28:18/1:21:23/1:19:42 for a 1200/24/6
it was awesome.
the minute the alarm went off, dave looked up the weather report on his phone. "rain to begin at 3pm" it read. sweet! eve was excited, she'd officially be racing.
we get to the venue, and park in the crook of the lake shaped like a kidney. which means we had an entire half to walk around. got into transition by 7:50, wave was to go off at 8:30ish. sweet. i pull up to my (packed) rack, and there's a girl standing there. i like to make friends when i can (believe it or not), so i ask her if she thinks i can make it in this little space with my bike. she said she thought i could. i asked her if her bike was the one next to me, she said yes. then she rocked my world: 'don't worry, when you come back in my bike will be gone, you'll have plenty of room.' WOW. did that just happen? i mean, com'on. there's a fine line between being good, cocky, and just a douche. she, of course was the douche. she played rack nazi the whole morning. i've never had someone just blatantly fuck with my head like she did. i wasn't too confident coming into this thing, but she threw me for a loop.
we go down to the lakeside with 100 of our closest friends, and eve's trying to back out. it was already trying to spit rain at us, but we were able to talk her into it. it was cold, maybe clearing 53 degrees. MAYBE. and that was just driving out to the venue.
the swim, well, i'm not gonna lie. the swim beyond sucked. it blew. it blew big fucking chunks. i'm just not in shape yet. plain and simple. plus, the water was a lot cold. a lot. well, maybe not a lot. the water was cold. and i didn't do my 'test the water twice' thing that i usually do to acclimate myself. result: something that i've never experienced. i always hate putting my face down, and that shock when the water is really cold. this time, when trying to just breathe through it, my entire trachea just quivered. NEVER felt that before. couldn't even expel a steady stream of air. so that meant when i was breathing in on either side, i had to breathe out first. which was the cause of my swim panic when i first started swimming around this time last year. it took me until almost the first buoy (which was way the hell out there, might i add) to be able to breathe regularly. speaking of the buoys, there were 3. that, also, was bullshit. that meant they were spaced really far apart. that sucks for sighting. zorro was the name of the game today. somehow i held 1:53s for the swim.
got out of the water, no idea of my time. didn't use my watch. the trek to T1 was a shitty, dirty, rocky path. thank the lord my feet were numb and frozen. dropped the f-bomb again. what would a race be without me dropping the f-bomb coming out of the swim?? get into T1 and eve is there dressing for the tundra. which means she whooped my ass in that swim. she already had her wetsuit off, her shoes on, and a layer or 2 up top already on. no bueno. granted, i stripped, threw on my shoes, and i was off, but still. the ride takes off up a hill, which i stood for. the road out of the park is bullshit. never seen so much stuff just lying on the ground from being tossed off bikes in the crappy road. super tempted to stop for a really nice set of oakleys, but i did not.
knowing my swim sucked, i wanted to turn out a pretty good bike. but, at the same time, i knew i was tired. yesterday we ate terribly, not insomuch as we ate micky d's (no, that was today), but that we didn't eat. much. had a great dinner, and a pretty good breakfast yesterday morning, but that was really about it. don't do that. no bueno either. so on the bike i was really just gonna have to see how it went.
i'm riding along, and i start hearing this tapping. i thought it was something on my bike. it wasn't. i thought maybe i was hitting rocks. i wasn't. it was the rain pelting my helmet. then water started dripping off the front of my helmet. that's when i started worrying that i wasn't really dressed appropriately for this shit. tri top, sports bra, tri shorts. all soaked from the swim of course. now in cold rain. that's gonna equate to a cold later this week. ga-runnn-teeeed. dave didn't catch me until 25 minutes into the bike. granted, his wave went off 2 waves behind mine, but again, my swim sucked. but still. i was happy with that. on the only truly downhill part of the second loop, traveling easily in the mid-20's, my shoes got SOAKED. my back recessed brake was literally dumping water into my shoes with each pedal stroke. and the wind was entering my toe vents. and my thumbs were frozen. i got passed by so many men in the 40-60 age range, which meant big bikes. which meant big fucking spray of water, right to the face. every damn time. it became comical how wet i was. soaked to the bone doesn't begin to cover it. my legs would get tired, and every time i noticed i'd drink. my goal became to have to pee on the run. i picked up a bottle of water by some volunteers and downed about half of it, on top of my bottle of endurance. probably meant i ate too much on the bike, but i was overcompensating for my total lack of food the day before. i was absolutely pleased that when i would look down at my watch, i was anywhere between 17-19.5mph. not bad for barely a year's worth of cycling. according to the race site i held 18.3 avg. sweet.
come into T2 cussing up a storm. couldn't really trot with my bike. well, not well, and not steady. but i made it work. it's at that point that i realize there's no way in hell my brace was ever going to stay on. and i would freeze my ass off if i didn't put on another layer. i knew i had a long haul ahead of me, and doing it in cold, wet spandex wasn't the way to go in my mind. so i fumble for my jacket out of my Tbag. find it, but have a really tough time zipping it up. get my brace, and i meant to wipe off my leg with my towel, but, um, towel was drenched. and by that time i was out of my shoes and only in my socks, and walking on the wet cement with the last 2 dime sized spots left of dry sock. bullshit. i pull on my brace and get to the third strap. the fastening button thing falls off the strap! here i am, with no working thumbs, trying to thread a fucking needle. get it back on, damn thing falls off again. totally wanted to throw the thing over the fence. finally get it on, and it's so wet, the strap won't fasten down the velcro. i knew at that point that it was just gonna be one of THOSE runs.
come out of T2 (not quickly) with absolutely no expectations for the run, besides that it was gonna take me awhile. what do i find? a fucking trail run. complete with mud. i'm not a trail runner. i'm clumsy walking down the paved street. trail runs are a quick way for me to end my tri career. somebody should've told me that. thanks folks. and the mud. this wasn't just any regular kinda mud. it was super sticky, super SLICK mud that took hold of your shoe and pulled you in the opposite direction. yeah. that was fun times. dave passed me just after the 2/5 mile marker looking awesome. i was just in awe. he looked so strong. ipods were allowed, so i was listening to mine, but it had been sitting out on my transition towel, and now that sucker is on it's last leg (last verse?). so it was sputtering out bits and pieces of songs, but i know my playlist well enough that i wasn't too bothered. i get to the finish/lap 2 area and i had a very strong piece of me wanting to say 'fuck it. just fuck it all'. by that point my jacket had suckered itself to me (not a waterproof jacket), so i now had 3 layers up top that were soaking wet. i had a brace that slid down my leg every chance it got. i can't run without it where it's supposed to be, because it's unloader brace. it does what it says, unloads from my lack of meniscus side, to the other. wrenching it down tighter to my leg only resulted in decreased circulation to my calf, and, well, that just hurt. so i was walking a lot. and i didn't want to anymore. i came to the actual split in cones and there was dave, at the end on my side. finishing medal in hand, smiling, beaming. first words out of my mouth: "babe, i need some strength". his response, "i'm right here, i'm with you." wow. he ran/walked the entire last lap with me. i would've made it on my own, but i would've been one pissed off mofo by the end of it. especially since by that time i'd realized evey must've DNF'd it because she would've passed me by that point, or long before on the run. i was secretly quite jealous at the thought that she was somewhere warm, or on her way to warm and i was still out there, in the freezing cold rain. and then the wind picked up. the good times just kept a'comin. we crossed the mini lake that was one section of the parking lot, and got an entire shoe-full of water. i can't stand squishy shoe, and i totally had squishy shoe. sucked. beyond suck. it was awesome. it was just an absolute sufferfest. plain and simple. and no, it wasn't the worst, it wasn't 10 degrees colder or snowing, it totally could've been worse in so many ways. but when i tell you it sucked, it S.U.C.K.E.D. miraculously ended up PR'ing my run too. who fucking knew. i'm gonna be the fastest speed walker ever to participate in an ironman. i've already decided.
gonna be a fun season.
ps - 35 people treated for hypothermia in the med tent during that race. uh huh.
