't drop off at first.

I was gaining confidence due to my new strength, I was sleeping better and overall felt good. I changed my diet to remove sugary items, replacing them with healthy options such as water instead of coke, or carrots and hummus instead of chocolate biscuits. 

The crohn's still affected me, I still had to take care when I left the house, making sure I was prepared in case I suddenly had to find a loo. Something had shifted mentally though, I wasn't going to let the crohn's dictate what I could and couldn't do any longer. This mental shift was the catalyst behind the changes that were to follow.

I was keeping a diary of my weight and at first my weight went up, after a few weeks it started to come down. Two months in, I had dropped 5 kilograms and was feeling better every day. In fact my daily commute no longer felt long enough. I found myself adding sections morning and evening to make it longer. I started riding on the weekend as well, getting my distances up at around the 30km mark. I had never ridden that far before in my life!

A friend at work challenged me to mix it up a bit and try running to work, just once in a while to see how it felt. Especially now that I was getting fitter and able to handle longer distances on the bike. When I first though about it, the idea seemed impossible. To run the 7km to work would take hours and I would need to be very well prepared.

I gave it a go, the actual distance was 6.5km. I managed to run to work in a time of 47mins 12secs at an average pace of 7:10min/km. There were a few sections where I had to walk, but I made it to work in under an hour, I was over the moon!! Never in a million years did I imagine I could have achieved that. A few months earlier, the idea of running 1 or 2 km seemed unreasonable, now I had run 6.5km to work!

It felt like someone had stabbed my calves with hot knives for the rest of the day, I walked gingerly round the office and sat as much as I could.

Looking back at that first run to work, it seems awfully slow for a 6.5km run. However, I am very proud of that run. It was a simple thing to do, yet it spurred me on to try and achieve things I had never dreamed of.

In early 2013, the same friend who challenged me to run to work, challenged me to try something else - like a triathlon!

By early February, I was cycling between 100 and 150km per week. I had managed to lose 15kgs by now and was feeling very fit. I was also running fairly regularly now, having built up my confidence since the first run to work. All in the space of 6 months.

The one thing I hadn't even thought of yet was swimming. If I was to do a triathlon, I would need to do all three disciplines one after the other, not one or two days apart! 

Before I knew it, I signed up for a Try-it-Out triathlon, which is a very short event as a taster to longer triathlons. The distances were short and achievable, 300 metre swim, 8km bike ride and 2km run.

I turned up at the Fortitude Valley pool one lunchtime to see if I could swim. I thought 10 lengths of a 50 metre pool should be do-able freestyle, so in I went.

After 2 lenghts I could barely breathe!! I resorted to breast stroke. After another 4 lengths I had to stop alltogether. I had been in the pool for less than 10 minutes. Swimming it seems would take some work. Fortunately, the distance for the race was the equivanent of 6 lenghts, although it would be in open water in the sea.

I had no idea how to train, back then I hadn't come across the endless training resources that I have now read relentlessly! I found some plans on the Garmin website, so I followed one for a sprint triathlon the best I could. I had to cut down the distances, especially in the swim. Soon enough it was race day.

My friend had lent me a 20 year old Klein Quantum racing bike, in the mid 90s it was top of the range. It still worked well now but I was riding the oldest bike in the competition by a long way, at least it was a bike that worked! I was wearing a very ill fitting tri-suit I had managed to get my hands on from work, it included reflective stripes! I stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the other competitors. I really had no idea, but had to start somewhere. I was also extremely nervous.

I had hardly slept the night before, going over all the little details in my head. Would I forget my helmet, my shoes, would I fall off the bike, would I poo myself during the swim????? In the middle of the night whilst wide awake I really did wonder if it was worth it!

Back at the start line on the beach, I waved at my dear family who had turned out to support. My good work friend who had challenged me was there as well. He had just completed the sprint. There was a short pre-race briefing and a minute or two later a siren went off and everyone belted towards the sea.

I had never experienced anything like this before and nothing could have prepared me for it! Arms and legs flailing everywhere, I tried my best to swim freestyle but could hardly see a thing. I managed to keep going for a while before I resorted to breaststroke, mainly to calm my nerves. At that point the kids event started a few minutes after mine and within seconds there were bodies everywhere, swiming over the top of me, whacking me with elbows and feet. I was completely disoriented, then my goggles fell off!

Once I got my goggles back on I pressed on, managing to reach the turnaround point and then started to head back to shore. As soon as I could feel sand under my feet I stood up, even though I was still up to my armpits in water. My friend motioned to me to keep swimming, I didn't hear him and just waded into shore. It seemed like I had been in the water for an eternity, although it turned out to be only 8 minutes! I was elated, overjoyed that I had made it through the swim. I had to run to my bike and get my helmet and shoes on.

It seemed to take an eternity trying to get my shoes, helmet, race belt and number, and sunglasses on. I managed to stay calm and not panic, soon enough I was running very awkwardly in my bike shoes towards the transition exit. I hopped on to my bike, managing to get one foot clipped in without falling over the other side and began to gather momentum.

Once I had gathered speed, the feeling I had was pure exhileration. My body was wet from the swim, I felt cold as the wind whistled past my ears, but I was overjoyed that I had made it to the bike and was feeling amazing. The bike leg was two 4km laps up and down the Hornibrook Esplanade, dead flat therefore easy to ride. The first lap passed in a blur, there were bikes everywhere, I passed a few and some passed me. The second lap was uneventful, but I started to worry about getting off the bike. I didn't have much practice hopping on and off the bike on the move with clipped in bike shoes, the last thing I wanted to do was either fall off or get disqualified for not getting off in time at transition.

I decided to unclip my shoes early, about 200metres from transition to make sure I could at least get my feet on the floor. I reached the marshalled area, stopped and hopped off the bike well before the white line marking the end of the bike leg. I then ran back into the transition area where my gear was waiting for me. My legs were feeling very weird, as though the wrong muscles were working when running.

I reached my gear, re-racked the bike, removed my helmet and bike shoes, and replaced them with running shoes, grabbed a good drink of water and set off for the 2km run!

The run took just over 10mins, but it seemed to last forever. This was my first event after all and I had no idea on what to expect and how to react. I had only started exercising 6 months earlier, what was I supposed to expect?

As I reached the end of the first km and turnaround point, my lungs were bursting out of my chest. I kept pushing on knowing that I would soon be finished, a few hundred metres to go. I saw my family waving and cheering near the finish line, it drove me on. I pushed as hard as I could for the last few metres and I crossed the line to big hugs from my wife and kids! I had just finished my first ever event!

The whole triathlon only took 39mins. However, this was a starting point for me. As I said at the beginning, I have since participated in a few more triathlons, marathons and other events. This was the event that started it all and fuelled the passion within me to improve and challenge myself physically.