It’s Thursday, June 19th. The triathlon was Saturday, June 14th, so obviously I survived. It was touch and go there for a while, however. I was actually really stoked at the start of the race. Tim and I did a little practice swim in West Lake about 10 minutes before the start time, and I was in the zone – happy, confident, breathing perfectly well in the chilly 6:45 AM water. But. Then we got out of the water and situated ourselves in line – Tim towards the front, and me towards the back. It took probably 10+ minutes for me to reach the front the line, during which time I shivered, and shivered, and shivered, feeling my confidence ebb with each shake of my chilly self. I remembered last year, however, and how I let nerves get to me and how I was able to force myself to get it together and figured I’d probably be alright. This year was different, however.
With my first plunge into the water, my breathing was off. No matter what I did, I could not get my rhythm. I would take a breath on my right side, put my face in the water to take a stroke and immediately inhale. I swear I ended up doggy paddling almost the whole thing. It was exhausting and so disappointing!!
But I made it back to shore and on to my bike for a calming, albeit rather windy, sun-infused ride. On the ride I noticed that my jaw had pretty much clamped shut, so I had to squeeze Gu Chomps in through my front snaggle teeth (they come in handy sometimes).
By the time the ride was over, I was feeling much better and had a pretty solid run. I was encouraged by other runners and the volunteers. One runner complimented my pace. I was really buoyed by the comment and by another human being using precious energy to help me out!
Overall I added 8 minutes to last year’s time. The swim took about 3 minutes longer (it felt like a lot more!!), the bike took about 5 minutes longer, and the run was a few seconds shorter. I was surprised at the longer bike ride, but I think it was because of the wind. I probably presented a broader plane to the wind, too, because the whole time I was just shaking my head in disappointment at the swim!
Also, I was not paying attention while riding my bike on Friday and ended up flying head first off my bike when my brother turned in front of me. I landed on my shoulder, elbow, hip and ankle. I didn’t feel as if anything was broken – all my limbs moved as they should, so I got back on the bike, and we all headed downtown for supper at Front Street. On Tri morning, I still felt pretty good, just a little scraped up. But come Sunday? Ouch! It hurt to laugh and to breathe. I had some ART done on Tuesday, though, and now I am back almost to normal. The only evidence of the crash is a thick scab on my elbow that I really, really, really want to pick off but Tim won’t let me. So I’m calling the 8 minutes the bike crash differential. 🙂
All that being said, I’m glad I did it again, but I’m even more glad it’s over! As of right now, I REALLY don’t want to do it again. I just really do not enjoy the swimming experience and the costs associated with it. It is really fun to do a race like this with family, however, so I’ll have to see where everyone else lands on this. If the whole family wants to do it again next year, I will consider it. But I plan to find a really amazing bike or running race and tempt everyone with that instead!