Race Report: Bryan Health Indoor Triathlon

I decided to compete in the Bryan Health Indoor Tri a bit late...initially, my husband was just going to do it.  However, I figured since I'd already be there that I might as well jump in.  The format of the race was as follows: 10 minutes of swimming, followed by a 10 minute transition, 30 minutes on a spin bike, 5 minute transition, finished with 20 minutes on a treadmill.  Not knowing quite what to expect, I was a little nervous...I've never done an indoor tri before.

The race was broken up into heats which began at 8am.  Each heat allowed 8 athletes to compete.  When you signed up, you were able to choose what time you wanted to start.  Since I was planning on running the 5k at Kicks and Kisses that morning, Philip and I chose to start the tri at 1:15pm.  We arrived about an hour before our time slot...we checked out the bikes and figured out our settings, checked out the pool and treadmills, and got our gear unpacked in the locker rooms.

THE SWIM: We began right on time at 1:15pm.  There were four lanes in the pool which meant that there were two athletes per lane.  After the gun went off, we shot into the water.  The swim went well, and once our 10 minutes was complete I darted off to the locker room.  10 minutes sounds like a long time for a transition, but the locker room was downstairs and the spin bikes were located upstairs so I really had to hustle.  I think I arrived at my bike with three minutes to spare so had plenty of time to get my bike ready.

THE BIKE: The bike portion was to be measured by average watts over the 30 minute time period, not distance, which made sense to me.  If it was just based on distance, you could turn your bike to the easiest resistance and just go to town...however, this wouldn't really measure how strong of a biker you are.  I spin three times a week on our bike, but I simply "bike"...I don't measure RPMs, watts, or distance...I just bike for 30-40 minutes.  That being said, this watts thing was totally new to me.  I was able to average (I think) 134 watts over the 30 minute time period.  I had no idea if this was good or bad or what.

THE RUN:  I had to say, I was getting pretty tired when it was time to run...again.  My legs were more tired than I expected after Kicks and Kisses so I was a little worried about what I'd be able to do on the treadmill.  I grabbed a quick drink of water and hopped on a Precor treadmill.  The guy in charge of the running portion told us that the farthest distance that anyone had made it over the 20 minute time period was 2.88 miles.  I thought that I could possibly beat that.  I started out the run at 9.2 MPH.  Holy cow, that run felt like it took forever.  I would try to stare at the t.v....mine was turned to something on the History Channel.  However, I would be running along, sure that at least three minutes had passed, but when I looked down, it had only been one minute.  Yikes.  At one point, I accidentally hit the emergency stop button on my treadmill and my entire machines stopped.  Luckily, it didn't erase my time, and I started back up, this time at 10 MPH. The same thing happened to Philip, and he had to quickly change machines and probably lost at least a tenth of a mile. I ended up finishing my twenty minutes with 3.13 miles.  (After seeing the final results, someone in a later heat made it 3.14 miles.  Darn.)

After both Philip and myself finished, we changed and had a little food before heading out.  We didn't find out the results until that evening as there were a few heats to finish up.  We were very pleased to find out that Philip had WON the overall male division and I got 2nd place.

All in all, this was a very well run event and I would recommend it to both newbie and experienced triathletes.  If you consider the very cheap entry fee of $20, this event can't be beat! Well done! :)