Starting about 24 hrs before the race, I was pretty much a big bowl of crazy (if you have any doubts about this, ask Joe). I had a brand new bike rack for my car and a brand new wetsuit, neither of which I really new how to use. And I was terrified about the open water swim and the transitions. Friday went by in a blur as I installed the bike rack on the car, made Joe come over to check that the bike rack was properly installed on the car, test-drove it out to Newton with the bike attached to get a refund on my wetsuit (they charged me for the wrong model), and spent way too long packing and repacking everything I could think of for the race. At about 5pm, when I was printing the athlete packet to bring with me the next morning, I discovered on the race website that the start had been moved back 90 min due to storms coming through in the morning. Apparently gmail had decided that this important announcement belonged in my spam folder. After an order of pad thai, some time hanging out with a newborn, a big Bruins win, and more time spent worrying about gear, I finally got to sleep way later than I had meant to.
Joe (aka "the pit crew") and I got to Onset plenty early on Saturday morning, but I was still a mess until I was checked in, made it through the port-a-potty line, and had all my stuff settled in transition. I had planned at least 15-20 min to get into the wetsuit, but it only ended up taking me about 5, so this was followed by a bunch of standing around getting even more nervous about the swim start. I didn't get in the water to warm up, because I was afraid I would then be too cold on the beach. Big mistake! But more on that in a minute.
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| yes, I was very excited that my swim cap matched my wetsuit |
I think my favorite thing about this race (and there were many good things about this race) was being able to start in a "newbies only" wave at the end of the swim start. Everyone was a little nervous but very friendly as we waited to get into the water, and there was no one behind us to swim over us after we started. The start was on a sandbar a little ways out into the water, and the swim was a straight shot back to the transition area. I was relieved to discover that just to the side of the official course, the water was shallow enough to stand up, AND that we were allowed to grab on to the lifeguard equipment if we needed a break.
In the water, the wetsuit felt ... weird. But I was surprised at how warm I was, even though the water was only 65 degrees. The horn went off and we all started swimming. I felt GREAT for about 25 yards. The wetsuit was the best thing ever. It kept me floating on top of the water, and swimming felt easy. And then suddenly, I couldn't breath. As soon as I put my face in the water, I felt like I absolutely had to take a breath -- no way I could do my usual bilateral breathing. I tried a little breaststroke to get warmed up, but the wetsuit was floating my legs so high that the stroke felt awkward, and it was even hard to keep my face in the water long enough for a breaststroke stroke. So I switched to a strange mix of dog paddle and crawl with my head above the water. Progress was slow, but at least I was moving. But of course those are not particularly efficient ways to swim, and I was just getting more and more out of breath. Eventually a safety kayaker saw me, and pointed out that if I flipped over on my back I could take a little break to catch my breath -- brilliant! For the last third of the swim, I pulled it together a bit and managed to swim the crawl breathing on every single stroke. It made me kind of dizzy swinging my head back and forth so much, but it was faster.
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| That's me on the right with the blue goggles, mid-stroke |
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| First open water swim done! |
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| Mount up! No I don't know what's going on with my neck. |
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| In the finish chute |
Run:
As usual, my legs felt really strange at the beginning of the run. I decided not to wear a watch for the race, so I had no idea what pace I was running. It definitely felt hot, and I immediately wished I'd taken my water bottle with me out of transition -- the little water stop just before and after mile 1 was not going to cut it. I stopped for water, then walked up a ridiculously steep hill near the end of the first mile. When I passed the water station again, I grabbed a cup of what I THOUGHT was Gatorade, but turned out to be some sort of absolutely NASTY watery Hammer drink. Oh well. There weren't really mile markers on the course (maybe there was one at mile 2?), so I just kept going along with no idea of pace or distance. Then I started recognizing things from the walk over from the car to transition, and I knew I was almost done. I saw Joe waiting to take a picture of me in the final turn, and then crossed the finish line.
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| Final turn to the finish |
As soon I crossed the line, a volunteer handed me an awesome ice cold water bottle while another volunteer took off my timing chip. Then I met up with Joe, we sat on the grass for a bit with our free slices of pizza, and then headed to transition to pack up all my gear. I really did not realize how much STUFF triathlons require until I was lugging it all in and out of transition.
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| Officially a triathlete! |
The official results were much faster than I expected. I had figured on 15 minutes for the swim, and then after I spent most of my time dog paddling I assumed it would be slower, but it wasn't! The bike was pretty much what I expected for a flat course. The run time I still don't believe. It certainly didn't feel like I was running fast, and I didn't want to puke at the end (my usual reaction to racing a 5K) so I don't really understand how I could have PRed by about 45 seconds! But I have no proof the course was short, so I guess I'll take it :)
T1: 3:39
Bike: 30:17
T2: 2:02
Run: 26:58
Total: 1:16:14
Overall, my times were good for 20/28 in my age group and 10th place in the newbie division.
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| Victory meal #1: McDonalds |
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| Victory meal #2: pulled pork nachos |
- Open water wetsuit swimming is NOT like swimming in the pool. After a bit of google searching, I discovered that hyperventilating when your face is in cold water, you're wearing a constricting wetsuit, and you've got race day adrenaline going is extremely common. In-water warmups and slow starts from now on!
- Take time to drink water. Quick transitions are great, but being dehydrated is not.
- Joe is the best pit crew ever, and he's also a pretty awesome race photographer.
- Always schedule post-race naptime.
- Triathlons are fun.
That's it for now -- back soon with a recap of tri #2 -- New England Trifest Olympic Distance.
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