Bowl of Berries

It is sort of hard to put into word all of the thoughts and emotions that went through my head at times during this race.  When my Mom asked about the race tonight I simply started with, well I survived.  It really wasn’t all that bad but at times  I vowed to never participate in another tri again (the swim) while other times I was in love with it (the bike) and yet at the end I just longed for it all to be over (the run.)

It was yet another early morning. I suppose when you are a triathlete you just don’t sleep much so why should race day be any different?  The alarm went off at 4:30am. I didn’t even remember it going up but I heard Scottie moving around and then realized it was “the day” so I quickly wiped the sleepiness from my eyes,tripped over a sleeping Bella and got dressed. Luckily Scottie was like a machine, getting himself ready,taking care of the dogs,loading the bikes, I simply made made peanut butter sandwiches and still managed to leave a mess in the kitchen.  We were off just before 5am and I began scrolling through the Ipod for “pump up” songs.  We met his Mom just off of the interstate so that we could park her car and carpool into the park.  The Harris Park has no where near enough parking for 1000+ athletes plus spectators so they encourages athletes to bring their families with them or else the families would need to park remotely and shuttle/hike in. Luckily his Mom is a trooper and got up at an ungodly hour to meet us.  We were funneled into one of the lots closest to the entrance which means the other lots were full already and it was only 5:45am.  We waited for the shuttle to take up to the transition area but they didn’t have the shuttles set up yet so we just walked the half mile or so to the start.

We quickly found our spaces near the back of the transition area( since we signed up as novices I think they positioned every one based on the swim wave and since we were the last two it made sense that we were in the back.  We set most of our things up then proceeded to get our chips and our semi permanent markings.  We hung around for the next hour or so before heading over to the swim.

The swim area began in a small cove and there would be 13 waves of swimmers to start at 7:30 and the last going off at 8:18,so yeah I had a bit of a wait.  We made small talk with those around  and fought off the ticks in the area us but for the first time all weekend I become so nervous, so much so that I almost threw up. Yeah, talk about anxiety.But I tried to keep my cool and even after a 15 minute delay the swim waves were off and one by one we came closer to our wave.   Scottie was one wave in front of me and it was cool to be able to see him line up and start but as soon at they were off I was focused on getting acclimated to the water and getting mentally ready.  Deep down I knew this was not going to be easy. I had never done this length in open water and knew it would not be the same as the pool swims I had been doing.  I was kicking myself for not doing more open water swims but at this point it was all about survival and getting to the end of the swim. The announcer tried to crack jokes and make us feel better as we were all new triathletes but I just wanted to get out there and start.  Once we were off I really held back and figured I would swim with my head above water to help deal with the kicking and thrashing that is to be expected with an open water start. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected but once I got some space and was ready to start getting into my groove I just could not for the life of me put my head in the water.  I had gulped a ton of water due to the waves cause by the swimmers which really threw me off so I decided to just swim with head out of water until the first buoy.  This proved to me quite inefficient but I knew I had to just keep going with what was working (though it really wasn’t working THAT well.)  Once I turned the buoy I just could not get into my groove so I kept going the inefficient way I had been.  I began getting exhausted because I was creating such drag that I was needing to kick my legs to stay somewhat balanced. So this was really zaping my energy. I saw a kayak with a few guys from the earlier waves hanging on so I decided to join them.The USAT rules state you can hold onto a buoy,kayak,canoe etc as long as it doesn’t help you move forward.  So I took a 30 second break to resume clarity and catch my breathe.  Then  I was off and continued with my terrible stroke.  This went on for the entire swim.  I was so mad at myself for freaking this way, I wasn’t worried about going off course or encountering snakes I was freaked about putting my head in the water,how elementary.  I then doubted my ability to be a true triathlete at this point and thought “I will never do this again.” but I still continued determined to finish.

When I finally came to shore I was absolutely elated. There were not too many people left in the water when I got out but I honestly didn’t care.  I had a huge smile on my face as I knew the hardest part was over.  Scottie’s Mom got a picture of me coming out and yep, I looked pretty damn happy.  The run to the transition area was about 200 yards through the grass and pine straw. Much different from the short asphalt run of the Smile Train tri so I had prepared my area with a water bottle to rinse off.  I was so exhausted at that point that I took my sweet ass time and made sure my feet was pretty much cleaned off, put on my sock, shoes,helmet, and glasses and ran the long distance out to the bike course.  I should mention when I got to the transition area, the first racer was finishing the race.

Once on the bike I knew I had to redeem myself.  I carefully made my way out of the park, maneuvering over the speed bumps that had been covered with plywood ramps but sure enough I hit the first one and my energy gels popped out of my bento box on the bike and I lost them.  I already stopped once to reposition my timing chip on my ankle so I didn’t want to stop again.  Great, I knew of all times I would need the calorie boost after that awful swim.  But I didn’t let it get to me, I forgot my gels for my half marathon so I am certainly familiar with not having my energy boost.  I made my way out of the park and because I was in the back of the pack I went about 5 miles before I encountered another racer, It was really strange.  I really felt like I was out on my own so I knew I had to push myself and not take this ride leisurely.  It is times like this that I wish I had a bike computer so I could at least see my mph.  Once I started seeing other racers, I start passing them :)  I felt great and felt especially strong going uphill, watching the Tour must be helping my climbing ability!  I even started chatting up other racers, trying to be encouraging along the way while I passed them

I made sure to  drink as much of my electrolyte drink as I could as I knew the day was getting hotter and I didn’t know how much shade the run had.  Once I got back into the park I knew I had a few small hills before the end.  I dismounted my bike, rather ungracefully, and ran all the way back to my rack.  At this point many people had finished the race and were leisurely walking around the transition area.  I was so mad that people were not paying attention that I literally ran into a woman who was coming my way but not moving over so I could run by.  HELLO!  I may not be as fast as you but I am still racing so I would appreciate you moving the hell over!  That’s what I felt like saying to her.  But instead and knocked something out of her hand with my bike :)  My second transition was much faster then the first as I literally threw the bike on the rack, grabbed my visor and number belt and was off.  I could hear Scottie’s Mom cheering me on and it was great having her there to give me some final encouragement.

The run started on the paved road, then turned onto agrass/gravel path.  I was again running alone with was really weird but as soon as I hit the first water station I started seeing people.  I started again passing people.  I still had a dead leg feeling but found it loosened up much easier then the last race, though I still felt like I was shuffling along.  The sun was blazing and because the path was now mostly gravel and dirt I felt like it was reflected the heat even better.  I tried not to think about the heat but then I started to feel nauseous.  The hot water that was handed to me on the course didn’t help either so I was swallowing to keep everything down.  I was only passed by one person on the run, which I was ok with because I was completely exhausted at this point.

Once I turned back onto the paved path I was told I only had 250 meters left, it’s funny because I calculated how many laps in the pool that was.  It was so weird, I used to convert everything into laps around the track!  The last bit of the run flew by and before I knew it I saw Scottie and his Mom cheering me on and Scottie telling me to kick it in.  I finished pretty strong and as soon as I stopped I knew I needed water and FAST!  Unlike the running races or even the Smile Train tri, I had to search for the water and push my way through the people to get it, I was rather annoyed.  When I did get to the coolers it was warm and I almost threw up, was there no ice in this race!  I inhaled three cups regardless because I knew I needed the liquid.  Then Scottie and his Mom found me and she snapped a quick picture.  I don’t think I look too bad for a 2 hr 7 minute race

I then knew I needed to refuel and found the boxes of fruit and cookies and jammed an oreo in my mouth and grabbed a banana.  Scottie met up with some people we had been training with and they watched the awards ceremony while I sat in the shade and tried to cool off.  Once the awards were done, we packed up and made the trek back to the car.  I was slightly annoyed at this walk that I was now tired, hungry, sweaty, and walkin in the sun back to the car.  I was rather quiet on the ride home as I was still trying to get rid of that icky feeling.  When we got home, I immediately went upstairs and took a shower, did a once over to check for ticks, washed my nuclear tri clothes and had the yummiest burger, fries and beer with Scottie to celebrate.  We lounged around most of the afternoon and then went out for mexican and margaritas for dinner.  Yep, full on celebration mode

As I mentioned, while I was “swimming” I told myself I would never do another one of these again.  However, now that I have had time to reflct it would be unlike me to let this bad swim get to me.  So I am instead using it to motivate me more.  Our focus really needs to be on our marathon in less then 4 months but I still want to continue swimming (including open water swims) and biking once a week.  We talked about looking for one more tri before the end of the summer and I mentioned the Sandman triathlon in Va Beach but we need to research a bit and see what else is out there.

Overall, I think I learned a lot from this race and my training in general.  I grew a great amount during the past 2 months and I have drawn a great amount of inspiration from other racers.  I am excited to see how things proceed with marathon training!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Fitness, Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.