Jordan Valley Triathlon

Just after the bike to run transition

We arrived in the Jordan Valley yesterday afternoon and our coach took us to check out the transition area and the bike route. We took a walk down to the starting area, as well, so that we could walk from the water to the transition area. This was a particularly long distance for a transition -- I'd say about 600 meters or so. It was also mainly uphill and also through a tunnel and up stairs. That's a pretty long distance to run barefoot.

After driving the bike route, we went back to the Sea of Galilee, hoping to get in a practice swim, but the beach was closed and they refused to let us in, so we drove up to the youth hostel where we were spending the night and had some time to rest.

The "pasta dinner" was a disaster. The food was awful -- I didn't know pasta could taste so bad! At least none of us was too full to fall asleep last night! I slept in a room with Ronit, the other woman on the team who competes, and three girls from the youth team. There were three bunk beds in the room and since Ronit was afraid to sleep on top, I got the top bunk. We turned the lights off at about 9:45 and that's when we heard the cats. From the way it sounded, a cat had given birth to kittens under the roof, right by this overhead cabinet in our room (which we couldn't open because it had been painted shut). The damn kittens were wailing and it sounded like they were in the room with us. I don't know if they kept it up all night, as we eventually fell asleep.

Wake up was at 4 a.m., my least favorite time of day. We got dressed and were out by 5. By about 5:30, we were all set up in the transition area, so we went to see the start of the half ironman, as two of our teammates and another guy from our town were competing. We watched them start the swim and then cheered for them as they ran through the transition area. Soon after that, we went down to the water to warm up.

This was the first time I had ever swum in the Sea of Galilee and I was very nervous about it. Despite the fact that they had announced that the water was 22 degrees (that's about 70), it seemed to be a lot warmer. The problem wasn't the water temperature, but rather the fact that the water was brown and it was impossible to see anything -- I could barely see my own hands. I did a short warmup and decided that I was going to start far away from everyone.

Before I knew it, we were off (in fact, I almost missed the start!). I stuck with my plan and stayed in the back and on the left. I didn't have any serious collisions and, in fact, hardly anyone touched me for the entire swim. In fact, I got more beaten up in the practice race at the pool last week. I have no idea where the other 250+ swimmers were, but they weren't swimming next to me. Since I was so nervous about the swim, I took it slowly, occasionally switching to breaststroke to check out my position, have a look at the people around me and make sure I was swimming towards the buoy. I rounded the first buoy and then the second one and then I tried to concentrate on swimming a little bit faster, as I had been swimming really really slowly. However, at this point, there were more people around me and although I wasn't really getting pushed around, I was having a bit of trouble manipulating myself through them. A couple of times, when I swam breaststroke for a few strokes, I kicked people behind me fairly hard. Soon, I saw people around me starting to stand up, but when I looked up, I saw we were still pretty far from the shore and I didn't see any point in trying to run through the water when I could keep swimming through it. I couldn't see the bottom, so I just waited until my hand hit the bottom and then I got up and "ran" out of the water.

The long run to the transition area which had worried me so much didn't seem so long. It was a bit muddy and slippery at the beginning, so I ran very slowly in order to keep my footing. Before I knew it, I was up the stairs and in the transition area, running towards my bike. This is when I remembered to start my watch. Oops. I had completely forgotten to push the button at the beginning of the swim, so I had no idea how long my swim had been, though I was pretty certain it was slow (and I was right). I got my shoes, helmet, sunglasses and number on and I was off. There were lots and lots of people around me -- I'm so used to being in the back at smaller races that this was kind of strange. I got on my bike, started riding and managed to get my feet into the toe cages on the first try (no, I still haven't switched over to clipless).

The bike section went really well, despite problems with my bike. It was making a lot of noise and the back gears kept shifting on their own. However, I was going fairly fast (for me), averaging just over 27 kph. The route was basically flat, which was nice. It was also very pretty -- right along the Sea of Galilee. I passed a lot of people and a lot of people passed me. There were a few people who kept passing me back after I passed them. The bike route was very crowded and it was very hard to avoid drafting. Several times, someone passed me just as I was about to pass someone else and then I kind of got stuck waiting for that person to pass the person in front of me (who was riding slower than I was) so that I could pass. About 1/3 of the way through, I caught up with Ronit, who is normally much faster that I am on the bike. I passed her and she woke up and just before the turn-around, she took off and I wasn't able to pass her again, though she was never too far ahead of me.

Before I knew it, the bike section was over. Although this is probably my weakest part of the race (I've spent the least amount of time cycling), it's also my favorite. I love being on the bike with the wind in my face, passing pretty scenery and even passing other cyclists once in a while! LOL! The run is my least favorite part. But it was time to run. I racked my bike and took off my helmet and took a second to drink. Then I actually remembered to turn my number around without being reminded and I was off running. The first 2.5 km were horrible. My legs hurt and although my brain kept saying, "Pick up your feet!" my feet kept saying, "Leave us alone," and I settled for just moving forwards. Several times, I thought about walking, but at this point, everyone was still running, so I kept running, too. Fortunately, the route was flat, so I didn't have to run up any hills, but it was also on a concrete path, which didn't help my legs recover from the bike very quickly. Finally I got to the turnaround and then I started feeling better. I knew that would happen -- it always works that way for me. The second half of the run was bearable. I managed to tune out the negative thoughts and concentrate on not letting any women pass me (as it turned out, it didn't make a big difference, anyway, as the only woman in my age group who was anywhere near me had been disqualified, but I didn't know that at the time and at the turnaround, she was right behind me). Then I got to the turnaround point for the 14-15 year olds and I knew there was only 1.5 km to go. Then the turnaround point for 12-13 year olds -- just one more kilometer! Then the turnaround for the younger kids -- I didn't know if that was at 750 meters or 500, but I knew it meant I was almost there. I started to pick up some speed. About 200 meters before the finish, I saw my coach. He was cheering for me and I dug deep and gave it everything I had and found myself not only finishing strong, but doing it fairly easily. Before I knew it, it was over. I had completed my first sprint.

My goal had been to finish in 1:45. Because I hadn't started my watch at the beginning of the race, I had no idea how close I was to my goal. When I crossed the finish line, I turned around to look at the clock. 1:42:21!!! I was VERY happy!

My splits were more or less as follows (the site with the results is down and I remember minutes without seconds, but this is close enough):

750 meter swim, including the transition to the bike (this is very sad -- I'm not a fast swimmer, but I normally do 750 meters in under 18 minutes): 26:13

20 km bike, including the transition to the run: 45:36 (a very good time for me)

5 km run: 30:31. This is an excellent time for me, especially considering how miserable I felt. In fact, until recently, this would have been a PR for me for 5k. I don't know how, as I haven't been running all that much, but I've gotten faster recently. This is kind of encouraging, because I plan to spend a lot more time working on my running, so hopefully, I'll get even faster.

At first, they combined two categories and I was 9/16 for women 40-49. Then they split the categories (which is how it should have been) and I was 5/9 for women 40-44. Two of the women I beat were the same women that I beat at the Galei Hadar Duathlon. The woman who came in 4th beat me by about a minute and was slower than me on the bike and run. If I had done a decent swim, I would have beaten her, as well. The 3rd place woman finished 10 minutes before me, so she was out of my reach today. Ronit, who was in the 45-49 category, finished less than two minutes ahead of me. I was able to see her back for almost the entire race (and I wasn't really trying to beat her, as we weren't supposed to be in the same age category).

So no hardware this time, but two goals achieved (one of my goals for 2005 was to complete a sprint triathlon and my goal for the race was to finish in 1:45 or less), so it was a successful day.