Pre-race at home
Was good about getting five hours of sleep. I had gotten plenty of sleep on Thursday, though, so that was good, and that's what you aim to do in a triathlon, you get the most sleep two nights before the event. BRILLIANT idea to take Thursday off of work (work nights, off Friday and Saturday nights). Will do that from now on. Can't imagine how it may have turned out without that extra day.
Midnight - woke up, had two Greek yogurt.
~2a - woke up, had cereal
~4a - up for real, had two eggs
~6a - bowl of oatmeal, at race location
~7:30a - right before swim, had half a protein bar
Ate, loaded up the car, got dressed. Had left myself plenty of time for all, and used it all.
Pre-race at race
Left at 4:30a on the dot - perfect! Got there at 5:30a when transition opened, Picked a spot at the end of the assigned rack, and right away two USAT (the national triathlon group) were on my bike. I was missing BOTH bar ends. I completely forgot to check. The handles on a road bike curve and the end is towards you and without a bar end if you crash the hole in the middle will create nice donut holes in your internal organs. You can't race without them. One official had one that fit and Specialized (maker of bikes) had a boot and they had a replacement for the other one. But first, I was not going to freak out. I got body marked first to get it out of the way and avoid lines. Then handled the bar ends. I was feeling soooo good. It was funny because when I was loading up the car I randomly thought, I'd love to go for a run right now, caught myself, and laughed. It was that kind of day.
Set up my transition area, ate the oatmeal, checked and rechecked everything, got into the wetsuit, ate half the protein bar, no good to say what goes here but you can imagine, and went down to the lake. 2 hours 55 minutes to get ready, used them all up. Got there just in time.
THE SWIM
The lake temperature was freaking perfect, not freezing at all, didn't get that pins and needles PAIN I got when I went lake swimming twice earlier this year. I wanted to stay inside that lake forever. It was that nice. Let water into the wetsuit, dunked face in, within 15 minutes we were off (they were late). We had different caps based on distance and age group. My cap was yellow. I was in the next to last wave. The last wave had red/pinkish caps. My plan was to wait until I saw a bunch of yellow caps take off then follow them. We started off in a triangle shape around buoys. My goggles FOGGED up big time to the point it was hard to even make out people in front of me. So I spent the whole time stroke stroke stroke breathe right stroke stroke stroke look up. A couple of times people turned and I kept going straight (not too far, few feet or so) then as soon as I looked up I would notice, find them, and turn, and I spent the whole swim doing that (anyone that knows me knows how bad I am with directions, I get lost inside city parks lol). I think a huge achievement for me in triathlons is NOT getting lost and actually finding the finish line lol Per my watch I took about 44 minutes in the swim (will update when I have the official results), which is about 3 minutes per 100 meters or what I normally swim so I was kind of disappointed I swam at what I normally do and not something better.
Because of two lake swims I did for practice I knew my ears hurt when I swam in the lake (not in the pool) so I bought ear plugs - perfect, NO pain, with the added bonus that I didn't get any dizziness when coming out of the water, a normal after-effect of prolonged lake swimming. Best three bucks ever spent.
I need Goggles that don't fog.
Swim to bike transition
Got out of the lake, stripped off top of wetsuit, I passed my bike but before the triathlon started I knew I was three racks away from the Olympic sign so I only went over a few feet and then quickly found it. Someone started talking to me and I talked back, just chatting about the triathlon, but I was getting ready while I talked, sat down wetsuit off (have not mastered the foot pull standing up), socks and bike shoes on, glasses, gloves, helmet, everything? Yep, oh wait race belt, bike. Then when I got on the bike I noticed the shoe tongue on the right foot was a bit smudged up, for lack of a better explanation. Didn't bother me too much during the bike, though. I wonder if I hadn't been talking if I had noticed. I don't think I went slower because of the talking, but next time I am definitely just giving a yeah and keeping quite, being rude be damned. I'm racing, lady! lol Make sure helmet's on and strapped, THEN touch bike. Grab bike, run to mount line, mount.
Bike
I had one bottle of Perpetuem, an electrolytes replacement drink with calories, and one bottle of water with Fizz, extra electrolytes. Finished both bottles, perfect combination. Won't work for the Half, but it will for the Olympic (for Sprints, two bottles of Fizz). My two brands of choice, and I had tried them both before with success. The USAT officials visited me twice to remind me to stay within the bike lane and I was surprised to see I had no time penalties at the end. I guess they understood the wobbling a bit outside of the bike wasn't because I -wanted- to but because I was exerting myself lol Watch has me at 12.2 MPH (will update when results are up) and at 2:00:XX for the leg, which is what I did in training. I will have to improve the bike a lot, I need 14 MPH to meet the cutoff for the half, and I'm still doing about 12 MPH which is what I was doing in January (albeit on easier terrain).
Run
The transition was so uneventful it doesn't even warrant a paragraph. Bike off, helmet shoes off, run shoes and hat on, flip number on race belt to front, go. I had Gu gels on the belt and planned to take Gatorade at each stop, two cups at every mile, and a gel mid-way. I was running. I did GREAT time on the run (yep, will update this also), and I ran the whole way, the last two years when I did the Sprint (half of everything) I would walk during the run portion. First aid station, two Gatorade, no water. Second aid station, two Gatorades, no water (no water at all during the run). Started feeling a little bloated. Station 3, 4, and 5, one Gatorade, worked like a charm. One gel halfway. Won't work for a Half, but I got my Olympic pre and during (and post-) nutrition dialed down perfectly! I'm lucky in that my stomach will accept just about anything. On the bike, that warm coffee Perpetuem was delicious (other triathletes are grimacing right about now).
It was warm causing many people to walk. I personally do well with heat, I had a complete blast.
Post-race
16 ounces of water, then 16 oz of water with Recoverite, a post-workout drink (first time trying it, I think it works, almost no soreness!!), half a banana, one small bagel, some pasta and chicken. Perfect. Two yogurt when I got back home. Will finish it off with some chicken and rice and eggs for the day.
Final comments
Had a total blast. Did two Sprints (half the distance) and the whole time it was this is horrible when does it end I'm never doing this again, let this end already, how long til it ends, etc. Then the triathlon bug would bit again. This time I trained since the beginning of the year and I enjoyed every second of it, felt great, had fun, finished. Now to continue training to better my times and get up to being able to finish a Half Ironman on October 20th (double the distances).
I wouldn't change a thing, today was abo-freaking-lutely perfect.
Deb - I'm really glad to see your day went well! I look forward to hearing about future races.
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