Race 5: 2008 Scott Tinley's Adventures

Date: October 4th, 2008
Distance: .25 Mile Swim, 12.4 Mile Bike, 3 Mile Run

The triathlon season was winding down, and I really wanted to end the season with a great overall race. I was hoping that Lake Lopez Park would provide me with that experience.

The swim was better than the last two races, probably because it took place in a lake, away from the chop and salt water of the ocean. Running up the boat ramp I felt really excited to take on the rolling hills surrounding the lake. Weather conditions were not perfect, as there was overcast and a slight drizzle in the air, but the temperature was at a nice cool temperature, and I felt as though it could help keep the heart rate down and my speed up. This is where everything fell apart for me though.

As soon as I got to my bike and started to take off my wetsuit, I noticed that my t-shirt was knocked off where I had hung it to sit in a pool of icy cold water. Having to wear an already soaking wet shirt was not in the game plan, but I sucked it up and got all the wet shirt and bike equipment on and headed out on the small climb out of the campsite. If the wet helmet was the only thing that went wrong with that race, then the day could still have been saved. Unfortunately, the bike went much less than ideal.

About 1 mile into the bike ride, I felt like things were going a little sluggish. At the top of a hill, I checked tires and noticed that my back tire was completely flat. I'm not sure what had happened, but I rode the entire first mile of this bike ride with a flat tire. On top of that, I have never had a flat tire or changed a tube before, so this was going to be interesting.

The first thing I tried was to use my CO2 canister to fill the tire back up, assuming it didn't have a hole in it. I attached the canister to the presta valve on the rear tire, opened it up, and a flood of freezing cold air flew into my tire. Something was off because a large bulge started to form on the side of the tire followed by a large pop. If there wasn't a hole in my tire before this, there sure was now. I eventually figured out how to actually change the inner tube of the tire, and pumped it up with my spare hand pump and was on my way. I had no idea how much time this had cost me, but I was glad just to be on my way again. However, my bike troubles were far from over.

Somewhere along the line of replacing the inner tube, I punctured a small hole in the new inner tube, causing a small leak to occur. Within a few more miles of riding, I was back to a sluggish back wheel slowing me down. Every so often I would have to stop to put more air into the tire. Eventually I would give up on that, and ride the majority of the bike ride with a flat tire.

I knew that after the multiple flat tires on the bike, I was never going to be able to get the time that I wanted for this race, but my next goal was just to finish. I ran the 3 mile run discouraged, but I still ran it. I finished with a time over 2 hours and 7 minutes for dead last in my age group. I accepted my finishers medal, and already moved my thoughts towards my next race, which would be my first Olympic distance race.

Links:

Website: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/Tinley2012-main.htm
Official Results: http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20081004_Scott_Tinleys_Adventures.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Class=Sprint+Individual~M20-24
How to change a flat tire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5K-DXt9djA