Sam Etaro…the triathlete!

This is my story.
A story that is inspiring in its stark brutality.
A story about courage and swimming.
A story about sacrifice and biking.
A story about suffering and running.
A story about survival...definitely not of the fittest.
A story about a man who catches up with his destiny.
A story about how I survived my first triathlon.
This is my story.


Getting started: During my college years I developed a love for long distance running. Considering that I wasn’t exactly super athletic in school I was never any good at it. Maybe that’s the reason why I have such a strong liking towards it. The sheer challenge of overcoming mental and physical fatigue was (and still is) no mean task for me and the ‘runner’s euphoria’ at the end justifies all the pain you go through. And naturally after meeting 'Ro Thorpe' my next fascination was with a triathlon. I see a triathlon as the ultimate test of mental and physical strength, in that particular order. So I was obviously very kicked when about a month ago I saw a poster calling for participants in a “Sprint Triathlon” to be held at Olemiss. I signed up the next day and even convinced two of my friends to do this with me.
I researched a bit about the triathlon and what I found I must admit was a little disappointing. You see, somehow I expected this to be quite a challenging triathlon, something substantial and reasonably well-respected. Turned out that they called this a “Sprint Triathlon” for a good reason. Here’s a simple chart to give you a good idea about the level of difficulty!
Ok...maybe calling this ‘rubber-man’ is a little presumptuous considering that this was my first time and I wasn’t even sure if I could finish this without dying en route. Still, I just wanted as big a jumpstart as possible!
Nevertheless we (me and my 2 friends) trained well and trained hard. I went off all fancy food stuffs and stuck to a healthy diet. During the training I figured running was not going to be too much of a problem. I was used to running (I like the way I sound as if I’m a champion runner :D, the actual fact couldn’t be further away from that) and biking is something that I had done a lot as a kid. So I simply borrowed my friend’s mountain bike for the race and I started biking a lot to get my legs used to the feeling. But swimming was going to be my slowest time and also the most tiring. Since triathlons always follow the order of swim, bike and run I didn’t want to tire myself out completely right after my swim. Hence I decided to just fine tune my (already quite slow) pace and not really put in a mammoth effort during the swim. One month passed by pretty quickly and the D-day arrived!

Race-Day: The three of us arrived early morning and started getting ready for the race. The swim was going to be in the indoor swimming pool and the transition area was right outside the building. After setting up the bike ready for transition we wished each other good luck and went and stood in line for the race to begin. Since this wasn’t open water all the participants couldn’t start at once and were staggered at intervals of 10 seconds based on your serial numbers. For your viewing pleasure and better understanding I made a diagram of the situation in the swimming pool (Click on an image to enlarge it).
I do admit it is a bit of exaggeration but it captures the essence of the moment there. I simply wasn’t fast enough. Somehow I finished the swimming part and ran outside to my bike. My transition was fairly quick as I had decided to bike and run with my wet shorts and only had to put on a tee and shoes. I took off towards the course and right after I began I saw the guy with serial number 2 coming back towards the transition to start his run! Now if this perplexes you allow me to explain this situation: Like I had mentioned...we were staggered by 10 seconds according to our serial numbers. I was number 106. So I started the race about 17.5 minutes after the number 2 guy. And I noticed he had taken about 5 minutes to finish his swim part. I, on the other hand (as I found out later) had taken more than 11 minutes. So in the time I waited for my turn to start the race and finish swimming this guy had finished the swim and bike parts!!! That’s how much I sucked! :(
So anyway, nothing extraordinary happened on the bike route. It was fairly straight with some ups and downs. Not too hard, not too easy. One of my friends was way ahead of me and the other friend was a little behind me. To say my biking sucked big time too isn’t an overstatement. People who started the swim after me were now passing me on their bikes. This kind off bummed me out a bit but I just kept pushing myself and going. About 50 minutes later I finished the to and fro part of the bike ride and went back to the same transition area to start my run. Here I saw a lot of guys standing around with a bored look on their faces, waiting for the race to end as they had already finished it. I swore to myself that someday I was going to be one of them...someday!
Running immediately after 10 miles of biking makes your legs feel a little wobbly. But I knew that if anything, the run was my strongest area and I had to make the best of it. In all fairness I did pretty good. I passed about 6 people on the run and finished all 3 miles of it in about 28 mins. I finished the race between my two friends but there was no denying the fact that I hadn’t done a great job. A lot of people had already finished and I didn’t expect my position to be very good! Still, I was pleased because there was a point during the training when I was sure I was going to end up last!
My other friend also finished race soon after me and the three of us just hung around waiting for the results...and they were as I had expected them!
PS: I always register under my pseudonym ‘Rohit Sammeta’! ;)

The Aftermath: It would be no exaggeration to say I am extremely proud of taking part in a triathlon and have awarded myself the bragging rights for this for the next 100 years :D Notwithstanding a little headache that troubled me over the greater part of yesterday (the race day) it feels great to know that my body can take this soft-bashing!

There’s only one place to go from here. I know it’s not going to be easy. And the way is paved with loads of difficulties. But I can see it from this distance. Call me ridiculous, call me insane but I hope someday Ill be able to do THE IRON MAN!

And then...that’s gonna be one heck of a story!
Until later folks!
Sam Etaro
(Fledgling Triathlete...Future Iron-Man (hopefully))