IronBruin is UCLA’s annual triathlon. This is the first ever triathlon I entered. I wasn’t much of an athlete before I joined the UCSD triathlon team, but through all that experience and hard work I was able to finish a triathlon.
I started off as an ordinary RA at The Village when a friend of mine was talking about how much he enjoyed being on the triathlon team. Since it seemed like he was passionate about it, I decided to try it out. The first ever practice I went to was in mid-November. It was a very difficult workout to say the least. It took a lot of energy just to try to keep up. I ended up being last to finish the workout. It was still fun even though it was difficult.
I kept going to more and more workouts. After 5 or 6 times I officially joined the team. At the time I was just doing the running workouts and was cycling at the gym because I did not have a bicycle. We were given workouts to do over winter break, but I was lazy and didn’t do most of them. When I came back to school and practice started up again it was still very difficult, but I kept going.
I wanted to go to more workouts so I bought a bike which I ended up loving. Now that I had a bicycle I could go to the cycling workouts. I eventually got new pedals and I got bicycle shoes from the team. As the days went by, racing season was starting. I did not go to UCI’s triathlon because I still felt that I wasn’t ready. However, other team members suggested I do UCLA saying that it was good for beginners so I registered for the race.
It started the day before the race where I drove with Tyler and Chris up to Tyler’s house since his parents were hosting us for the race. They were very friendly and active in racing as well. We picked up or packets and did the course preview of the bicycle and race course.
The next morning was the race. We woke up at 4:45am, ate breakfast and drove to UCLA. It was a very cold morning. We took all our stuff to the first transition area that ended the swim and started the bike course. Then we headed down to the other transition area from bicycle to swim course. The race ended up being postponed for 20 mins. I was cold and very nervous. I wasn’t sure if I was able to do it. However, once the swim course began, I jumped in. I ended up being very slow and I was really struggling. I thought about giving up, but for some reason I didn’t and I kept going. I was the last collegiate male to finish. I felt happy to be able to finish the swim course which seemed like forever.
Once I started the bicycle course I was confident. I had been practicing cycling for a while and the course it self wasn’t so hard except for the last part of the course. There was a steep hill which took a lot of energy for me to go over it. I didn’t have much energy since I used a lot for the swim. I needed to do 4 laps and there were times that I needed to stop because I couldn’t keep going. However, after a couple seconds of rest I started up again. I wasn’t going very fast and I got passed by a lot of people, but that really didn’t matter to me. I just focused on pedaling.
Once I ended the bicycle course, a lot of people already completed the running course. However, I just focused on going. When I was in transition I was encouraged by another teammate, Rachel, and our coach. I felt very well for the running course because I am used to running 3 miles while I was exhausted. I did fall towards the beginning of the course because the sidewalk was uneven. But I could keep going. Since I was already exhausted I needed to walk some of the course. Once I was in the last quarter mile I saw a teammate of mine, Liezl, who had finished. She and I ran the last quarter mile to the finish line.
Once I finished, I felt very tired. My teammates congratulated me on my first Triathlon. I couldn’t believe that I was able to do all that on my own. It was one of the most difficult things I ever did. There were times I wanted to quit, but I never did because all I had to do was keep going. Now that I know I can finish a triathlon, I just need to get better at it. After the race I figured out what I needed to improve on. That is what I plan to do. I really want to do at least one more this season. I am still new to the whole triathlon thing so I’m not sure how far I’ll end up going.