The Race

Well, first, Saturday night – went to bed in the hotel with my roommate, Cori, watching the Olympics men’s marathon – no, it did not 1) inspire me to run fast nor 2) scare me out of my wits.  It was just a race that they worked really hard for, just like I had worked semi-hard for the event about to befall me…..

Slept much better than I had imagined – I always wake up multiple times in the night unless I am truly exhausted or ill, and this night was no exception, but the wakeful times were not distressing, as they can sometimes be, so, basically, it was a normal night of sleep.

I trusted my Timex triathlon watch’s alarm enough not to wake early in a cold sweat thinking I had slept through the race and double-checking the time to ensure I did not oversleep (thanks to the countless 4:35am wake-up calls for Tues/Thurs morning swims…..) My alarm went off at 5am, then Cori’s watch alarm went off less than a minute later, then the room alarm clock went off within a few seconds, and we both figured it was truly time to get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day to come.  We had packed our bags the night before, and had little to do but wake, eat a little and stretch before moving out to catch the bus to the race site.

In the bus, a lady behind me told her friends “I’m going to throw up….”  I felt much better after that….

We had put our bikes in the transition area the day before, and noted how tight the space was – really tight – less than a foot between bikes for area to put your helmet, shoes, and other items to feel comfortable for the various stages of the race (or, as George Carlin would say, put an even lesser subset of our “stuff” (subset from the less tiny amount we had in the hotel room) in a place to feel like we belong…..).  Anyway, we headed to the transition area and placed the stuff in the small bags we had brought along in some sort of semblance of an order (in my case – shakingly and unsurely – bike shoes in front, running shoes in back, helmet on top of running shoes, glasses in helmet, socks in bike shoes, energy gel in bike shoe, water bottle next to shoes, another water bottle above running shoes (just in case)…..and another gel somewhere (I’m still not sure where that gel got to……)….

I met back up with Cori (she was situated somewhere in the 200 race-number range – I was in the 1200 range…..), and we walked toward the start – about 45 minutes or so before Cori’s group was to start (7:05 – my wave wasn’t scheduled for another 30 minutes after that…. Go figure – I should have been first so Cori and Linda (another victim of this crazy scheme) could catch up to (and pass) me……)….on second thought, it was better for them to start and finish well before me…..

Anyway, we caught up with Linda (a Crossfit fanatic – her training had consisted mostly of crossfit training, not triathlon-specific, so it would be interesting to see how that stood up to the triathlon…..), and stood around looking at all the varied sizes/shapes/walks of life women around us, determining our nervous (or in Cori’s case, finish) level…. I neglected to mention that Cori, outside of being a jock/stud, runs and bikes regularly and has done two triathlons before but had quit after her last open-water-ocean swim had proven scarily heavy in the waves, and decided to stick with running for the past few years… this was her first triathlon after that event.  She was planning to end up pretty high in her age group, hoping to place, until she saw all the uber-studs around her who obviously focused solely on the triathlon – she decided it was ok to finish in the top of her group, but she probably would not place or win…..  I, in the meantime, was trying to keep my heart rate below the exploding-out-of-the-chest level. 

There were so many women – mothers with husbands and young kids supporting them, older women with husbands and friends around, teammates, thin, studly, fat, trim, athletic, etc…..

We stopped to have our numbers written on our arms and our ages written on the back of our legs – I told the girl writing on me that it was my first and I was nervous – then I told her my age and she seemed surprised (I wondered if she was thinking: 1) I looked quite young for my age…. 2) I looked much older…. 3) How could someone so old be doing this for the first time?.... 4) Wow, I can never imagine begin that old….. – but I was too nervous to hassle her for the reason……)

Walking towards the transition area, I happened behind a quite-young and nervous-looking African American lady with teenage kids and her husband hanging with her – she had 40 written on the back of her leg (though she looked no older than 30….)….. I tapped her on her shoulder and said “Hey 40! – I’ll be looking for you on the course!”  And we laughed and chatted about something I can’t remember…. I never saw her again – she probably kicked my butt in the race and never looked back…..

The race started at 6:50, with the professional and elite racers….Cori and Linda took of at 7:07….. I had a half hour to sit around and let the butterflies in my stomach wreak havoc on my nerves…. Found a few Team Zers…. Which was great – I was the only one of the folks I found who was a first-timer, and none of them were going off in my swim wave…. Ah well, a chance to be alone with my thoughts when I stood around on the road to the boat ramp with all the other green-swim-cappers (the waves are determined by swim-cap colors – my wave wore green caps – age 40-44 with last names beginning from L to Z about 170 of us…..)   I stood in the middle and made small talk with some of the other loners….. trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach and splinter that I had just gotten on the bottom of my left foot….. uggh – not a good start….

Then we got the call to head towards the water….. I walked slowly down the ramp in the middle of the pack….making my way towards the gallows – er – water…. As we entered, it was rocky….and slimy…. I slipped on a pointy rock on my right foot and felt a pretty sharp pain in my arch… another hint to give up before I even started….. then the rocks gave way to pure muck – my leg sank to just below my knee in the muck….. the lady in front of me began treading water fairly quickly – I followed suit and pulled my legs up and treaded water as well – noticing the timing chip I had Velcro-strapped to my ankle felt quite loose – I was worried that it would slip off during the swim and maneuvered my leg above the water to tighten it…. No small feat…..  I then moved forward toward the end of the pack and the starting position – ducked my head under water and was quite surprised not to be met with the murky green that I had come to expect in the Chesapeake Bay water – this lake water was black  really black……  really…… I didn’t like that at all…… not at all…….  I tried to be calm as they counted down the beginning of the race for our wave….

3…..2…..1….AFLAC!....quack quack (the Iron Girl races are sponsored by Aflac…. I even got an Iron Girl Aflac duck that quacks…..)…. And the ladies were off, swimming like professionals…. The last three or so of us started breast-stroking, keeping our heads above water……

I eventually turned on my back and swam that way – off and on – turning back to my front to sight and breast-stroke for a bit…… on my back I noticed the slight wispy clouds above and the quarter moon that still shone in the rising sunlight of the day….. as I turned around the first buoy marker, I thought, “What am I doing here?”    Then I passed a lady in a purple cap (the wave that started about 7 minutes before my wave) and thought “Wow, she’ll be out here even longer than me, poor thing…..”    and kept going….. as I turned the second buoy, the yellow caps that started 7 minutes after my wave began passing me – like, 90% of them….. – I felt as if I was out on a Sunday drive….. taking my sweet time….. I turned on my front to attempt freestyle and succeeded for about 7 strokes, but the problem catching my breath proved too much and I returned to the less-streamlined breast / backstroke combination….. I was in the midst of the yellow-caps, on my back, when I noticed a silver cap or two passing through – they had started about 15 minutes after my wave – and I was about half way through my swim….. I just figured they were studs and had done this tons of times before and marveled at their prowess and kept on my merry way….. then a yellow-cap yelled out at me that I was going off course – I had turned to follow the pretty clouds and forgot to spot the next buoy.  I turned from my back to the breast stroke, thanked her, and kept on swimming the breast-stroke for the final third of the swim…..

We rounded the island in the middle of the lake, and could see the ramp to the transition area was near….. what sweet relief!!!  I breast-stroked (is that the past-tense term?) quickly and passed another green capper breast stroking about 10-yards ahead of me – I didn’t even think I should actually be swimming with any effort – I realized I really had been out for a Sunday swim…. Ah well, this first tri was just for a celebration of the ability to do it and to actually finish, so I figured hopefully I had finished within 40 – 45 minutes, but wasn’t so certain about that….

We neared the ramp, and the folks there handed us towels as we ran (in my case, shuffled) towards our bikes.  Mine was easy to spot, the only one left in my row……I drank some water, quickly dried my feet and put on my socks and shoes, ate some gel and put on my helmet and glasses and pulled my bike from the rack and clumped towards the bike start.  It is extremely difficult to run in these bike shoes, so I just did my now-familiar shuffle.  Then I got up the grass hill to the park road where we could mount our bikes, and was off….. it wasn’t that hard, even though up hill at first.  I could feel the tiredness in my thighs and again wondered what I was doing out here – what foolhardiness had come over me to be interested in doing a thing like this?  We turned on to the road (with actual traffic) and moved up the even steeper hill….. Then right and down hill finally!!!!!  I looked down and my speedometer was up to 33 miles per hour…. The fastest I had ever gone on bike…. Pretty cool, feeling the wind rushing through my helmet… I passed quite a few people on the way down….. and looked to my left and saw the riders coming back from the circuit, huffing and puffing up that very hill I was screaming down…. Oh, yeah, I had the return trip to look forward to…. Better take advantage of the downhills in that case!!!

The night before, Cori, my parents and I drove through the bike ride – at the time I wasn’t certain it was a good idea, seeing all the hills we had to physically climb on the bike the next day….   It turned out to be a really good idea, as I kept focusing on the next milestone of the bike ride (ok, next comes a right, a steep, short hill, a roundabout, the highschool 10-mile marker….etc.).

The gel seemed to take effect right as we hit the short steep hill in the middle of the course….. I got really nauseous trudging up the hill and dry-heaved a few times.  Once at the top, though, I knew there were no more as-steep hills, so figured I was through the worst of the bike portion, and sat back and enjoyed the ride from then on…..

There were ladies that were good on the up hill and I passed on the downhill, then they passed me, and vice versa a few times, or they passed me at the beginning of the hill, then ran out of steam and I passed them higher up on the hill, etc.  I stopped and drank some Gatorade at the high-school, tiring of the water I had been drinking…..

One lady passing me said “I like your sunglasses!” (Only at a women’s tri….).  I had orange sunglasses on…. pretty cool….. I thanked her, then passed her at the next climb….

I got to know my new bike really well.  Didn’t realize what a piece of s*@t bike I used for my 112-mile Tour de Tucson century in ‘99.  Uggh.  This bike shifts smoothly, and shifts on uphills without losing the chain – unlike that old junker….. What an amazing difference….. I love my bike.  Probably would have been better to get to know the bike before the race, but, whatever works….. By the end of the ride, I was thinking I was really a biker, and maybe should continue to ride, rather than do triathlons……

The volunteers were great throughout the course, and there were people lined up all along the course, cheering everyone on and yelling encouragement.  At the last, long hill – where I had gone 35mph down and was averaging 6 – 9 mph up…. There were two men situated near the top, yelling – “Great job, ladies – just up the rise – this is your last hill – 6 minutes of misery for a lifetime of achievement!!!! And stuff like that.  We all laughed and thanked them on the way up….. I think the hill must have eased up some – near the end, I actually shifted to a higher gear and got up to about 12mph…..(or laughter is a great adrenaline rush….).  Turned left at the light and less than 2 miles later, was heading back into the park, where the crowds surged and cheered for all riders coming in….. heard all my family yelling for me, which was a great boost….

I stopped, dismounted where the volunteers directed, and started the clumping shuffle-y gait I had adopted for the day to the transition area…..  I found my row (this time, covered in bikes…..) and……Cori!!!!  Cori had finished her race and had come back to accompany me on the run….. what a stud….  I changed shoes, donned my race number and cap, drank some water and was off for the last leg of the race (finally!!!!)……I basically walked, took some Gatorade from a volunteer and headed off….. then checked my watch and saw only 2:09 had passed – heck – I was killing my goal!!!! I said heck with this and picked up to a shuffle-y jog-gait…..Cori said the first mile’s not too bad…. Then we hit a low hill, and I could feel my hamstring on my right leg complaining and decided to walk again – no need to push anything…..I knew I was going to finish, and wanted to finish happy and healthy, not sore and nauseous…. (plenty of races in the future for that…..).

So, I walked and jogged the first mile of the course…..then the second mile came, and there were hills upon hills upon hills – a real killer, and every time I started jogging up a hill, I could feel the tight hamstring, so stopped and walked….  Then came the real hills, and I had lost any steam to even jog down them…..  I thought I would run the last .3 miles of the course (it was 3.3 miles long….), but another hill came about, and I figured I would just wait for the last .1 mile and jog that….. as it turns out, the race organizers had done a wonderful job, making sure the last .1 mile was down a slight slope, so everyone could finish running!!!!!  Cori and I ran through the finish line (Cori, for the second time…..) and got our picture taken and grabbed some drinks and looked for the family…..

I was pretty sure on the run that I would not do another triathlon, then nearing the finish, just figured I wouldn’t do this one again, then, figured I would sign up for next year’s race and decide later on whether or not to actually do it….. but I had decided to continue doing triathlons next year……

Felt pretty good, tired, elated, etc.  Cori and I rode our bikes back to the hotel to shower and check out of the room (still had minutes to spare for the late check out….. – my husband kindly ferried my stuff back to the hotel via the bus…..). 

I didn’t notice until I took off my sandals at home that I had a splinter in my left arch and a bruise and two cuts (like snakebites…..?) around it in my right arch.  Yep that called for sore, tired feet for the next few days…. I finally dug the splinter out a couple of days later, which just left the bruise to complain more loudly for a few days…. It’s all fine now.

Took vacation after Labor Day and am rarin’ and ready to go for winter training and another tri next spring.   I’ll work on my run and core strength over the winter and try some sort of mental imaging so I can swim with my face in the murky water…..

 

Yeah!!!!!!!