Preparation was easy. Park the bike, get all the numbers on yourself and the bike, body marking with your number and your age (12 hours later I still have them even after a shower), find you bike parking spot, get all the stuff out and ready. Get into wetsuit just before National Anthem. Get ready!
500 yards swim, 16 miles bike, 5k run.
Brrr.. Step back.. find somebody who is doing it for the first time too. (I did :) it helped especially that I had to put my glasses away and walk to the lake without them.
There were 16 waves total, first Elite and then all the rest. Even had two 9 year old boy (who for some reason was DQ later and 11 year old girl who did it with her Dad! How awesome is that?? I was in wave 10. They all left 2 min apart. One wave in the lake, another one behind the yellow line. Wave leaves, another one comes in the lake. 1.5min to warm up and..
About 50 of us in a line started. I must say swimming threw me off. Completely. I thought I would ace it. I have always been a strong swimmer. I know technique. I am comfortable in water. But here. Even knowing that water would be cold (did not feel it after I went in), that people will be constantly bumping me.. I realized I was not prepared for it. It is not like I did not practice enough, it was that I could not find my pace. I could not overcome the fear of open water. Not being able to see the bottom. I was scared of this water.
What was worst, I could not put my face in the water. After I put it once and looked through my goggles, I could not do it again. I could not swim like I do with three strokes in the swimming pool. I felt like I was a puppy trying to do its first swim of the life. I swam THAT bad. I saw the difference between swimming pool and open water and just could not overcome my feeling that I do not even know how to name. And that was not even the worst part.
The scariest part was my wetsuit. Before it felt great, not too loose, not too tight. Just right. How bad can that be? Well, it got as soon as I got into the water. All of a sudden I felt I was literally being suffocated. No joke. I switched to the back but it was hard to swim because I was not aware of my surroundings. I switched back and forth for a while. Tried to un-Velcro and unzip in the water by myself and it was just not possible - people in the back, in front, on the left and on the right. If you stop, you risk being swam over.
I tried to think that I could make it, but at some point I realized that I just could not. I started freaking out because I felt like somebody was choking me, that how tight wetsuit felt on my throat.
I made practically suicidal attempt swimming across my wave, which went, surprisingly painlessly, to kayak with so called lifeguards. They seemed to be afraid to come to me, so I had to swim myself to them and hang on the boat.
I asked the girl to un Velcro it and unzip it. After the did the whole way, she asked if she should Velcro it ("NOOOOO!) so I went on with it unzipped, water rushing into me and blowing me up like a balloon. I still was not comfortable enough, kind of freaking out each time wave of water hit me but I made it to the shore. Phew!!
When I was getting dried and changed I could feel how dizzy and shaky I was. Swimming always does it to me. I got my home made Gatorade and couple of gel snacks out and it helped a little bit.
Biking went relatively easily. No shoulder pain (advice followed from Danielle's hubby Tim), wearing gloves with padding and switching gears depending on the condition of the road. There were total 4 hills that were not steep but looong. The very last one seemed absolutely endless. I had to get up from the bike on, I think, 3 to walk for a minute because I just could not pedal any more.
I did not have watch and there was no mile markings so it just seemed very long because I had no idea on where I was.
Run was ok. It was on a flat trail, in the shade, not hot, it was not difficult, but I was ready to be done. I power walked a LOT vs jogging. May be half.
As I was rereading what I wrote I realized it all sounded like awful and hard. Swimming was scary but overall it was not like I thought the whole event would be piece of cake :) It was hard but it was very doable. My cardio WAS ready. All my muscles worked even without proper stretching.
I was happy with my readiness level. I think partly because it is race situation and I was all pumped up from adrenaline.
Crazy thing that the guy who took 1st place is 15 yo boy. He beat even Elite athletes. There were two 90yo man and one 91 yo women (who beat me by a minute). And I watched disabled athlete with no legs perform. Those people are amaaaazing!
So here are my results:
My total time 2.15 (exactly like I told my Mom) :)
Since there was many different groups (Elite, Disable, Femail relay, Male relay, Mixed relay), I was compared only to Individual group.
My place was 139 out of 153 in my group of females.
- swim was 14.06 (I did 12 min in a pool) - 438th (even with wasting time for kayak, is pretty darn good)
- bike time 1h 13min (446th place)
- Run was 37.45 min (455th place).
Run was not the best BUT! I shaved even more time since October:
-Hershey half my speed was 12.57 min mile
-Hershey 10k my speed was 12.30 min mile
-Triathlon my speed was 12.11 min mile.
I love it! I love how I see the progress that my body slowly makes! I love, love, love it!
What can I say? I want to do it again and again and again.. Just may be with no wet suit on. :)
No medals, shirts are not anything remarkable but excellent quality for workout :)
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