And I couldn't be more proud to call myself one. There are days (like 4 days ago) when I scoffed at the sport, but - after competing, finishing, and pushing myself - I can now say my attitude was wrong.
I am not sure there is any other sport where you can have such a variety of people with different backgrounds and motivations competing with and against each other. And cheering for each other, sometimes even WHILE racing. The camaraderie and fellowship was astounding to me. I guess I have only been involved in sports where this is not necessarily the case (that's a blog post by itself, and I don't think I will ever go there). I found that what some of the competitors accomplished today was absolutely astounding and I admire everyone from the overall winner to the lantern rouge. Everyone did something really amazing today and pushed themselves to the limit in the same arena.
After racing today, I wonder what took me so long to come around to wanting to participate in a triathlon, but however this came about, I am ready now and I loved every miserable second of it.
First - a big thank you to UltraMax for running such a fabulous event. It was very smoothly run - how on earth did they do this with 900 athletes?? Thank you to Chapman Heating and Air Conditioning for sponsering the event and handling the aid stations. Sorry I "missed" the trash can. I hope you laughed at me for spilling water all over myself. And also thank you to other sponsors, especially Cycle Extreme and The Starting Block. Also a big thank you to the Columbia Police Department. They controlled all the intersections so we could roll through without having to worry about traffic. It was phenomenal! How often do you get to roll through lights? Also thank you to the people who gave me advice and encouragement in the weeks leading up to the race. I really, really appreciate every bit of it.
The Race:
I got to the transition area at 5:30 this morning. I had most everything ready to go last night, so all I had to do was let the dogs out, make coffee, throw the whole-wheat biscuits in the oven, eat my banana, take salt pills, out everything in the car and go. I got a good spot to put my bike and had a pink towel to lay all my gear out on so I could pick it out. I also strategically placed my bike near a soccer goal. The back of the net is so appealing...
I laid out all my stuff and realized my singlet was still hanging in the bathroom. Taking a very experienced triathlete's advice, last night I showered and tried to put on the singlet while wet. Yeah, doesn't work so hot. I didn't really want to swim in it but trying to put it on while wet changed my opinion.
I drove home, grabbed the top, drove back. And wondered what to do next. I need this time to prepare. I can't show up and hurry, hurry and then start. I need to chill a little before I start and prepare myself mentally. The husband would totally show up 10 minutes prior to start and be okay with it! Not for me.
I eventually wandered into the pool area, and we eventually lined up for the swim. We self-seeded ourselves according to projected swim time. With the way I've been training, I seeded myself 15ish people back at 5:30 for a 400 meter swim, and I honestly thought that was slow. The swim was a 400 meter swim, where you started in lane 8 and got out of the pool in lane 1 (so as someone pointed out afterwards, we really swam closer to 425). I was not happy with my swim at all. I felt stiff, the turns were rough (you had to turn and duck under the lane line at the same time), and I had to stop and breaststroke a few times due to congestion. Not happy about it, but it is what it is. From the swim start to entrance to the transition, my time was 6:55.
This transition went well. Not great but not awful. I was a bit awkward mounting my bike, but as since I didn't practice this at all, my quasi cyclocross mount was okay. I didn't really ever feel smooth and powerful on the bike - the way you feel when everything is just flowing. Didn't have it today and kind of suffered through the 14 mile bike. I can say though that my cornering was spot on. The wind really made the course very tough, as there was never a spot (maybe 200 meters?) where you had a full tailwind. The Old 63 climb was partial tailwind, everything else had gusting crosswinds and fierce headwinds. I typically struggle when it's super windy, so I just tried to stay on top of my gear and get my forearms on the bars when I could. During the headwind sections, I really was yearning for a TT bike. Getting in the drops is not enough and handling in high winds with your forearms sitting on the bars is slightly iffy, especially with the crappy we-had-a-bad-winter road conditions.
Dismount was fine (thank you XTR pedals) and I was able to run around a few people right at the curb because I got off and running with my bike quickly (thank you cyclocross skills). Transition was fine. They had some issues with timing, so I don't know my transition times. The transitions and the bike are all rolled into one time. SO with both transitions and the bike, that was 44:26, a 20.3 mph average including the transitions.
Before the race, I knew I just needed to get past the first 5-10 minutes of the run, then I would be okay, and that's just how it happened. The first mile seemed to take an eternity, but right afterwards the legs started to loosen up and I felt much better. I tried to take some water at the first aid station, but just ended up splashing myself in the face and getting my glasses wet. Fail. I laughed at myself, so I hope anyone else who saw it laughed too. I finished the 3 mile run in 20:37 (6:53 miles), putting my overall time at 1:11:58.
I won the female age-group overall and finished 7-8 minutes ahead of my nearest competitor in my age group. My time as is would have placed 5th in the elite classification.
When I went on the podium, the announcer said that since he had never heard of me, he really looked closely at the results to make sure they were correct. Hahaha - he also asked me how long I had lived in Columbia. I admitted that I had been here awhile and he accused me of hiding out. It was a very nice compliment!
Where do I go from here? I really, really enjoyed the race today. I almost feel bad saying that, because I have made a big time and money investment into doing XTERRA's this year. I know I will have fun doing those too, but there is significantly more travel involved.
For now, the plan is to race the Syllamo's Revenge MTB 50 miler on May 14th, then the XTERRA Eureka Springs on June 11. I know I will want to race another road tri soon, so I am going to have to figure that out. I also know that I will want to be the best I possibly can - and to succeed on the road that will partly involve a significant economic investment, which I am not sure is in a PhD student and a medical resident's reach. I already have a dream MTB, so that part is taken care of for XTERRA.
I know what I need to do training wise now though and I know what short-term investments I need to make (aka a one-piece skin suit). The best part? I know I can do better. I can improve every single aspect of my fitness to be a better triathlete. The swim fix is easy - I need to get into harder sets earlier in my workout, so I require less of a warm-up. The bike is nowhere near where it should be and the lack of high intensity workouts showed today. The run? I just recently started to enjoy running again, so I just need to run more.
Can I go ride now?
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