Hey! I did it! I finished my first triathlon! It sure wasn't easy, but I decided to go out there and 'get er done'!
I don't have any blog-worthy pix yet, but they will be coming soon.
The night before, I stayed in a terrible hotel, with no heat (it was a chilly night) so they brought me a space heater. I fell asleep at 11pm only to wake up at 3am *boing!* I was supposed to get up at 5am so I just lay there for about an hour...not really feeling nervous, just wide awake. I fell back to sleep after 4, so when the alarm went off at 5, I was really groggy. But I got up cooked cream of wheat, made coffee, and got ready to leave the hotel around 6am. It was chilly in the morning, so I wore my jacket and fleece pants over my tri outfit. I taped the bottom of my pant legs with adhesive tape (it was all i had!) to keep the pants from getting stuck in my gears. hahaha very attractive.
I rode my bike to the race site with my huge pink duffel bag on my back. That was fun. hahaha I hooked up with my friends, got my body marked, set up my transition area, and left for the pool, only to have it pointed out to me that my sunglasses were on my head...can't swim like that! So I sprinted back to the transition and deposited my shades, and ran back to the pool. I stuck my toesies in, and it was so warm. I was ecstatic, cuz I had been really scared that it was going to be freezing.
All 600 racers met in the Mizzou Aquatic Center for a pre-race mtg at 7:45am. We understood about every fourth word of what the race director, Mark Livesay was saying, cuz he was talking into a mic and it was echoing all over the inside of the pool area. We all kept asking each other what? what? It was funny. All I got out of it was that the bike leg was gonna be very challenging and dangerous and "technical." I'm not even sure what "technical" is, and I was damn sure I wasn't gonna be technical enuf! I was sitting in front of the 11 minute sign, cuz I was figuring the swim would take me about that long. I met some very nice women from Columbia, who were also doing their first triathlon. We chatted like best friends through the whole wait time, before we hopped in the pool. It was fun!
The Swim (440m)
We hopped into the pool at 5 second intervals. So I got in sometime around 9am, and it felt super cold...what happened? I tried to put it out of my mind and just do my swim. I had to pass the person in front of me right away, then I got into a clump of three. And that's how the swim went, i'd take a few nice strokes and bump into a crowd...and these were not good swimmers! They were breast stroking and side stroking and dog paddling! I was really concerned about getting kicked in the face, so I had to keep my head out of the water a lot! That is the opposite of how I swim. At one point, a man kicked me in the abdomen. Since there are no results for the race yet, I don't know what my swim time turned out to be. The few times I broke away from the crowd to get a few good strokes in before getting waylayed by a bunch. The laps were 50 meters, and I have been practicing in a 25 m pool, so that made it a bit harder...but wasn't too bad since I have done 100's, 200's, 300's, 400's and 500's without stopping in practice. I hopped out of the pool and was on to transition one (T1)
T1
It was a really long run from the pool to the transition area. I felt good enough to run it, but some people walked. I was panting pretty hard, trying to grab all the O2 I could. When I got to my spot, I tried toweling off a bit but it was useless. It was still chilly (but mercifully SUNNY) so I struggled into my windproof jacket, put on bike shoes, camelback, helmet and shades and headed out the 'bike out'.
The Bike *ominous music*
As I started the bike leg, I felt like I had used up all my energy on the swim. Felt out of energy, and I didn't know how I could possibly put another 20 miles behind me. There was a very long gradual up hill and I went up painfully slowly. Everyone passed me. I got very sick of hearing, "on your left". I only passed one person the whole bike leg. I was really disappointed cuz I had passed lots of people in the duathlon bike leg. After the long hill, were a few rolling hills and nice long down hill before the hill called, "The Wall". It was aptly named. It went straight up. We had been warned about this hill, and I had already decided to walk up it, cuz I was so beat. After the wall, you go back to the beginning and do the whole thing again. The second lap, I actually felt better and had a little bit of a second wind. Legs were noodles by the time I finished the 15 miles and got back to T2.
T2
I ripped off my jacket, went to take my helmet off, and my sunglasses came off too, but only part way, cuz they were stuck in my hair. I grabbed them and yanked them off and took out a few of my few precious hairs with them. Changed shoes, threw on my visor and ran on very wobbly legs to the 'run out'.
Run
Ok, I've run tons of 5k's, some 10k's and two half marathons. I thought this 3mile run was gonna be pretty doable. Well, it felt like the last 3 miles of the St. Louis Half Marathon. It was pure will power that kept me running. We ran into downtown Columbia and passed my hotel, which even tho it was lousy looked pretty good for a nap about this point. But I kept going. Some formula racers passed by me. These are elite/pro triathletes who do the entire race twice, so they were finishing their second time, as I was finishing my first. They had so much energy and such perfect muscular bodies that I was inspired to run faster each time I saw one. The woman who came in first in the formula group, said "good job" and "keep going" as she passed me. Wow. She was so nice to a newbie. I saw Ty as I was closing in on the finish line. He was saying, "Come on! Come on!!!" I snapped, "I'm Coming!!!" but I pushed myself to pick up my pace anyway. He ran a little of the way with me, then bugged off the course, so he wouldn't be in my finish pic. hahaha I was never happier to be done with a race. hahaha In retrospect, I'm glad he was there to kick my butt a little so I wasn't doing a turtle pace into the finish. Thanks, Ty!
The Bottom Line
I realize now I would have enjoyed the race much more if I had trained harder. I was following a Training Plan that was for one's first triathlon, but it was too easy on me. I resolved during the race to get in much better shape, get faster and stronger, so the next few triathlons will be much more enjoyable, and maybe then I can say, "On your Left"!
So I'm headed for the St. Peters Rec Plex Tri in June, (500/21/5mile) and I have a positive attitude about getting back to training my butt off...literally!!! I have a new coach to help me get ready and she is an awesome athlete.
Congratulations to Tyson, Jennifer, Herb and Todd for running terrific races!! Great Job! You all inspire me!
