Redfish's bedtime is 6:30 p.m. It is 8:30 and he is still awake. He has been nursing for the past 2 hours. I feel like I'm doing the Ironman Nurse-a-baby. He's a leech.
But, today was my race, and he hasn't seen much of me today. I guess he's playing catch up.
I woke up at 4:19, anxious to get ready for my race, but decided that was a little too early. Went back to sleep just long enough to be woken by my alarm at 5. Tried to eat breakfast, but felt nausiated when I did. Just plain too early to eat.
Got to the race early enough to grab a spot in the parking lot. Forgot to drink my coffee. Set up my transition area, pumped a bunch of tires for teamates. Went back to the car to drink my coffee. Set off the car alarm --(no nerves here!) Checked my stuff in the transition area again. Good thing I did because folks kept coming and moving other folks bikes around -- that is so uncool. Went back to the car to drop off my extra stuff and the pump. Then took the leap of faith. I left my glasses in the transition area. Put my prescription goggles on (yes i looked like a nerd) and walked over to the pool area for the pre-race meeting.
Before the race started, I snuck into the bathroom one last time. The chick next to me was screaming, "where are my clothes? what did I do with my clothes?" Apparently she was going to change in the bathroom and left her clothes in the transition area, which was now closed. I told her to calm down, that we were all here for fun, that they would let her back in the transition area...Those words had just fallen from my lips when my goggle/glasses broke. I had to take some of my own advice as I tried to surpress the adrenaline and just fix them. My hands were shaking so much. I was worried I'd miss my swim start. I thought I was going to throw up.
Then, the race started. Things were Okay. I tried to do the flip turn under the lane line thing, but it just seemed so inefficient. Anyway, my swim time was only 5 seconds over my prediction, so I can't complain. Running with my goggles as glasses proved to be ok. I think I ran a little slow, because of my barefeet and not being able to see each rock I was stepping on, but that doesn't explain the 4-minute transition time. As I was running up on my bike rack I watched from 10 feet away as the guy next to me (who arrived late and squeezed his bike in where there wasn't really room) knocked over my bike, my helmet and my glasses came crashing down. "Nooooooooo!" I could hear myself yell, not that it did much good. I'm so used to not being able to even find my glasses when they fall, that I asked him to help me find them. Changing shirts was a really bad idea. I guess alot of things contributed to that really slow transition time.
The bike was great. Can I still say that eventhough I got passed by a pregnant lady? I passed her. She passed me. I passed her. She passed me. Then, she was gone. She beat me on the run too. I know, triathlon is an individual sport, but when you get passed by a prenant lady or a 12-year-old tells you "you can do it" as he flys by you up a hill, you have to stop and wonder.
My goal for the run was to get 37 minutes and something. Mr. Preschool just got me an Ironman 30 split/lap watch for Mother's Day. I thought I was so cool, timing my own splits. But it really made me worry when I wasn't keeping pace and I couldn't figure out how I could be going so slow. That's when I realized that they didn't place the water station at the 1 mile mark like they were supposed to. I think they must have put it about 1/2 a mile out from the start of the run. I was so worried I was going to miss my goal, and then, there I was sprinting to the finish line. I stoped my watch as I crossed: 37.28.68. I made my goal!
Am I allowed to be depressed all day and actually feel bad about this race becuase when my official time came up my run was 38.04? And, I felt like I hadn't pushed myself hard enough. I wasn't exhausted. I guess I'll just have to live and learn. It's only the first of 4 races this season.
Here are my stats. I came in 21st out of 24 females in my age group.
Place for swim 9 Time 6:02
Place for T1 23 Time 4:07
Place for Bike 5 Time 39:14 Average MPH 19.0
Place for Swim/Bike and T1 9 Time 49:22
Place for T2 24 Time 1:46
Place for Run 24 Time 38:04 Average MPH 12:16
Total Race Time 1:29:10
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment