Jumblethon AKA That Day We Joined a Triathlon Relay

I absolutely suck in swimming so I'm gonna pass on to my future kid the responsibility of fulfilling my grand ambition of competing joining a triathlon. I AM SO GONNA BE A STAGE IRONMOM! *sniffsniff*

Let me tell you a short story of JC, Kimi and I's attempt of joining the ranks of an elite group of athletes. Emphasis on attempt.

Prior to the Tri Tri event, we've been scouring the web for months looking for a triathlon relay event perfect even for amateurs like us. Most of the triathlon events these days are geared for serious triathletes. Good thing we have a friend who introduced us to Jumblethon, the second of the Tri-Tri series they've been organizing. We had 2 months worth of "training" ahead of us. Unfortunately, we did not take training seriously. This is too embarrassing to admit but I did not do any 5k training those couple of months (which I paid dearly come game day). I did, however, a lot of cycling training. Irrelevant, I know.

The event is called Jumblethon because they jumbled the usual swim-bike-run order of typical triathlon events and made it run-bike-swim instead.

Kimi will do the swim leg, JC the bike leg which naturally left me with the run leg. As if I had a choice!

Fast forward to game day. September 29, 2013 at UP Diliman Swimming Pool area. A day the sun chose to shine ever so brightly (read: sobrang init) after raining the previous weeks.

Relay bikes section

Individuals section

We were part of few groups with a mountain bike instead of a road bike. Uhmm.

Before the game started, I was really nervous because 1) I HAD NO PRACTICE (easily my fault) and 2) 99% of the participants looked like semi-pros with their attires pa lang! I was the only one wearing a running shorts! Slightly nakakahiya.

To cut the story short, I struggled with my 5k run. I know it's fairly easy and my personal 5k record ain't bad too but seriously the heat - the insane heat - dragged me farther behind. My feet were burning, legs felt like heavy logs. Thoughts of why do I keep punishing myself when I could be lying on the couch right now watching nonsense shows on the TV kept running on my head but I ran-walked-ran with this as my only motivation: Takbo, Mariela. Nakakahiya sa mga kakampi mo ikaw magpapatalo sa team nyo. You know shame has a way of pushing you to get the job done. I know I did.

Almost there and ready to pass out

I thought I was gonna pass out after reaching the finish line. Thankfully I didn't! I wouldn't be able to live with the shame. Chos.

It was JC's turn. He has 9 laps of cycling to do around the acad oval. After regaining my composure and drinking probably a liter of water, I headed back to acad oval to support and help him count the number of laps he did (participants had to do it manually). On his last lap, I headed back to the pool area to signal Kimi that it would be her turn soon. I took a short video of JC while crossing the finish line, helped took off the time chip on his ankle (which I passed to him earlier after my 5k) and transferred it to Kimi's before she began her 15 laps on the pool.

Cheering Kimi on

I felt sorry for all the participants who had cramps while in the middle of their last leg - swimming. I saw a couple of guys who had to walk the remaining laps in order to finish the game lest they want to be labeled DNF (did not finish) which really is a bummer after all that you've just gone through.

Panorama of UP Swimming Pool

This wasn't our official time (we were a few seconds earlier hahaha).

We were three proud finishers albeit the last relay team out of the water :))

Team Tri Harder

With our friend (and Tri Tri organizer) Joanne who also doubles as our swimming coach.

Lunch was kalabasa and rice at 4 in the afternoon prepared by JC's mom with Häagen-Dazs to cap it off (and also as a reward to our kulelat selves). We didn't mind, we can always have our revenge next year. By which time we should be taking our training more seriously.

At least I finally was able to cross off join a triathlon relay on my long list of things-to-do-before-I-die.

UPDATE:

All those time we thought we really were the last team in the relay category but when results came out, it wasn't really the case.

I don't understand why in the overall time though, we seemed to be in the last place. There's a significant 4-minute difference on my time versus the other team's (runner) time. If you total each of our stats, I'm pretty sure - and it doesn't take a math genius to figure this out - that we were NOT the last placer.

I feel so much better now.