Louis is now a triathlete

It's now 11:40PM and I just got out from a coma (because of lack of sleep). I think it's a good time to recap what happen this weekend. What I did this weekend? I finished my first Olympic distance triathlon. The distance? 3/4 mile swim, 24 mile bike, and 6 mile run.

Friday
Lunch: I ate my Katsu Don (Japanese Style Pork Cutlet Rice Bowl) wishing for a good race.
Dinner: I went to Daikokuya wanting to eat another Katsu Don but I ended up eating the shredded Pork Bowl.

After my food I went home to pack. The plan was to do my 4 hours bike ride Sat then head out to La Quinta for Sunday. I did not finish packing until maybe 12 something in the morning.

Sat
Matt and I started riding our 4 hours bike at the San Gabriel River trail. We started at around 7:40AM and we rode for 4 hours. There was actually an Team Training out there at Pepperdine but it just didn't make sense for me to head west only to come back to the east.

After the ride Matt wanted to eat In and Out but for some reason I wanted to eat something healthier... so we got a chicken salad at Chick Fil-A.

We finally got to the Expo at 3pm and we picked up our stuffs. Teammates started to appear so we just talk to them. All of us are excited! While I was talking to my teammate I saw a familiar face. Andrea... she used to work in me in PAS. I got up to her and ask her if she is Andrea. It turned out that her sister and her dad are doing this. It's just crazy how I bumped into someone that used to work with me.

Initially we are supposed to be at the lake by 4pm to swim for a little bit... but since people are running late Coach Paul decided to give people some extra time to pick up their packages. Well we got to the lake and I was like... hmm the lake looks kind of big. We did a little swim and I question myself why I am doing this again. I am very nervous about tomorrow.

Teammate Alex and I in Wet Suit

After the swim we went to this place called Mario. They gave us a lot of food!!! I can't even finish my meats and pasta!!!

I dropped Matt off and check in to my own hotel. I liked the hotel, it was a bit more pricy but it's huge and it's clean. It even has a LCD TV. However I didn't get to enjoy much of anything because I spent more of the night packing and organizing things. Luckly I have been backpacking for a while so I have a system to sort things (slow but detail). I slept at around 11pm.

Sunday
I woke up at 3:15 AM to prepare. Because of day light saving time I actually only got 3:15 hours of sleep. I noticed there were people talking outside of the hotel and they were loud. I didn't pay much attention and went for a shower. I ate and continue to pack up. The noise didn't subside and I figure they are probably people doing the triathlon. I didn't think greatly of them because it's 4am in the morning and people are sleeping... consideration please!

As I was loading up I found out the noise came from the pool. Apparently these people are just chilling at the pool and just being loud. 4 stars hotel, 1 star people (the one in the pool).

I picked up Matt and we got to the Lake at 5:40. The lot was opened starting 5:30 and there were lots of cars. We found a place to park and we started to unload our bikes and packs. I have this Ironteam Jacket that I can wear but I decided to wear my down jacket because it's too cold.

It's still dark outside so I use my headlamp. Other people wish they have one.

I walked my bike to the row (each row has a range of numbers) where I am supposed to rack my car. I thought there are individual numbers assigned to it but I was wrong. People are just racking their bikes as close to the exit as possible. As I was trying to figure out where I want to rack my bike Floyd showed up with his gears. Since we are at the same row we decided to rack our bikes at the end of the row. We figured if we rack together toward the end people are less likely to move our stuff. We heard horror stories about people moving your stuff to give themselves more room.

I setup a little area with my kp beach towel to mark my territory. I had the urge to pee the 4 corners but I was able to resist.

My territory (I was still organizing so that's why things look like they are everywhere). Floyd is looking at me in this picture

I pee several times before the race. I don't think I drink too much water. I think I just need to pee. T minus 40 minutes: I am ready and focus. T-minus30 minutes: Warm up with teammates. Remember the Ironteam jacket that I mention earlier. Well most of my teammates had it on and we started running. There are actually people following my teammates because they want to warm up with the Ironteam.... I will not forget my jacket again!!! T-minus 13 minutes, coach told us to go to the starting area (Yes, the huge lake). I put on my wetsuit and I was like great... I am having some issue putting it on. So I put on my goggle, cap, and walk with half the wetsuit on. As we walked together I put on my wetsuit. My teammate help me with the back zipper... again there is nothing sexy about having your teammates zip up your back zipper. Just think of it as two black bears scratching their backs.

There were few minutes left so I jump into the water(outside the starting area) just to swim a little bit. I am like whatever too late to back up now. The water is very cold but I am actually ok with it. I like it better than jumping into the pool.

Few minutes after the first wave first (black swim cap). Then I will start in another 3 minutes after that (my wave has white cap). I gather with my teammates and we wish each other good luck. There were a lot of handshake and padding on the shoulder.

To make things better to explain... here is the map course map My swim course: Green Arrow. We started from the shore, swim to buoy #3. Make a right, Swim to buoy #1, make a left and head back to shore.

THE SWIMM

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... goooo. I ran to the lake like everyone else. I jumped into the lake and start swimming. Within minutes people started to pull away. I was thinking if I am the last one. I don't care. I am just going to swim. I kept swimming and make small adjustment because I am still not used to the wetsuit. Remember Buoy #3? Well I have to swim straight to it. That itself present several challenges.

#1: Unlike swimming in the pool where you have a little line to follow, you can't see in the water... well... you see green water...
#2: The buoy is kind of far away
#3: I can't sight left while I am swimming. I know the buoy is at my 350 degree... the problem? I can only breath well on my right side so I can't really sight left. I think of myself as zoolander where I can't turn left.
#4: You keep swimming off course because of #1, #2, #3.

I know I am swimming like @#$@. I am floating and swimming but I think my movement is not that good (which slow me down). So I continue to swim and just do my own thing. I know I am not sighting as often as I should but I don't really care. I rather swim in circle than not swimming. I look every every so often to follow swimmers ahead of me. I swim, swim, swim and I keep on making adjustment to make sure I am swimming to the buoy. By then the fast people in the next wave already swam pass me. You can tell because they have a different color swim cap. Right around this time I figured I need to limit my side to side movement because I feel like I am in the washing machine. The thing is when you wear a wetsuit you have bigger side to side movement when you turn to breath (well in my case). I started to turn less because I don't want to vomit when I get out of the water.

It seems like forever but I am still not at the first buoy. I found Edmund on my right and he was like Louis how are you doing. I am like blah blah blah because I was swimming and I can't really talk. I stop swimming for a second so I can talk to him.

I suggest to swim together so we can create a draft. So we swim next to next other and try to draft. The plan went down the drain because he was swimming faster than me! With no ending to this thing, I rather swim slow and steady than to push myself to follow someone so I can go faster. I am actually perfectly fine. I am slow, getting off course, and just winded a little but otherwise I am ok. Whenever I get winded I slow myself down to make sure I am ok. I don't want to get all tired and get plug out of the water.

After a little bit we finally got to the freaking buoy. There are actually balloons tie on top and I was like... it's actually kind of nice. I made the left turn and continue swimming.

So I just swim swim swim... another 2 waves of people will pass me. I would swim off course, then swim back in the course. People are passing me but I don't care. I just need to focus on my swim. I know better from hiking and running that everyone has a pace and you need to follow your own pace, not other people's.

Every now and then someone will touch my legs. Since I heard horror stories about people swimming on top of you I kick harder to discourge them. Well I guess the faster people didn't get a chance to swim on top of me because I was kind of off course anyway and they have no business being off course.

After a while I need to pee. What am I going to do? I know people pee in their wetsuit. I talked to a few of my teammates and they said they will pee during the swim if they need to. I tried but I couldn't get myself to do it. When you hike you don't pee wearing your pant! Now my right goggle took in a bit more water. I pray that my contact doesn't come off because that means I need to spend 'addition' time in the transition area to put on my contact len.

Finally... second buoy! I made a left and continue swimming. Now you can see the finish line. I think by then another wave passed me. Right about this time I think the water tastes a bit funny. Is it because people are peeing or is this in my head? Well I don't care. I continue to swim and the finish banner got bigger and bigger. I know I am still swimming off course so I adjust myself every so often. I sight more. Finally, I got out of the water. I think it's 34 minutes or something. I am just so happy to get out of that water. It's not that bad at all, but I just don't like swim.

So I got out, pull off my cap/goggle and start walking. I wasn't super dizzy so I am good. I am happy not having to vomit. I heard Coach Paul and a few other people. I know Coach Paul told me to start running to the transition area but I am like screw that. I am walking because I don't want to fall. As I am making my way to the transition area I put off the top of my wetsuit. By then I feel better so I start jogging to the transition area.

TRANSITION 1 AND THE BIKE
Being a first timer I am not going to hurry the transition. I rather have everything than to miss something only to find out after mile 9.

I guess this is my T1 dance
- talk off wetsuit, goggle and cap.
- dry myself a bit with a towel so that sunscreen stay on my skin.
- spray sunscreen all over me except my face (I am not a big fan of spray but it's 'fast')
- put on regular sunscreen on my face (you don't want sunscreen to get into your eye while riding or biking), and put on lip balm.
- put on cycling jersey
- put 2 spare tires on my back jersey pocket
- put repair kit on my back jersey pocket, along with IDs, phone, and money.
- put on helmet (so I can touch my bike), put on sunglasses
- remove sand on foot, put on sock and cycling shoe.
- put on glove, turn on GPS on the bike.
- did a quick check to make sure I have everything in place.

Now I am ready, I start running toward the exit (you can't ride in transition area... you will get disqualified). I run a little bit, exit the area (there is a line that say you can only mount after that line), and got on my bike.

If you look at the map I am doing two loops. Well since I am not tired from the swim I am going at a very good pace. I passed a few people within minutes of riding my bikes. Since you cannot draft when you bike in a triathlon I was careful not to follow people too close.

I feel good on the bike. We are suppose to pedal at around 90rpm but I was going at 97-100. I switched to a lower gear so to go faster and to lower my rpm. I may go just a bit faster but I feel like I am putting way more effort to pedal. So I am either going 90 something rpm or 80 something rpm with one gear shift. I wish I have another gear in between. I decided to pedal faster to keep the high cadence. I feel like Lance Armstrong because he pedal fast =P

I am going around 20 mph and I am getting comfortable with the aero position. I made a good decision by spending time with the aero position on sat (almost fall sat when I got in the position =P )

I made a left to Madison and continue north. I passed some TNT people and I say go team to them. I made a right on Airport Blvd and the Brightroom people are there. I hope my pictures come out good because I really want to buy one. Right about this time the faster cyclists are already doing their second loop... them with their super fast tri bike. I noticed some of them draft... of well they want to play dirty... that's fine with me. I continue down to Van Buren and it's a bumpy road. I stopped to check my tires. One TNT cyclist ask me if I am ok I told her I am fine. My tires are fine so I got back to the bike. I passed that TNT cyclist and said thanks to her. I told her I thought I have a flat.

Somewhere along the 60th near Monroe I passed this person and she said go Louis. I had no idea who. I then passed Carlos before making a right on Madison for the second loop. I know Carlos will pass me during the run. Before the race Carlos told me... survive the swim, and kill on the bike, the finish the run. As for Carlos, he will survive the swim, finish the bike, and kill on the run. He is a faster running then I am, so I know he is staging himself for the run.

Me on the other hand wonder if I am biking too fast. Whatever I said, it's nice to pass people and I think I have enough energy to finish the run. It's now or never. I decided it's not one of those day where I need to keep a lot of extra energy in my body.

When I pass the brightroom people the second time I got into my aero position and pedal hard. I hope they got a good picture of me. I will buy one if you have a good picture!!!

Anyway hour 1 passed so I start eating food. For the bike I need to consume around 90 grams of carbs per hour. Hour 1 is purely energy mix because you don't want to upset your stomach after the swim. I slow down a bit to eat because I don't want to crash. I know I am not one of those super biking where I can text msg when I ride!

After around 1 hour and 20 something minutes I got back to the transition area. The girl in front of me made the mistake of not dismounting before the line. Me on the other hand did it beautifully.

TRANSITION 2 AND THE RUN

My transition 2 Dance
- find my row
- rack my bike
- remove all the stuff I mention on my body
- change my jersey to my marathon race day shirt (this will take like an extra 10 seconds but I wanted to finish my first triathlon with my marathon shirt aka Barney shirt). I want to let people know that I am doing this because of my friends.
- put on sunscreen again
- put on my mountain hardwear cap (I always want to have a piece of hiking on me).
- eat a bit of stuff while all the stuff are going on.
- put on my running shoe and start running toward the exit.

while I was running inside the transition area I passed one of my teammate. He gave his shoulder a pad and we both started running. I took a quick look at him and I didn't see his number. I asked him where is your number? ... go put it on... then I realized I also forgot my number!!! We both go oh s#$@ and went to get our number. ahh... an extra 20 seconds maybe?

I ran slowly for around 10 minutes because we are supposed to let your leg get use to the running after the bike. I then pick up a little speed... passed a few minutes and a few teammates passed me. Got on to the second loop and Carlos passed me. Instead of running faster I am just going at my marathon pace. I have Tokyo Marathon in two weeks and I don't want to do push it. Then Alex passed me and said hi! I am very very very surprised to see him. He is a better swimmer, a little faster on the bike and definitely a bullet on the run. Why is he passing me from behind??? He told me he was having issues with the swim that's why he is so slow. I told him Carlo is ahead of us. I said him I'll buy him lunch if he passed Carlos... hee hee...

I am just doing my own thing... nothing much going on. It was hot so I got water put it on my cap. My jersey is wet but I am still hot. Said so go team along the way and ran faster for a stronger finish.

I finished my first triathon and received my medal. I talked to a few teammates and went back to the transition area to get my recovery drink. I headed back out and wait for the rest of the teammates.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this time around so I hope I get some from other people.

Over all the race is good. I survived the swim and that's the most important aspect of this. I finish the bike/run and I still have a lot of energy. I am not tired or anything.

I skipped the pool party and drive home. I want to hang out with the team but I really really just want to get home and sleep. I slept a total of 6 hours in two days.

Yes I did it... one step closer to making the impossible... possible.

After Thoughts

What happened to me up what I am today. Hiking give me the endurance, organization, push your limit but save energy to hike back from the mountain. Marathon training give me pacing, never give up and listen to your body. Ironteam training give me all the tools I need to finish an triathlon event. Without my hiking and marathon experience, I am probably going to swim too fast, get tired/panic, then get plug out of the water by life guard. Just like the marathon team, I have good teammates, coaches, and support staffs. It's nice to get out of my comfort zone and jump into the water. I am going to keep training to finish the half ironman in May and full ironman in Aug.

Please consider to make a small donation to support my effort so we can end cancer. Click here or type the following address
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/VineFIrn09/lkwan

Louis

Result

I am overall happy with my time. Here is the break down

swim: 36 minutes. Well I guess I can run to the transition area after the swim (a little way).

T1: 7 minutes. I can take some time out of here. I took my time to make sure I have everything. I put on sunscreen and everything...etc. I am sure a lot of people didn't do that.

Bike: 1:19:04 I can probably cut this by a few minutes. I stopped at one point to check my tires and I slow down on the later part of the second laps just so I can eat.

T2: 5 minutes 26 seconds. Again, I just took my time to reapply sunscreen, eat, and change my purple jersey. And YES... I FORGOT MY BIB so I need to run back and get it. Luckly it's in the transition area or I may get disqualify... haha.

Run: 1:04:23 I ran very slow on the first 10 minutes. I also went to the restroom. I supposed I can run faster but my priority is to finish and I want zero risk. With a flat course like this I can probably do 9:30 min/mile pace. Well next time.