My First Triathlon: Rocketman of Ignorance

Just a note on my first triathlon.  It was in 2003, and it was in Alabama.  It was the Rocketman, outside of Huntsville.  I trained for an Olympic distance, which turned out to be a Sprint.  I rode a $200 Cannondale that I bought from the classifieds.  It snapped a spoke while I was riding, and it sounded like one of those New Year's clackers while I rode.  The run went fine, its my thing.  

For the swim, I was pleased to find out it was a shorter distance than initially thought, and I was pretty proud of my purple speedo two piece that quite resembled my favorite work uniform EVER when I was a "float girl" at the Wave Country. As soon as I hit the water, my throat closed up.  I was so terrified that I could never put my head under water and had to dog- paddle the full half-mile.  Rescue canoes followed me the whole time yelling through bull horns that they were "getting" me "out of the water".  I was "not competent to finish the swim".  Determined and drowning that is what I was, and bless those poor men in the rescue canoes, they let me finish.  The whole time, one was rowing the canoe, while the other had his hands out to grab me if I completely gave out.  

The bike was ridiculous, I mean we can all ride a bike, but competitive biking is an entirely different phenomenon.  I rode the whole route standing on my pedals, MY REGULAR WALMART BMX PEDALS.  I thought that bike shoes looked like elf shoes and assumed that only the pros and the Olympians used such advanced gear. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived.  I had my brother's elementary school helmet that resembled a strange green egg, and  then there was the spoke snapping.  Most unfortunate, and I think I was penalized and maybe disqualified for that and not having those end stopper things in the handlebars.  The penalty and/or disqualification bothered me none.  I was clearly lucky to escape with my life, and my purple speedo.  

Ahh, 2009 shows us a completely different Betsy Sloan.  This year, at the Music City Triathlon, I came in 4th in my age group.  I both survived and thrived.  I have a Trek 5200 that was the best birthday present ever and a personal relationship with the girls at Splish who make my suit. More on the Music City later, but joining a running group and a swim group helped me exponentially.  I also started bike classes with Todd Nordmeyer this summer.  There is a lot more to biking than I thought, and it is my weakest link.  Look for my Music City Tri update!!!