Originally Posted: March 19, 2021
I’ll be honest up front: I did not compete in the triathlon at the Max Performance Season Opener. Instead, I opted for the duathlon, a run-bike-run course that took slightly longer to complete because running 2 miles generally takes longer than swimming a quarter of a mile. It was a decision that when I registered 10 weeks ago was a no-brainer. It took me until the start of last winter term to overcome my mental opposition to sticking my head underwater while swimming, and at the time putting myself in a deep-water start was just not something I was comfortable doing. I had run competitively for years, and while I wouldn’t drop the same times for a 2-mile or a 5k as I did in high school, I would feel at home on the runs.
From the second I got close to the transition area, I could tell the entire race atmosphere was different than it was at the races I was well-accustomed to. I suppose I have my first experience with body markings to thank for that. It felt really weird at the time to have two volunteers write on me with black Sharpies, but after it was done I really didn’t mind it and I felt like I was finally a part of the action that I had been looking forward to since I started training in the fall. Even a week after the race, amidst my pretty bad sunburn (because I forgot to put the sunscreen I brought with me in my transition bag) you can still quite distinctly see a “406” on my arm, a mark that I have a strange sort of pride to wear. I could also tell the atmosphere was different just by walking around and hearing other athletes talk to each other. I heard countless comments about the course and hopes people had for their own races, whether it be to just survive or see if they could set some personal bests.
In the middle of all this, I was trying not to have a panic attack about my first significant bike ride. Sure, I had done a couple around campus, but none ended before I failed to unclip from my pedals and fell over. In retrospect, I worried too much about what would happen if I was alone on the course and fell with no first aid kit on me to quickly treat any injuries. I definitely had the basic handling skills to get from point A to point B in one piece, but I had so little experience that I worried too much about being able to put every bit of advice I learned from my more experienced teammates together in a race. My downfall here was I didn’t trust my training as much as I should have, and it made me overthink the rest of my race.
But perhaps the most impactful part of the Season Opener for me as a first-timer was seeing the team energy and camaraderie in full swing. My anxieties surrounding the race quickly faded after our deafening team cheer of “Tri-Hard” and for the first time that whole race, I felt truly ready to go. Because I was in the duathlon, I had a head start over the wave of triathletes and I didn’t get to see many of them until I was already partly through the 5k run. When I saw them though, I definitely wasn’t prepared for every single one of them to cheer me on in some form or another, and while running alongside another athlete, I was proud to share that there were 45 Dartmouth triathletes all cheering each other on to the finish. I also found myself cheering on everyone I passed who was finishing up the bike, even if in the 5 seconds between seeing them and passing them I couldn’t remember their name. Having this sort of encouragement gave me the energy to keep going, and I forced myself to go faster so that once I finished I would be able to cheer on more teammates, matching the energy I felt they spent cheering me on.
(Special shoutout to fellow blogger Maya Khanna ’22 (middle) and Colin Goodbred ’21 (right) for being such awesome friends and for the motivation on the course. I don’t know if I’d be as good friends with these two as I am if it wasn’t for our involvement with tri team.)
Once I finished, I got to experience the emotions I heard other teammates talk about before: the sense of accomplishment for completing three events in one race, the gratitude for your body and strength holding up for the past hour, a genuine desire to congratulate those around you on the same accomplishments, and probably a lot more. For triathletes, winning is secondary to putting up a good performance, and even though I did get a pretty cool hat for winning my duathlon age group, I was more impressed by my ability to keep up with a bunch of athletes double my age with probably several more years of experience training and racing than I had. It gave me hope that I definitely didn’t have at the start of the race and made me far more confident in what I could do moving forward; all I need to do is put in the training.
I’m definitely looking forward to finishing my first tri in the fall. Not just because I felt like I could probably have done a tri at the Season Opener, but to continue to involve myself with the team spirit and energy I felt at the race. I had never felt more inspired to see the training everyone put in every day pay off and I felt ready to get back out there and continue improving in every way I could. But for next time I know now to trust my training more, that I’ll have the amazing Dartmouth triathlon community cheering me on from start to finish, and of course to pack my sunscreen in my transition bag.
About the Author
Connor Spencer is a ’22 from the northwest corner of Connecticut. Connor is interested in a double major in computer science and mathematics. Connor loves going on long runs with friends and is really excited to travel to Stockholm this summer to participate in a mathematics research program there.