I worked 12 hours yesterday and somehow made it to bed just before midnight, alarm went off at 5am, dogs fed and kenneled, water bottles filled, and breakfast/coffee made and out the door we went. I drank my smoothie on the way down to the beach, and while I didn't finish it, it also didn't want to come back up the entire race, so a definite move in the right direction from the PB&J that wanted out PRONTO on the start of the run. :) Bad news? The bowl of ice cream I splurged on before bed... my stomach was not thrilled with that choice. Thankfully we got to the beach with time to spare for me to use the facilities!
This has been something that I have been struggling with, and unfortunately I have pretty much narrowed it down to breads/wheats or dairy. The failure of the ice cream certainly points in one direction, but I am hoping that with appropriate changes and with taking only small portions... I will be able to continue with my passion for both of these food groups :)
Back to the race, set my slot up and got down to the beach. I was in the 4th wave and watched the first few waves go out and watched how the current seemed to be dragging. I also watched the 3 small jellyfish bob around in the shallow water in front of me. Now for those who don't know, I have a terrible irrational fear regarding jellyfish. The trouble is... I have never been around them. I am a Michigander, so I have only heard the horror stories... because those are the only ones that ever get told. So in my head, jellyfish=bad. Somehow, I held it together... probably because no one around me seemed to be terribly concerned by their presence, although one girl got pretty jumpy, and I was motivated to avoid looking that panicked :)
The horn went off and off into the water we went. A much easier swim this time around, no episodes of panic, although the current took some figuring out. All in all, it was a good stage. It went by quickly and thankfully without injury or exhaustion. I made it to the front of my wave and passed several in the wave before me. By the time I hit the shore, I was trying to peel out of the wetsuit... one day I will figure out the right way to do this, in the meantime I will just pull and tug and somehow manage to get the silly thing off.
Transition, somehow this time didn't seem to go as smoothly, I still got in and out relatively quickly, but found myself actually standing still for a couple moments and trying to think... what comes next?
The bike, I rocked! All of the hard work that I have been putting in and all those silly hills have made me much faster. The one hill that I was dreading ended up being relatively easy, and certainly much easier than when Carly and I rode it a couple weeks back. I knew I was probably pushing a little too hard, but I felt so good, I didn't know how I could NOT take advantage of it! By the end of the bike I was still feeling very good. I changed, slipped socks/shoes/number and my dad's hat on and off I went.
The run... well, I made it. I averaged just over 11 minute miles, certainly no speed demon, however, a few things. 1) I pushed too hard on the bike, 2) I did ONE training run in between the Bridgeport triathlon and today's- thats right, one, and it was a 6 mile spur of the moment run, so not nearly enough training 3) I have done a few brick workouts- but they were wimpy bricks, with a hard bike followed by a short run. I blamed this on wanting to avoid foot problems, but the reality is, the run is becoming my weak point- I need to start training for this again, and appropriately!
In the end, I came across with a final time of 1:50. Half mile swim, 16.1 bike and 3.1 run. Not half bad! :) Tim was there to watch and to cheer me on and call out splits and take the all important pictures. Thank goodness for him, it is very grounding to have someone on the other side of the fence when your brain is not quite a full functioning capacity, just knowing that he wouldn't let me run out of transition without my helmet... very reassuring! :)
Amica gave us medals, how cool. Something about getting a finisher's medal never gets old. I'll take it, thats for sure :)
Oh and just for kicks and giggles... look at the ride-along I had on the bike. My luck, right? Someone's helmet sticker flies off and hits my half inch wide tire... and stays there... for the next 15 miles. Why not? Very irritating noise, but if nothing else, it helped me with cadence ;)
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