Honestly it seems like forever ago. I just don’t blog like I use to but I promise to try to be better, and I am not even sure if anyone is still reading this? I do mostly facebook, but there are A LOT of people on there that have access to my page and there are just some things I would rather not put on there I suppose.
As far as the tri goes, it was indeed a rush so to speak, however I did not leave there, nor did the feeling sink in several days later that “I can’t wait to do that again”. That’s not to say that next tri season I won’t be trying to improve (because I will) but its not like I am itching for that time to get here. I can tell you one thing…that the next couple of them that I do, it will be IN. A. POOL. That open, deep, murky, can’t see the bottom crapola is not for me. I am too afraid of deep water to begin with, and don’t ask me why on earth I did this??? :o)
Thankfully Brooke offered to get up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am and drive with me to Deussen Park. This was wonderful. I got all set up, marked up, etc…ran into a few folks that I knew, chatted etc. Somehow Brooke and Cindy convinced me to get into the water and swim a bit…not so bad. At that time. Anyway, without further adieu:
The Swim (300 yds):
Just as I expected it would be. Horrid. I did exactly what B and C told me to do. Get at the back of my wave (which was 4th), after the horn goes off, count to like 10 and then go. So that’s what I did. Let me tell you from the bank 300yrds looks like a cake walk. When you are in the water…eye level, yeah, its effing far people. Especially for me who (thankfully) got a big girl job and for 2 weeks couldn’t really swim to train…So I put my face in the water and when I couldn’t see the bottom I panicked and that was that. I got to the buoy and held on, trying to catch my breath. Slow the HR down. Tried again. Nope. So I did what I planned on and that was to flip onto my back and start going. I knew I had about 4 min before the next wave would start and I knew some of the fast swimmers would over take me. And that did happen but in the last 75 yrds so it wasn’t terribly bad. A couple of times I wanted to just quit when they asked if I was ok but I knew if I quit, I couldn’t bike and I couldn’t run. It doesn’t work that way. And I wanted to bike and I wanted to run!!! So I made up my mind right then and there it didn’t matter that I was last in my wave (AG) to get out of the water…I wouldn’t be last in my wave (AG) to finish on the bike, the run OR THE RACE….It ended up taking me 12:29 to finish that swim…
The Bike (11 miles):
Once I got out of the water and headed to transition, I walked for a bit to get my legs back and then slowly ran to transition (3:20) to get ready for the bike. The hardest part here is putting on socks and (running) shoes as you have to dry off and such…I was pretty much at the back of the pack with very few bikes left racked…Oh well…off I go…I guess it had to be about 1-1.5 miles in I caught my first biker. And then another, another, another…and so it went. What was nice was when I started catching bikers with 30-39 (and below) marked on the back of their calves. These people started 10-15 minutes ahead of me on the swim and now look? Yeah…take that you fast swimmer (who and I don’t mean to be rude are quite the big girls, which makes me think if I were bigger would the swim be easier?) Honestly I think its harder when you are more muscle cause not only do you have to swim, but you somehow have to keep yourself up on top of the damn water!!! :o) I don’t have a lot of buoyancy if you know what I mean. I have to work on speed I guess… J Anyway, I was passing people left and right, some bigger women and just slower on the bike, and some on bikes that clearly I had the advantage on, and then the ones that might have been better than myself (these would be the ones we leap frogged most of the course taking turns as to who led, but at the end, I just passed them as I felt like they boxed me in on purpose and I had to go into the other lane and hoped I didn’t get penalized but they wouldn’t let me pass!) but my determination was in full force by now and my confidence level going up. There were a couple of long inclines and that slowed me down a bit but not as much as it slowed everyone else down. I cant remember my time now on the bike but it was good…16.5 avg I think…
The Run (3 miles):
This time the transition off the bike to the run was much better than my first duathlon…I had the technique down on what to do leading up to the dismount and it worked…Plus by now I was riding high knowing all I had to do was run 3 miles and I had conquered this thing!!! My transition was too long because I couldn’t find my dang ponytail holder and I just wasted time cause I needed it. 1:50 I think it was. WAY TOO LONG…I finally just gave up and yelled at Gay if she had one and she threw one to me…Lesson learned. So off I ran. Most of the course was in the shade and yet again I was passing people. People running slow, people walking…ah yes, first and foremost I am a runner. I had a couple of ‘issues’ along the way which added to my time, but I don’t even care to be honest. It was my first triathlon and it was an automatic PR. I had a time in mind of sub 1:30 and I almost made it. Missed it by 29 seconds. I know of at least 3 places I could have gotten that back but it doesn’t matter.
As I said I was thrilled I did it and I did ok you know? However I am WAY more excited about my upcoming duathlon mid-October and the training for the marathon in January here in Houston than I am for tri season 2010. Maybe that will change later…
THE FINISH!!
Cyndy, myself and Gay (Lukes ladies!)
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