I’ve been refraining from going into depths about my first triathlon because I had wanted to write a long long long story-esque thing about the whole triathlon. 2 days and 700 words later, I realized I’m probably never going to finish this, especially since I’ve been really busy at work… That and after 700 words, I haven’t even gotten to the start of the race. So, just so that it remains relavent, time-wise, here is my no frills abridged version of what happened. (If you want to read someone else’s triathlon story, check out my buddy Erich’s… his version is still a lot shorter than mine).
For those of you wondering how I ended up doing a triathlon, I was up late one night in early April on AIM talking with my good buddy Stephen. We were just talking about a bike he had just bought and were talking about riding together sometime when I get my bike, which has not arrived yet, when he asked if I wanted to do a triathlon, just out of the blue. Here’s the conversation:
12:48:24 AM Stephen Yu: o dude, u wanna train for a triathlon?
12:48:34 AM Michael Tang: haha run, swim, and bike?
12:48:54 AM Stephen Yu: yup
12:52:21 AM Michael Tang: hmm, sounds ambitious
12:52:27 AM Stephen Yu: lets do it
12:52:28 AM Stephen Yu: i did a 10k
12:52:33 AM Stephen Yu: that was damn crazy
12:52:35 AM Michael Tang:haha, i bet
12:52:41 AM Michael Tang: well, i do want to get back into shape
12:52:44 AM Stephen Yu: i sweated out SO much
12:52:48 AM Stephen Yu: yea, lets do it together man
Before the race, my buddy Stephen, who I've got to thank for talking me into doing this Tri.
And then I was sold. At least on the idea that I would train for a triathlon, not really actually run in one. But within the next half hour we had already found a short triathlon, “sprints” they are called, in Redondo Beach. We talked about it, and two or three weeks later, I signed myself up for it. I also talked my buddy Erich Chen into signing up, and he, in turn, got his girlfriend Rosalva and another of our buddy Erich Chen, to sign up.
Before I go on, let me just say this. When I decided I was going to do this, I had one simple goal in mind. And that was to finish. I disliked swimming. Biking is fun, but I hate running, partly because I get shin splints easily. I figured if I finished, that would be a major accomplishment in it of itself. Placing doesn’t matter as long as I finished. Towards the last two weeks leading up to the Tri, I came up with a very loser-like mentality slogan, “Any place is first place as long as I place.” Loser way of thinking, yes. But when you’re overweight and out of shape, this is a big step. And that’s how I embraced it. I know I’m not going to get first, or second, or third or even finish in the middle of the pack. But I just want to finish. Anyway, back to the story.
I thought I would train a lot for it, but I ended up not doing much in terms of training. I was carrying a full class load of work on top of my 9 to 5′s and the weekends, I’m not even sure where they went, but I manage to keep myself occupied. I hit up the swimming pool at CPE for a few times to do the swim. I considered myself a really good swimmer back in Jr High and I think I probably could have beaten 95% of any of my classmates back then, but that’s about the last time I’ve swam consistently (my three days on the winter water polo team at my military school don’t count in my books). Anyhow, at CPE, I was really out of shape. But within a week, I was seeing a lot of progress. Then I got back into biking and was biking for quite a bit and just forgot about the swimming portion. When I signed up at 24 fitness like two or three weeks ago and started swimming there, I had lost so much ground on whatever progress I made at CPE that the time at CPE counted for nothing. Swimming, as I found out, was VERY VERY mental. And for some reason, I couldn’t focused, so my last 2 weeks of swim training yielded virtually no progress. Stephen gave me some last minute tips on swimming so I tried to apply those later on. And despite my inability to focus well, I find myself able to finish 40 laps at the swimming pool switching between freestyle and the much easier breaststroke, 5 more than the length of the distance that I would be swimming.
The day before the big day, I had to go to a morning graduation and a night graduation at Riverside (congrats Ohme, Caitlin, Bri, Tanya, and Lindsey, BTW). IN between, I had to pick up my registration packet for the Tri. When I got there, I realized how under-prepared I was. First of all, my bike situation was in flux. Since my road bike frame didn’t come in right, I wasn’t sure what I had to do. My cruiser seemed like the next best option, I get pretty fast on it, but I blew out the back tires and the brakes a few weeks before and hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. Also, I’d probably have the smallest bike there (24 inch wheels vs. everyone else’s 29 inch wheels). My alternative option was riding Jess’s spare road bike that she has kindly lent me. While I’m pretty fond of the bike, I feel like I don’t go very fast on it (I feel like my 24 could go faster). Fortunately for me, Stephen had a spare mountain bike, and while big, bulky, and heavy, it made pretty good speed.
Me with Stephen's MTB. Stephen and a hot girl in the background!
Secondly, I don’t own a wetsuit, or speedos, or anything that “fast” swimmers have. I thought I’d get by with my boardshorts, but a few days before, I checked out a video on the Reondo Beach Tri’s web site with last year’s race and realized I’d be like the only guy not in a wetsuit or at least a triathlon shorts. My buddy Stephen had bought some shorts, and I figured I’d rent one at the registration (it was a registration/expo at a triathlon shop). I got there, they only had one left. When I put it on, it felt really really tight, probably a size too small. Also, the neoprene material was so sensitive it ripped easily. It freaked me out a bit because every rip was a $15 fee, a sign read. But I took it anyway. The dude there said it’ll give me “extra buoyancy and keep me warm,” and I figured that would obviously be good, right? On my way back to Riverside for the night graduation, I also bought a pair of jammers to wear under the wetsuit.
The graduation went well and I had a great time. I got home around 9pm, but I started getting jitters about the Tri that kept me up until shortly after midnight.
Stephen picked me up at around 5:30 in the morning the next day and we made our way to the beach. At the transition area (they’re like the triathlon equivalent of pit stops), I set up my bike near Erich and Eric. Stephen set up a few racks down, and Rosalva had to setup in the women section. At my setup, I duct tape a huge arrow and asterisk on the ground, a tip I got from one of the pro’s at the expo so that I can see where my bike was if I came out and was disoriented. Following Stephen’s advice (he’s been reading up on a lot of online info about triathlons), I also taped some nutrient stuff I got for free on to the bike.
The duct tape arrow that points to the duct tape asterisk that denotes where my setup is.
I asked Eric to strap me in my wetsuit, but after a short walk to the beach to the starting area, that thing came off me like I was the Incredible Hulk. I had to stretch my wetsuit, carefully so I don’t rip it, so that it fits a bit better on my body before Stephen restrapped me in. We got to the starting line, about 100 of us guys (Rosalva started in the second or third wave with the women) between 19 and 34 in the first wave. When the starting gun went off, all of us charged right in.
Storming the beaches. Somewhere in the masses are me, Stephen, Erich and Eric.
I lost sight of Stephen and Eric right away. That was expected. Stephen and Eric had trained most extensively for this and I expected them to finish way ahead of me. Stephen was a swimmer in high school and Eric was in really good shape. I know my Erich was right behind me. But I lost him right away. The run into the water was intriguing. I thought I’d start screaming like a little girl because the water would be cold, but the wetsuit did it’s job by keeping me really warm. After running about 50 yards into the water, it was finally deep enough to start swimming. I started with freestyle, diving into the water as the other people did when a wave came at us so we don’t get swept back much. After only about 10 strokes, I was exhausted. The wetsuit had compressed itself against my body, making it difficult to breathe, especially since it was already a size too small. I also had trouble raising my arms because the suit was so tight it pulled my arms down. I’d rest for a little bit and kept trying to swim, each attempt gradually growing shorter and shorter. All the same time, everyone swam further and further away. I was with about 5 guys in the back end of the race. The five of us would all swim a little, then rest a lot. I tried to swim fast, but I wouldn’t get anywhere far and everytime I swam I felt myself getting more and more tired physically. I thought I would drown, even if there were like 5 or 6 lifeguards on surfboards paddling along side of us. I laid on my back, for a while, not swimming and one of the girl lifeguards paddled up to me and asked if I was alright. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m just taking a break”. She left, and I swam some more. I haven’t even reached the halfway mark before the second wave of swimmers and their red swim caps (first wave wore white swim caps) caught up to me. And passed me. And eventually leaving me in the dust. By now, I felt like I was going to die. I wasn’t even at the halfway point yet! But I think pride got in the way, and I was NOT going to let a lifeguard tow me in. I had resorted to a stroke that I learned at CPE swim classes when I was little called Monkey-T-Glide (sorry guys, I don’t know the real name, Erich calls it chicken-bird-soldier or soemthing like that). It was ridiculous doing that when everyone passing me was front-crawling away, but I closed my eyes and started doing it, and I soon found myself closer and closer to the second buoy.
This is the swim and run route. The run route changed just a bit, and there were only three buoys instead of 4.
Then, I started noticing a group of swimmers coming fast at me. At first, I thought they were also wearing white caps like me, and I was thinking, “wow, there were that many guys behind me?” but then as they got closer, I realized 1. they weren’t white caps, they were silver. 2. they weren’t guys, they were the 19-34 female group. Pretty soon they were passing me up. Again my pride kicked in, and I decided I would NOT get beaten by two waves of swimmer, I ended up paddling hard around the last buoy. Eventually, as I was swimming towards the shore, I could touch ground. I waded my way towards the beach as fast as I could. An older guy from the red cap group and one of the girls were beating me as I ran up the hill leading up towards the transition area. There was a large group of spectators, and I thought them seeing a white cap running right behind a red cap and a silver cap would cause them to laugh. But instead they were really supportive and started cheering. At first I thought they were cheering for the old dude or the girl, but then someone was like “Let’s go, 5-1-9 (my number, some lady sharpied it on my leg)! you got this!” and despite my dead tired feeling, I sprinted up the hill leading up to the transition.
By then I was out of breath, my head was light, and my body felt weak. I looked around for my huge duct tape arrow and asterisk, but saw a way easier marker for my bike. It was ERICH! I ran over there, talked to him a bit about how difficult the swim portion was for me, chugged an entire bottle of gatorade. Erich didn’t stay long. He left within a minute of me arriving. I had to change and everything, and then took off on my bike.
our bikes at the transition. The blue fixie is Eric's, 519 is mine, and Erich is the white bike after mine.
The bike ride was not too difficult for me. Despite riding a big heavy bike, I think I did a good job passing up a lot of people. Yes, some people were passing me up, including some older guys and some girls, but for the most part I enjoyed the ride. The route was pretty scenic. It started off from Veteran’s Park but eventually made its way to the road overlooking the beach and the cliffs surrounding it. Stephen and I had done this course a week before to test it out, and I really wish this was a sunset ride because it would have been just gorgeous. Anyhow, as I was saying, I didn’t have much problem with the course. The only exception was the giant cul-de-sac at the pier. It was a huge drop that got me going really fast followed by a huge climb out of it. I bombed into the drop no problem, but on my first ride out of the climb, i probably could have ran faster out of it. The second time out of it though, i controlled my speed much better and ended up coming out pretty fast. All in all, I felt like that was my strongest leg of the race.
the bike route.
Despite making up a little time back on the bike, there was one bad news. My left leg was starting to cramp up a little and I felt like I was about to have a bout of shin splints. I had my shin support setup in the transition area and as soon as I got there, I took of my shoes and tried to put on the shin support. I got it around my ankles but my shin and my calves had swollen, and I couldn’t get the support past my ankles. Disgusted, I threw the support back into my duffle bag, put on my shoes, took a bottle of gatorade and chugged it as I ran out of the transition.
The run was tough. I don’t EVER run. Even in my “training” I never ran, and I don’t think I’ll run anytime soon. That’s how much I detest it. So when my shin splint was kicking in and my calves cramping up, I was ready to call it quits. Or at least I figured I’ll slow jog it and walk it out as far as I could. People passed me by left and right. The route took us along the beach, on to the pier, then by the wharf or the village, whatever that area is called.
Right as I reached the pier, a big old guy, who was 51 years old (they write your age on the back of your calf) caught up to me. The guy was old, out of shape, and big. He’s about my height, maybe an inch shorter, but looked like he probably weighed close to 275 ish. And it was an out of shape 275. As he got closer, he called out to me, “Come on, big guy. You got it.”
Not wanting to disappoint, I ran for a little bit on to the pier, enough to get ahead of the guy and I started walking again. About three or four minutes later, he caught up to me again, and again, called out “You can do it, 5-1-9, let’s go buddy. Pace it out.” And this happened probably three or four more times, where I ran a bit further and walked some more, and he’d catch up, throw some words of encouragement at me and I’d run some more. At about the halfway point, it clicked somehow. Here was this dude that was old, overweight, and out of shape, but he was still trucking it on. Suddenly, I felt inspired. Inspired like I haven’t had in maybe years. I had a strong urge to finish, and finish strong. So I started taking bigger strides at a faster pace. I only took one quick break in the last mile and kept running. Throughout the route, there were people cheering me on. It was a great feeling, just strangers cheering on. I almost felt kind of like a star. It was a great feeling. No one passed me on until the last leg of the race when big guy, who was probably 6’6″ and looked like a very muscular built 250 pounds (he had the built of a tight end in the NFL). As he , he said “Come on buddy, we’re almost there. Finish strong.” and I ran as fast I could to the finish.
My buddy Stephen was at the finish line and took a photo of me coming in through finish line. It was the first time I had seen him since the start of the race. I felt like it was noon, but Stephen told me it was only a little bit past 9. I had finished the course in about an hour and a half. Never mind I was the last person in our group to finish. Even Rosalva, who started like two waves after me, finished about 20 minutes before me. It didn’t even bother me that I was in the bottom 20 finishers. I felt like I had won. This is a lame comparison just because it’s a terrible movie, but I felt like Rocky in Rocky Balboa (the newest one), where even though he technically lost to the dude Antonio Tarver played, he left feeling like a champ because he held on to the finish. I felt like Rocky Balboa, like a champ. It was a great feeling.
I went and grabbed a free bottle of water they were giving out and went back to the finish line to cheer on the old dude that kept me pacing on the run. I cheered him on when he came in and gave him the bottle and congratulated him on a job well done. I seriously don’t know if I could have finished the run without him, and I’m still not sure exactly what happened to make me just GO. It was like a Forrest Gump moment.
I was also very proud of our group. Everyone finished the course, even if Erich needed to be rescued during the swim portion. When the final results came back a few days ago, it showed Eric and Stephen finishing #228 and #229 of the 415 who did finish (I don’t think they counted people who couldn’t finish the race) at 1:06:33 and 1:07:22, respectively. Rosalva finished at #315 at 1:13:16, finishing 27 out of 39 in her age group, and crossed the finishline before both me and Erich! Erich, had a time of 1:23:37 and placed 382. I came in at 394, with a total time of 1:28:17.
This is us at the end. If you can't tell, i was still exhuasted at the time of this photo.
Here’s our official results:
OVERALL RESULTS INDIVIDUALS
Place Div/Tot Bib Name S Age City St Rank Swim T1 Rank Bike T2 Rank Run Rank Time
228 11/14 396 Eric Pai M 24 Rowland Heights CA 247 22:01 5:13 233 21:11 1:01 226 17:10 228 1:06:33
239 12/14 591 Stephen Yu M 21 Fullerton CA 138 18:38 6:28 271 22:06 1:26 288 18:36 239 1:07:12
315 27/39 9 Rosalva Almazan F 25 Altadena CA 262 22:20 5:02 336 23:52 1:21 356 20:43 315 1:13:16
382 14/14 621 Erich Robert Chen M 24 378 28:30 6:29 303 22:51 1:13 397 24:36 382 1:23:37
394 38/38 519 Michael Tang M 25 Cerritos CA 385 29:05 8:58 335 23:51 3:38 382 22:47 394 1:28:17
Yeah. This was a LOT more than I was hoping to write. But remember, this is the short version. THe longer version is like a novel. So be grateful.
Anyhow, I didn’t feel too horrible after the race. Dog tired, but more from lack of sleep than anything else. I went home, iced up, and slept. I had a lot of fun at this triathlon. Enough where I signed up for another in Santa Barbara in mid-August.
The swimming part is a tad shorter, only 500 yards, but the bike and run part are the same. If you think you might be interested in trying it out, I’ve set up a facebook invite page- it’s got the links to the Santa Barbara Triathlon and other information. I’ve already talked my brother and some friends into going. I hope I can get more of you to go. It’ll be great. Even if you don’t know if you’ll run, you could always definitely come out and train or “float in the water” with me.
