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| We went for bagels afterward! |
Anyway! No. 21, the triathlon, is done!
Here's how it went down, with more detail than you could possibly want. (More pictures to come when I get them from Katrina.
Catherine and I headed to my parents' house in Frederick County on Saturday night, where they treated us to an awesome pasta dinner (whole-wheat pasta to be more WW-friendly!). Mom had picked up our packets, so we got a chance to find out our race numbers (an even 100 for me, which I liked) and start times (7:50 a.m. for me). We headed to bed early because we had to be at the Frederick YMCA at 6:30 a.m. Sunday for the pre-race meeting.
I slept TERRIBLY. I was so nervous! But because I wasn't asleep anyway, it was pretty easy to get up when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. It was cold and dark but not raining at least. We loaded all of our stuff into the car, threw the bikes on the back and drove to the Y, where the parking lot was full of cars with bike racks on the back, which amused me for some reason. There some nice guys from a bike shop checked out our bikes, put a little more air in the tires, etc., and we set up our stuff in the transition area. I wish I'd taken a picture of this area because it's kind of neat, but basically it's a parking lot full of bike racks, and everybody puts their clothes and bags and extra stuff on the ground next to their bike. Then we went inside, where they wrote our numbers on our arms (yes, it's still there, though smushed) and our ages on our legs (still not sure why, but it's kind of funny to know everyone's age). I was No. 100 of about 150 (and Cat was 92), so we had a while to wait.
As the first women were swimming, it started raining. So now it was cold and wet (and still kind of dark). Even though it meant adding a bunch of time to our transitions, we decided to bring our stuff into the locker room from the transition area. (After all, my goal was to finish, not to finish quickly). Then more waiting. We chatted with some nice ladies in the locker room, awesome women of all ages, some with kids, who do a bunch of triathlons every year. Basically they rock. I was telling these two ladies about how nervous I was, and one of them was telling me about how she just uses positive thinking, telling herself how awesome she is, how well she's doing, how easy the race is, even if she doesn't actually feel that way. People were really nice.
As it got close to the time I needed to start swimming, I got in line in a hallway outside the pool deck (it was an indoor pool at the Y). A staffer gave me a timing chip to wear around my ankle. I could see people swimming, and I was relieved to see most people weren't bothering with flip turns. Some weren't even doing freestyle. Nobody was judging, just cheering :)
Cat was close enough to me that I got to watch her swim first (she rocked it), and as she finished, they called me over to a lane and I took my turn. The swim is 300 yards, so six laps in a 25-yard pool. It seemed to go really fast, and I felt pretty great the whole time. I even found myself missing high school swim team! When I finished, I ran back into the locker room, changed out of my suit and into my underwear, shorts, shirt and sneakers. I ran back out to the transition area and hopped on my bike.
It wasn't raining anymore but the roads were wet, which made me a little nervous. The route was gorgeous, and I could see the mountain in the distance. Very cool. The ride was mostly uneventful, though when I was pulling back into the Y parking lot, I passed Katrina, Patrick and Ava, who had just arrived. They asked if I was finishing. Unfortunately, I still had to run. Boooo.
The run was advertised as a 5k, but it was actually 3.37 miles, which is more than I've run. Ever. When I first set out, my legs felt like jelly from the bike ride, but they eventually loosened up. I cramped up at one point, thought I was lost at another point and didn't know what to do with the water cup they gave me! But I still felt awesome. Kept it slow and steady and had a bit of extra energy at the end to speed up and cross the finish line!
I finished at an hour and 33 minutes, putting me in 76th place out of 114. I'm pretty thrilled about this considering my goal was to finish the race without having to walk during the 5k!
Next year, however, I'm going for time.
