"Caitlin's First Pentathlon: A Blow by Blow Recap"

Hi!

I am now writing you as an experienced pentathlete!  I have officially completed my first competition and after only a week of actual training, I am proud to say that I was not last place, in fact, I was far better than last place!  This is how the day progressed:

First, we met the bus at 6:30 (a.m., for those who were wondering,) and then we all rode over to the Palm Springs Sports Complex.  The swim was first.  The pool in Palm Springs is outdoors and while the weather may get pretty hot here in the day, at 6:30, it was still quite cold.  We are allowed a 20 minute warm-up and I was in the first heat, so I manned up and jumped in.  Typically, swimmers are grouped in heats according to their best competition time.  The slowest swimmers go first.  Since I didn't have a prior competition time, (plus I'm ridiculously slow anyway) I was in the first heat.  Unfortunately, there was some confusion with the heats and I was placed with very, very good swimmers.  I'm not sure if my time would have been that much faster, but the fact that the only people I was swimming with were much faster, and I couldn't race them, (let alone keep up with them) was pretty mentally defeating.  I ended up swimming slower than I normally do and with this level of competition, my times really hurt my standings.  

After a dreadful swim, we moved next door to a rec center where the fencing strips were set up (I was actually the one who set them up, just fyi...)  I was determined to boost my standings and get a solid fencing score.  In pentathlon fencing, competitions work in a "round-robin" sort of fashion.  Everyone gets to fence everyone else.  Each bout is only 1 minute long and whoever scores the first touch wins.  A percentage win of 40 or greater is considered to be pretty strong.  I started off winning my first two touches, but then went through a losing streak of about six bouts.  I had to toughen up and not let it get to my head, or the rest of the day would be miserable.  I found a change of luck and started consistently scoring.  I ended up almost breaking even (10 victories, 11 defeats.)  This gave me a huge boost in the points standings.  Just for laughs, I'll have you know that I scored on two former Olympians...

After fencing, we loaded up into the bus and headed out to the farm where the run/shoot and ride would take place.  It was hot and sunny and having no prior running experience, I was pretty worried about how I would perform.  The run/shoot is set up by having a shooting range with a 1K running course passing through it.  since there were more competitors than targets, they split the running into two heats.  I was in the first heat.  We each were given a specific start time based on our standings up to that point.  I was pretty low at that point, so I started towards the back.  Once my handicap time expired, I made my way to the shooting range.  I've only really practiced shooting three or four times before the competition, so I really didn't know what to expect.  I shot quite dreadfully, actually, and since I could not knock down the five targets, I had to wait until the shooting time of 70 seconds expired and I could go run.  

The running course was sandy and deep, so running in it was actually quite a challenge.  After each 1K loop, we'd stop and shoot again.  Actually, it would be more accurate to say, THEY would stop and shoot, I would merely TRY to shoot.  We ran a 3K total and had three separate shooting sessions.  Even though I didn't shoot well and wasted a lot of time at the range, I still managed to clock a decent time.  

Since not everyone was riding, I was seeded last out of the riders which means I had to ride first.  Riding involves a stadium jumper course and instead of riding one's own horse, each contestant participates in a draw.  I drew "Princess" whom was an absolute angel for me.  We jumped clear and met the exact optimum time of 72 seconds on course.  I finished first in the ride (!!!) and my perfect score bumped me up to sixth place out of all USA and 15th overall.  In all, I was not last place and actually beat a few people in the process!  My future as a pentathlete is looking good!