Okay folks, so you want a race report. In the infamous words of Willie Wonka, “Here it comes!” This past Saturday David and I participated in our first Triathlon which was appropriately named Alabama Coastal Tri-It-On, a sprint distance event. We signed up for it only two short weeks ago. I erroneously thought that having this to train for would help me get out of the office at a reasonable hour every day. Boy, was I wrong. Friday: After dropping Penny off at Uncle Ken’s house to spend the weekend with Nellie and Tucker, we drove off for our six hour truck ride to the beautiful Alabama beaches. We arrived just in time to check into our hotel which was right next to the start/finish line. We could see everything from our hotel balcony. We connected with David’s co-worker who was participating in the Olympic length event. We probably have more pictures of him than we do of each other. We picked up our race packets, had dinner and walked around the transition areas to find the entry and exit points. We were disappointed to find out that there was no race expo and went back to the hotel to strip the extra gear off of our bikes and to get our gear ready for the morning and went to bed a little after 10. Saturday: Pre-race: I woke up before the alarm – as usual. The transition areas open at 5:30 and the race was supposed to start at 7:00. I was excited about having race tattoos for my arm and leg. I felt like a triathlete. At 6:00 we load our bikes and gear in the elevator and walk over to the bike transition to set up. The racks were well numbered and were to hold 7 bikes per rack. Five other people had gotten there before me and already had their bikes up and gear down. The first three hogged three quarters of the room. Several of them had their gear on the wrong side leaving little room. I grumbled about people’s lack of courtesy but then realized that in competition it is every man for himself. A green Team Magic swim cap replaced my pink Speedo cap. I wore my bike shorts on top of my bathing suite which was on top of my compression shorts. I knew pulling clothes on and off of a wet body was nearly impossible so I was going to wear it all through all three events. Since I had never done an open water swim in the ocean, we wandered down to the starting line and got in for a brief swim. The waves were starting to get bigger and the water was over my head not too far from shore. Due to PA system problems, the race was delayed. I had estimated that I would finish in 1:18:00. Swim (300 yards – that’s 3 football fields!): There were rumors of jelly fish in the water but I never saw any. The water was warmer than the pool at the aquatic center where I had been so-called training. Racers were assigned their bib number and lined up according to their projected swim time. My time was from a pool swim but I figured everyone else’s was too. Nerves were getting the best of me but there was no turning back. It seemed like only seconds before they were sending me back into the water to jump waves and fight the surf. Off I went… I kept swimming into the lady who had started before me and I found myself having to swim with my head above water more than I wanted in order to keep my eye on the target buoy and keep from getting kicked in the face a few more times. This made my body sink and made swimming against the waves more difficult. I knew I wasn’t swimming “my game” and it wouldn’t go well if I didn’t. By the time I reached the first 100 yards I realized that my lungs had not warmed up and I was breathing too hard and I had 200 yards to go. I left the lady who had been swimming in front of me clinging to the first buoy for rest. I made eye contact with the life guard kayakers so they knew to watch me in case I needed them. At the 200 yard buoy I flipped onto my back to try to stabilize my breathing. I knew if I choked on an unexpected wave that I could be in trouble. I tried to take advantage of my Ocean City experience and ride the waves back into shore and I managed to finish the swim. To add insult to injury, you had to run through deep sand from the swim to the bike. My mouth hung open as I hyperventilated all the way to transition. T1: My inhaler was no where to be found. I decided I couldn’t get on my bike until I could breathe. Almost 12 minutes later I pushed my bike out of transition and began the ride. Bike: Hmm, what is that squeaking noise and that rubbing noise? I know I’m tired, but why does this seem so difficult? As it turns out, my brakes had shifted during the long truck ride south and now I was fighting against my brakes. My lack of training on my bike left me not knowing how to fix the problem so I just kept on peddling. Lots of people passed me but I passed two also. Ha-ha! I saw lots of very expensive bikes and wondered if it really makes that big of a difference. I was glad to be on land and dreading the run in the hot sun. T2: I racked my bike and looked around because I couldn’t believe there was nothing else I had to do and I jogged out of transition. Run: I could feel the heat radiating up from the pavement like an oven. I jogged for a ways and applied my Breathe Right strip to my nose. I can breathe easier when something else holds my nose open. Otherwise, my sinuses swell shut and I’m left with shallow mouth breathing. I generally run with my iPod but no music was allowed on the course so I ran to my rhythmic wheezing. The turn around was poorly marked so I think I ran 50 yards farther than I needed to but I didn’t care because I was almost done. The volunteers handed out water, Powerade and encouragement. I jogged off for my last mile. I see cones ahead! Yippee! There’s David! That means that the finish line is close! I gave the last tenth of a mile my usual finishing kick and many cheered as I crossed the Finish Line. I came in at 1:22:??, four minutes slower than I predicted but still good enough for 5th in my division. Moral of the story – a goal without a well executed plan is just a dream. Nothing can take the place of training. Some people never learn. If I train for this next year, I can probably take another 15 minutes off of my time.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:40:27 +0000
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