I’m now 15 months into the lifecycle of my current injury and it’s proving as stubborn as ever. I can run a little; two or three easy 5ks a week, with manageable pain, but any further or faster and the pain-to-enjoyment ratio tips in the wrong direction. It’s frustrating.
I’m grateful I can run at all and that is certainly keeping my spirits up, but I have been quietly working away at something else. Like a lot of injured runners I still need to get an exercise fix from somewhere and in the past I have dabbled in cycling and swimming. I rarely stick at either for very long; I find them a bit boring and see them only as something to do until I can start running again. But this time things have changed.
Triathlons have always fascinated me. The triathlon greetings card that I created for my card collection says: ‘Triathlons. Because being good at one sport isn’t enough for some people’. I think I wrote this because triathlons have always seemed a bit of a show-off sport, and perhaps that is how a lot of people view it. But surely every respectable sport has room for everyone? From the elites to the just-getting-to-the-finish people? I started to wonder if there was room for perpetually injured me who was ‘sort of ok’ at each discipline. Was it time to give tri a try?
I’d heard of other runners converting to triathlons and loving it. Crucially, it means it you don’t spend all your training time doing the same thing, repeatedly. Excessive running certainly increases anyone’s chances of injury. To improve at three different disciplines, you need to devote time to each. This makes it much harder to over train in any one area. It naturally creates a regime that for a runner could otherwise be called ‘cross-training’. In theory, the variety should mean it’s harder to get injured too!
Most runners, including me, are comfortable on a bike and can knock out some miles in the saddle if required, but many of us can’t the say the same when it comes to being in the water. At least not at the level required for a triathlon. Swimming is a difficult sport to master and the swimming distances in a triathlon are not to be sniffed at. Whereas the cycle and the run distances seem manageable by comparison. Not to mention that the swims are usually in open water. These are the reasons I left it so long to attempt a triathlon and why many people still do.
I think it was the injury before last that I decided to have a proper go at swimming. I work in an office building with a heated outdoor swimming pool on the ground floor, so lack of convenience was not an excuse. I made a weekly swim a fixture in my diary. I shelled out on a private lesson and studied YouTube videos on swimming technique. After many months I gradually improved my front crawl enough to ditch the breaststroke I’d been attached to since school. I went with some friends to a lake and discovered something I didn’t expect. That swimming front crawl in open water isn’t much different to swimming with a blindfold! But once you get over the vast openness, cold temperatures and acceptance that being able to see where you are going isn’t that important, it’s wonderfully liberating. I can see why people rave about it. (It probably helps that all my open water experiences so far have been on warm summer evenings – and what a way to spend them.)
In May this year I did my first triathlon. Organised by Thames Turbo Triathlon Club, it’s aimed at first-time triathletes like me and is the perfect introduction to the sport. It’s a sprint distance triathlon and the swim is even shorter than the official sprint distance (432m vs 750m). The swim also takes place in a pool, rather than open water, which removes the need for a wetsuit as you can simply complete that section in a heated pool with a tri-suit. The swim is followed by a 20k cycle and a 5k run.
When I organised all my gear the night before and arranged it as a ‘flat lay’ I was shocked by how much stuff I had to take with me. Then I realised I hadn’t even remembered to get my bike helmet and cycling gloves out. A friend donated me a pre-loved tri-suit that fitted perfectly. I already had a decent road bike and my Garmin watch already had a triathlon setting. This meant I avoided shelling out on the some of the pricier items required, but I could see why this sport can be seen as elitist. The amount of compulsory gear is substantial, and the entry fees are much higher than running events. I was hoping that I would really enjoy this triathlon, but I was also thinking my bank balance might not agree.
Putting financial concerns aside, I really enjoyed it. As I stood on the poolside waiting for my turn to start, I was nervous about the swim. I was worried I would be too slow, but surprisingly I was in the top half of the field. It really was an entry-level triathlon and plenty of people were doing a slow front crawl or even breaststroke. After I’d completed my swim and dashed out of the pool, tugging my goggles and cap off my head, half running, half staggering towards the transition area, I felt the adrenaline power me along. I quickly dried my wet feet, put on my socks, shoes and gloves, grabbed my bike and jogged out to the road with it.
A previous competitor (or was it a guy in the pub?) had said to me that the bike section is your recovery. After all, you are sitting down. Perhaps I took this too much to heart as I occasionally found myself pootling along, admiring the big houses I cycled past, until someone would overtake me, waking me up from my daydream as they whizzed past. Then I would pedal a bit harder, for a while at least. In the last few kilometres my hands, feet and bum were starting to get numb, and I was glad when the cycle section was over.
The second transition was much easier. I had decided to cycle in my running trainers, so I just removed my helmet and gloves and then ran out and into Bushy Park for the final leg. People had warned me about ‘jelly legs’ after the bike section and with my bum and feet still numb from the bike I did feel a bit discombobulated. But that soon wore off and it was followed by a wave a familiarity. I realised I just needed to run 5k now. I do that all the time. It’s almost the most natural thing in the world to me. I felt great.
Early into the 5k, a few people overtook me, running at quite a pace. I was impressed, they must be great runners, I thought. However, I soon saw many of them a little further along, some were even walking. I realised that triathlons also attract people who might be good cyclists or swimmers but aren’t experienced at running and they’d gone out way too fast. A rookie error I was never going to fall foul to. For those who are stronger at the swim and cycle, the final running section at the end must be tough if it’s not something you are comfortable with. I admit, I was feeling a little smug as I powered past them as they struggled.
As I approached the finish, I was pleasantly surprised by my 5k time. Due to my injury, I hadn’t done any proper running training, except for a few easy 5ks. A flat course and a bit of race day magic dust were no doubt to thank here. After I crossed the finish line my friend Michelle said to me, “you’re a triathlete now”. I smiled inside and out and thought ‘I suppose that I am’.
You won’t be surprised to hear that I have caught the triathlon bug. Last year I watched the same Michelle smash the Olympic distance at the London Triathlon. This year, at the end of this month, I’m joining her. I’ve got a wetsuit (bought online in the sale) which I tried out last month at Royal Docks where the swim section of the race will take place. All 1500 metres of it. I know that for many people that will feel like a long distance to swim, it used to be for me too, but not anymore. I’ll be tired but I will complete it and then I hope to cycle 40k and then run 10k! It will be difficult but that is entirely the point of it.
It's exciting that despite still being injured I can take part in a race that is not only challenging, but something I have never ever done before. Although my knee injury is keeping me from running as much as I would like, I still feel like I’m stretching myself, which I am really enjoying.
When I was asked to be an official pacer at the recent Saucony London 10K I hesitated, as I knew with my current knee injury even a slow 10k was going to be tricky. Then I remembered I would need to run 10k as part of the triathlon just two weeks later, so I said ‘yes’. I was also seduced by the thought of taking part in a big city race and being able to pick up my first running medal in over 16 months. Thankfully the slow pace meant my knee held up. It was quite a privilege to support so many other runners in their goal to finish and I had a great time too.
As I write this it’s just over a week to the big triathlon. I know I can complete all the distances in each of the disciplines, but can do them all in one day? Will my knee injury hold out again? And will I remember to take with me all the oodles of gear required? Wish me luck and watch this space.
Thanks, as ever, for reading. Happy running (and swimming and cycling).
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