Well I made it through. Not in as grand a fashion as Brad. He's awesome, such a fierce competitor, but I made it. I just wish I felt better to do this race. It was pretty intense. There were some people that had these bikes, with those zip wheel things and the helmets that look like those characters from Mad magazine Spy vs. Spy backwards, all pointy and scary looking. There were total beasts that kick butt and always take first in things like Half Ironman races. I said to Brad as we were walking, I think I am in the wrong place darling! I am so not that triathlete. I want to perform on that level, but only training for a year, I am not there. I don't know if I will ever be, but that being said, here is a race recap for anyone who wants to read it:
We got to the race early. We got up at 4am to get ready to go and get there by 5. We got there at 5:09 so my husband was pretty happy, only 9 minutes off (he's kind of retentive about things like that, especially when he's in his race zone). We get our front tires out and Joe Blow our tire pump. Time to work Joe old boy. We attach our tires to the front of our bikes, make sure the brakes are attached and start our walk from the parking lot to the race site. Let me back up a few and tell you that there is no more exciting sound on a triathlon morning then the psssssst! of the tire pump filling the tire with air. It is an awesome sound for sure. We make our way to the site, me grousing the whole way that I am in the wrong place and rack our bikes. It's a tight squeeze to get all of our bikes on but we manage, and also redirect one bike that doesn't belong on our rack to the appropriate rack. Brad and I do a slow run warm up. At the same time we are scoping out the swim course. Brad shows me the buoys and what side to swim on etc. We turn around and head back. Brad wants to do a swim warm up. Okey dokey, let's go. We return our shoes to transition, grab our goggles and swim caps and head toward the dock. Now, if you have limited experience putting on a race cap it probably isn't too different then trying to put skin on baloney. I watch one guy shoot his cap off his head and I had to laugh. I say out loud to no one in particular, that's gonna be me. This girl next to me says, "here, let me help you. Hold this part to your forehead and I'll do the rest". Okay, one, two, three and ally oop, she gets that thing on my head like she has worked on an assembly line putting caps on challenged swimmers like me. She laughs as I profusely thank her and tells me it came from years of training. Thanks again to her!
Into the water we go. Brad wants to do a 100 meters or so for the warm up and we do. We get out and wait for the waves to start. The young bucks get out there in their white swim caps. Then, Brad's wave with the red caps get in. Then finally the purple caps, that's all the women, and yellow caps, those are the aquabikers and relay teams.
There was a frightening moment when our swim started. A red cap was having trouble. Thankfully a woman near him realized what was going on and grabbed him and yelled for someone to get the kayaker attention. I started screaming like crazy and waving my arms above my head. Two kayakers came and got the guy, Chesterfield County EMS pulled up in their boat and pulled him aboard. Then we heard, after all of the hullabaloo died down, 20 seconds swimmers. On five I had my face in the water by one I was stroking like mad. I started and settled into my swim stroke. We went 450 meters up current to the yellow buoy and 300 meters down current to get out. I actually had a person or two draft on me and I didn't check up even once. I just kept going. This is where my imaginations starts to play around. I can't help it, it's so quiet, except for the sound of my breathing that I start making music with my breaths and wonder if people can hear them. Did I swim it fast, uhm, not that fast, but I did finish before other people and actually felt great getting out.
I get out of the water, go up the stairs to the running path and start the .05 mile jog to the bike transition. I get my shoes on, my helmet, my glasses and start to run to the exit. I am running on the toes of my tri shoes and it reminds me of tap dancing noises. As the volunteer shows me the way to go I ask him, Doesn't it sound like I'm tap dancing? He started to laugh. I hop on my bike and take off. I wish my stomach felt better but it really doesn't. As I am hammering it up and down the hills I realize I can't shift into my little ring. The ring I use to get up that hellacious hill we rode like mental patients last Friday. Fabulous, I start using my big ring so it seems much easier when I use my center ring. I passed a bunch of people and got passed by one girl from the DC tri club. When I finally got to duh, duh, duh (here's where you imagine that dramatic music again) huge hill, I got up it, I got out of my saddle a little sooner then I had wanted, but I still made it. I didn't hop off like a lot of people did and that made me happy. I took off down that hill and clocked my top speed at 41 mph. Pretty scary, but very exhilarating and pretty much passing people. I wind up my ride busting it as best I can, losing my water bottle along the way, dismount, do more tap dancing to re-rack my bike, rip out of my cycling shoes, slide on my sneakers, take off my helmet, grab my tri belt with my number, 249 and take off for the run. I passed a whole lot of people on the run. I ran my first mile sort of slower then I usually do. I am tired of getting that awful side stitch. By mile two, I started to pick up my pace. By the time I hit the finish line, I was flying. maybe it's because my stomach was saying it needed the ladies room reeeaaaallllyyyy badly. I busted it hard and blew past the woman who was slowly jogging in front of me. It was funny to hear the announcer, number 244is coming to cross the finish line, no make that number 249, Danielle Robinson finishing strong. I literally sprinted like I hadn't been running 3 miles already, or at least that's how I thought I looked in my minds eye. I am a legend in my own mind!
So there you have it, after that, my stomach was dying and I chugged down a can of tea and about 5 glasses of water. I am still suffering from a mal stomaco. It hasn't gotten better :( Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow morning. All I know is I need to go to sleep, like now I am wiped. I guess I do love the tavern, reluctantly of course!
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