Wildflower: I AM MIGHTY!

Four hours, 9 minutes-completed nonstop!

I AM MIGHTY!!! I am a TRIATHLETE! Wooohoooo!!!!!

I woke up this race morning at 3:30 AM from a dream that someone had stolen my bike helmet in transistion, and I missed my race because I was chasing this peron around trying to get my helmet back! Needless to say once I was awake, there was no going back to sleep. So I got Kurt up and we headed out by 5 to the park where the tri was taking place. I was driving, I was nervous so we made record time. We were there within the hour.

After unpacking the car, Kurt and I lugged my bike, and my gear bag, and my transition bag down a very looong hill to the transistion area, stopping twice to use the bathroom. Did I mention I was nervous? I got numbered on my arms and my hands and my legs by a very cute guy then I headed into the transistion area to rack my bike and set up my stuff. There were tons of volunteers everywhere handing out gatorade and bananas and orange slices, but I was to nervous to eat anything yet, so I just concentrated on unpacking my gear bag and setting out everything I needed.

Transisiton was huge and confusing!

Transition was huge, and I had to watch how other people set up thier stuff, so I wouldn't make a mistake. I had my helmet, bike shoes, running shoes, baseball cap, sunglasses, water bottles, etc...I bought a huge Spongebob beachtowel to put everything on because someone suggested a brightly colored towel would be easier to find as I was running down the rows of bikes during my transistions. Spongebob is hard to miss! And he makes me smile.

So once I had everything set up there was nothing to do but wait. And wait. And wait. And get very nervous. Race time started at 9, and then every five minutes they would set off a wave. They had 4000 people racing today, and my wave started at 10:40. It was a loooong wait. I ate my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and drank some gatorade and wandered back and forth between the transistion area and the lake to watch the other swimmers.

The swim course. The longer I waited, the longer it got!

Finally it was my turn to get on my wetsuit. I was racked next to the nicest woman who was also starting in my wave. She offered me ear wax for my ears and then suggested we walk down to the start together. Oh yes, please! Any friendly face helps! So the wave before us took off, and it was our turn to get in the water for a quick swim before we started. That's when I realized I had a problem. I couldn't breathe in my wetsuit. I don't know if it was my trisuit underneath that was squeezing me so tight or what, but I tried to swim a few laps and I couldn't get a breath. I thought maybe once I started swimming the suit would ease up and I would be okay, so I took off at the start gun. You all are not going to believe that with all that time I spent at the Y learning how to swim and with all that training time swimming laps at the pool, I ended up dog paddling the entire mile! I couldn't catch my breath! The wetsuit squeezed me so tight that every time I tried to swim freestyle I just couldn't get a breath. I was literally gasping for air. So I dog paddled. I side stroked. I even back stroked. And I made it. It was NOT pretty, but I did it. Of course as I was coming into the finish all I could think ofwas "This sucks. I quit! I can't breathe, I have a headache from my goggles. I am so out of here." So I stomped through transistion, stripped out of that damn wetsuit, wiped myself off, and slugged some gatorade.Then I realized that now that I could breath again (!) I was feeling pretty good. My legs weren't tired, my arms were a bit shaky, but not bad, so I figured I just get on the bike and give it a go.

Good thing I did. I had the best ride I've ever had. I smoked the hills! Even hell hill right out of transistion that goes straight up-I got to the top without stopping, passing a few people even. Now I know why my butt is so big lately. Obviously I've been growing some muscle back there! And with getting my run legs back, I had some good strong leg muscles to keep a steady pace. :) And once I got on the bike and realized that I felt good, I knew I was going to finish the tri. That was motivation enough to keep going.The run was a little harder. I got into transistion, downed a couple of reeses peanut butter cups, more Gatorade (lord, I'm so sick of gatorade!) then put on my run shoes and headed out.

I had been stretching my legs out on the bike when I went downhill, so there wasn't any cramping, and they felt pretty steady. I wasn't racing out of there, but I did manage a slow steady jog. But I was fairly tired by then, so the last 6 miles I walked up the hills and ran the straights and the downhills. I wasn't fast, but I was steady. And nothing...*NOTHING* in the world felt better than RUNNING strong and steady, into the final stretch and over the finish line. :) They announced my name incorrectly (!) for the whole world to hear, and I got a medal (!) and a wet, cold towel (heaven) and more gatorade (ugh!) So 4 hours, 9 minutes and I placed 2,382 out of 4,000. Not last!

Now you all have to realize that I am the picture taker in the household. Kurt is *not* camera inclined. And my mind was on other things-obviously! So we only have few pictures, and we are not even going to talk about the fact that Kurt was in the bathroom when I crossed the finish line. Sigh. So as soon as I dig out the camera I promise to post what I have! Anyway-I am wiped out! I don't ache so much, but I think I'll sleep well tonight!