I had a hard time sleeping the night before. I packed and repacked my gear and made a checklist to go over the gear again in the morning. I got up and dressed at 4:30am and Lisa picked me up at 5:00. We got to the parking area early and parked easily. We unloaded and walked our bikes and gear into the transition area to set up. Lisa was in wave 13 and I was in wave 14, we each went to our transition sections. I chose a spot on the racks where two racks come together so I would have a little room to play with in set up my area.
Lisa and I met back up, hit the restrooms before the lines started and then looked around at the signs to try to figure out how this whole triathlon thing worked. This only took a couple of minutes (and just confused us), so then we stood around like dorks, not sure what we should be doing. We took some really bad photos with my phone, perpetuating the dorkdom, by posing at our transition areas.
Eventually, we grabbed our swim stuff and decided to head toward the water. Our feet hurt from walking around on the asphalt and pebbles.
It got light and there was music and announcements. We heard the announcement of the swim routes and what bouys were ours. OMG!! I look out at a bouy that appears to be in the middle of the bay!!! They want me to swim all the way out there!! I look at Lisa, she looks just as shocked and worried as I do.
Finally they start the swim waves, we watch, freezing, scared, overwhelmed by the whole thing. I try to make conversation with Lisa but she seems very distracted.
They get closer to our wave numbers. We are worried. What the heck were we thinking!?! We only trained for 4 weeks!! We NEVER swam that far and neither of us really know how to swim!!
Her wave is called. She looks at me, takes a breath and heads to the line. I walk over behind her and tell her that she is going to do great and to remember it is all about having fun, so if it starts to get ugly and hurt, just slow down. She says, "yeah", in a distracted sort of way. I watch as she heads off to the water. Then my wave is called and I line up. I miss her swimming out in my sudden paranoia. Am I going to live through this swim? I only have the use of one arm because my shoulder is still so painful. What am I doing here? I'm treading water, at the back of the group, the horn sounds, and we are off!
I find that I am not able to move at all because the people in front of me are really slow. I keep running into them. I head toward and edge and pass a few folks (even men, made me happy). I feel like I'm doing well. I round the first bouy and head toward the next. I am staying on the outside so people can pass me or I can pass them. Half way to the next bouy I run into a woman who looks wide-eyed with panic. I slow, to make sure she is ok and to make sure I go wide around her. At that same time a 'swim buddy' from the race comes swimming up and asks if she is ok. She gasps out yes. He asks if she is stopping, she gasps out that it's longer than she thought. I can tell talking is not really helping her. The 'buddy' asks her name she says nothing and then gasps out her name. I am treading water now, near them, and decide to engage the buddy in coversation so that the lady doesn't have to try and speak. He's congenial.
I look over at her, the panic in her eyes is gone and she looks like she is pulling it back together. I swim off, leaving her with buddy and I hear that she is laughing now. Getting around the bouy is hard, I have to go out pretty wide, as swimmer's from the waves behind me are now flying by. I make the turn and suddenly the swim seems harder. I finally get to the end of the dock and as I'm making my way around it, the lifeguard standing there yells out something about how I have a big head of hair (my hair is very long and didn't fit in the swim cap, so it was in a bun at the base of the swim cap. I didn't realize the bun had come undone), I smiled. Then asked who moved the bouys so far away?:-)
I got to the boat ramp and started up. I enter the transition area and put my hair back in it's bun. I am so wet and my mind has gone blank. I take off my wetsuit, earplugs (that I forgot to put in) and goggles. I swipe my feet and put my socks and shoes on. I somehow remembered to put my suglasses on before my helmet. I grab my race belt and put it on, then unracked my bike and headed for the bike mount area. I needed to use my inhaler though, so I got it out of the pack on my bike as I went, and of course, dropped the cap, so I bent and pick that up, and hit my head on my handlebars as I stood up. I'm just continuing with the whole dork theme, you know...
As I am putting my inhaler in the pack, I am mounting my bike and I take off. The bike is pretty flat and easy with only some slight inclines. I passed the "family wave" that included children....It occurs to me at this point that I am obviously not racing for time. I forgot to time myself and I figure just the swim probably took way longer than necessary.
I am going up one of the inclines and I switch gears and the bike makes a funny noise and doesn't let me do anything. You can tell it's not fully in gear. I appear to be alone, so I slow, reach my right foot back and kick the gear stuff a couple of times. It seems to make a difference, but I'm still not fully in gear. I reach my foot back again and give it a couple more hard kicks, that does the trick!! I am in gear, a woman comes flying by and laughing says she has never seen gears changed in quite that manner before. I laugh with her...sorta.
My quads are wondering what I'm doing. I slow down and soon the bike is over. I had passed several people in the beginning, but with the gear changing problem, they all passed me. I can see several of them just up ahead.
The bike is over, I am entering transition again. I didn't need my race belt and bib for the bike, but since I wore it while wet, it is desintegrating on my crotch and thighs. Oh good, that's a good look.
I rack my bike, remove my helmet, grab my inhaler (just in case), and stare at my transition area wondering what I am forgetting. Nothing, so off I go.
The run is short and flat. It feels like there is a rock in my shoe. I stop and take it off, nothing comes out. I start to run again, but i don't get very far, that rock in my shoe is really bothering me. I sit and take the shoe off, I see nothing. I smooth out the sock and am up and running again. I am running quite slow, but I don't care. I know I am going to finish this so I feel great!
I look to see if I can see Lisa on the other lane of the run. One gal is walking quickly, she stays ahead of me for about 200 feet. I yelled to her at one point that is wasn't fair that she was walking faster than I was running.
I finally enter the last part of the run, there are people on both side of the lane. They are all smiling and motivating. There's another runner about 10 feet in front of me. Some coach type guy yells, "Come on ladies, work off each other, power it up, who's gonna get there first?" I smile and chuckle. Then I power it up. I race by her. I see the finish is up ahead. A bunch of kids on the right have there hands out and big smiles on there faces. I run by and slap their hands, smiling and laughing. I hear the announcer saying my name as I cross finish. I smile and raise both arms in victory. I DID IT!
Lisa (r) and me with our medals!
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