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threadwalkerI finished the race. I didn't break any records or suddenly qualify for pro, but I brought it.
I was up at 5am to trot my stuff down to the transition area, get marked (they take a sharpie and write my race number on my limbs, hands, and legs. My age gets put on my left calf. yay...?)
I returned to the Gosby Inn, had breakfast with F, read "The Order of the Stick" so I could have some mental humor if needed during the race, and generally relaxed until 8am. Then I did my yoga, donned the wet-suit, and we walk to the race together. F, armed with folding chair, bag of drinks and snacks plus reading material kisses me, wishes me luck and goes to stake a spot on the run course.
Swimming:
I think the best part of the swim leg was when it ended.
I will never like this leg of the race. I like swimming, but it's not like it involved chasing balls, frollicking with friends, or yanking people off of rafts. The distance is just shy of a mile and although I've dreamed of doing bigger races, those would mean longer swim courses. I don't know if I have the attention span to swim more than a mile. And on this course it's not even a continuous mile; half way through you climb out on the beach, go around a rock and reenter the water, which is great for people like me who need goals they can see. I also like the option to pull out with dignity half way through; I will probably never do it, but knowing that I could if I wanted to is like having a security blanket.
Saturday was my first time in the water since this race last year. It was colder than I remembered and that was harshing my zen. I was breathing on every right-arm stroke because it was so cold that I needed any excuse to get my face out of the water. I whined at myself all the way out to the first buoy, asking myself why I was doing this; afterall I wasn't getting any money, I had nothing to prove to anyone, F would have been sympathetic (or I'd reign dismay and misery on him like no one's business!) and it was seriously sucking. I was getting kicked in the face, which reminded me why I like to start at the back of my wave and made me recall all the women who'd hung back behind me (damn them!). And to add insult to misery, I kept snarfing salt water, which burns by the way. Plus I couldn't swim in a straight line; I probably swam more than a mile (not a pleasing thought). I went from free-style to breast stroke to doggie paddle, earning the concerned gaze of one of the attending kayakers who's job is to fish the sinkers out of the water and causing me to flash back to my first tri in Berryessa. I contemplated whether I should swim to a kayak and ask for a lift back in. I was seriously hating it and had to remind myself that I'd be fine once I was back on land for biking and running.
And then I made it to the first buoy. All that self-doubt, misery and salt-water snarfing had been going on for 7 minutes and 30 seconds. My thought wasn't "Wow, I have 40 more minutes of this crap." My thought was, "Wow, that was only 7:30 to the first buoy? There are 4 buoys? I wonder how long it will take to get to the second buoy." And I lost track of the physical discomforts as I started calculating how long it would take me to get to buoys, to shore and then to the next stage. Math has always been my security blanket and as I submerged my thoughts into calculating my pace and potential end time, my form smoothed out, I gained my zen, and I started actually racing against the people around me (and trying to use them to keep a straighter course).
I "arrived" on shore with a swell that threw me off my feet and carried me almost all the way up to the water line. (Sometimes there's just no dignity!). Whew! It was done and I could start enjoying myself!
T1: Commando squirrel units, move out!
From when I pulled out of the water through transition I was dizzy, which is normal. Having done this a few times, I seem to be able to go through transition in auto-pilot even though my head is spinning. It's kind of like using the bathroom when you're a little drunk; you know what you're doing and you can do it while dizzy, but maybe you stumble around a little and bump into doorways. I had a helluva time getting out of my wetsuit and ended up landing on my butt on the fresh-cut grass. I had bits of grass sticking to my legs for the rest of the day. Heh.
I heard later on that the local population of ground squirrels swarmed the transition area and stole racers bananas and snacks as soon as the racers had cleared the area. Bwah-ha-ha... My snacks were all loaded on my bike and were still there, un-nibbled, when I needed them.
Ride like the Wind Bullseye
The bike course was fine. I didn't set any land speed records, but I think I was faster than last time. I had one oops; my water bottle flew out of my hands, so I had to pull over and go get it. It caused some swearing and swerving from the people behind me. Ooops!
The course is simply beautiful. When I wasn't trying to race down someone I was enchanted by the ocean waves and shoreline. The ocean is very inspiring and it was a day for powerful waves.
T2: Get your shit off my shit
My neighbor at the transition, who apparently pulled out of the water after me, had her wet suit on my rack-spot and her running shoes in the middle of my stuff. Piss me off much? Hell yeah. And when I'm in the midst of physical stuff like racing, fighting or what-have-you, my endorfins seem to make me a bit more aggressive. I give myself a gold star for only kicking her shoes back into her area and tossing her wetsuit onto her crap instead of punting her shoes over the rock wall and onto the beach below. I go all "Bill Bixby does the Hulk" when something gets in my grill under that kind of situation.
In hindsight, maybe the squirrels stole her banana and her stuff went flying as she looked for it? ... but truly, I don't care. Tri-ers need to mind their own shit and not spread their stuff into everyone else's zones. The distraction and annoyance actually slowed me down as I tried to figure out which wet suit was mine and which was hers.
Running...
I don't think I was as swift as I was hoping to be. I don't know my total run time - I forgot to hit "stop" on my watch, but I think it was in the neighborhood of an hour. Times will be posted later.
Running out of the gate my quads/thighs were super stiff, which is typical. I seemed to skip the calf-cramps that frequently accompany the shift from biking to running, to which I say, "Woot woot!" But I felt like I was in low gear the whole time, which bugs me. It's hard to know without the guys from work running with me or all the readouts from a treadmill to tell me. I fueled myself well both before and during the race and I didn't feel especially exhausted in terms of energy. My legs were tired, but not "done", and yet I couldn't seem to pull any more speed out of my legs. Ah-well. That just means I have growth potential, right?
About 2 miles into the 6.2 mile run one of the ladies I met at the crack of dawn at the transition spot caught up to me. We exchanged "hellos" as we recognized each other and ended up running the rest of it together; our pace and stride were so similar that it was spooky. She was a hoot to chat with and we ended up spurring each other on since our energy peaks and dips ran counter to each other; I'd be setting the pace as she was crashing and then she'd set the pace as I was crashing. 4 miles later I grabbed her hand, threw it up in the air and we cheered out loud for "us" as we crossed the finish line together. That was a great experience and one I will cherish.
Other stuff
Boo-boos and owies: My neck is raw from rubbing on the wetsuit; I hear it looks like a burn that's scabbed over. I also had some sand in my running shoes, so my left heal got bloody where it rubbed against my shoes; I ran w/o socks. And my neck is stiff - something about not swimming for an entire year, probably. heh.
At the end of the race my sloppy transition neighbor was gone (hopefully the wetsuit I have is really mine). I bumped into another lady I met during 6am set-up and I asked her how it went. She had a bad race. She talked about how the water felt colder than last year and how it threw her off; she never gained her mental space. She was pretty sad and down on herself, so I offered her a facial wipe (I keep these facial wet-wipes in my work-out bags. They make you feel fabulous after a work-out because they smell nice and remove grime). She thanked me and started to cry. I think she'd been holding in the tears but it was one of those moments where I think the unlooked for act of kindness pushed her over the edge. I shared my wipes, we talked, I asked her to tell me what had gone well and we found 5 things that she could call victories. It's weird, but that conversation has stayed with me and "feeling" the impact of being kind made me glad that my facial wipes and I were there for her at the right moment. Maybe I'd have missed her if I'd run faster. And maybe cosmically that conversation was more important than my running time. Things happen for a reason.
Last year I finished the race, ate a pile of seared meat and then slept like the dead for 4+ hours. This year I had a BLT after the race, we walked around Pacific Grove, and then we just chilled out in our cozy room with the fire place. There was napping, but not the total exhausted sleep I had last year. I count it as a victory and proof that either I have a better cardio base than a year ago or my recovery has gotten better.
I am a bit amused at myself. At the start of the race I was calm. I entered the water and immediatly questioned my sanity for doing this. During the bike I was focused on catching up with people. By the time I was done with lunch after the race, I was already plotting. I'm excited and energized to continue training. After our upcoming camping trip I will resume biking to work adn swimming in the mornings. I'm going to maintain my running, but on the days where I run at work I am going to do weights in the morning instead of doing "double run" days.
I feel so full of life and potential. Instead of being drained, I feel charged up.
I was up at 5am to trot my stuff down to the transition area, get marked (they take a sharpie and write my race number on my limbs, hands, and legs. My age gets put on my left calf. yay...?)
I returned to the Gosby Inn, had breakfast with F, read "The Order of the Stick" so I could have some mental humor if needed during the race, and generally relaxed until 8am. Then I did my yoga, donned the wet-suit, and we walk to the race together. F, armed with folding chair, bag of drinks and snacks plus reading material kisses me, wishes me luck and goes to stake a spot on the run course.
Swimming:
I think the best part of the swim leg was when it ended.
I will never like this leg of the race. I like swimming, but it's not like it involved chasing balls, frollicking with friends, or yanking people off of rafts. The distance is just shy of a mile and although I've dreamed of doing bigger races, those would mean longer swim courses. I don't know if I have the attention span to swim more than a mile. And on this course it's not even a continuous mile; half way through you climb out on the beach, go around a rock and reenter the water, which is great for people like me who need goals they can see. I also like the option to pull out with dignity half way through; I will probably never do it, but knowing that I could if I wanted to is like having a security blanket.
Saturday was my first time in the water since this race last year. It was colder than I remembered and that was harshing my zen. I was breathing on every right-arm stroke because it was so cold that I needed any excuse to get my face out of the water. I whined at myself all the way out to the first buoy, asking myself why I was doing this; afterall I wasn't getting any money, I had nothing to prove to anyone, F would have been sympathetic (or I'd reign dismay and misery on him like no one's business!) and it was seriously sucking. I was getting kicked in the face, which reminded me why I like to start at the back of my wave and made me recall all the women who'd hung back behind me (damn them!). And to add insult to misery, I kept snarfing salt water, which burns by the way. Plus I couldn't swim in a straight line; I probably swam more than a mile (not a pleasing thought). I went from free-style to breast stroke to doggie paddle, earning the concerned gaze of one of the attending kayakers who's job is to fish the sinkers out of the water and causing me to flash back to my first tri in Berryessa. I contemplated whether I should swim to a kayak and ask for a lift back in. I was seriously hating it and had to remind myself that I'd be fine once I was back on land for biking and running.
And then I made it to the first buoy. All that self-doubt, misery and salt-water snarfing had been going on for 7 minutes and 30 seconds. My thought wasn't "Wow, I have 40 more minutes of this crap." My thought was, "Wow, that was only 7:30 to the first buoy? There are 4 buoys? I wonder how long it will take to get to the second buoy." And I lost track of the physical discomforts as I started calculating how long it would take me to get to buoys, to shore and then to the next stage. Math has always been my security blanket and as I submerged my thoughts into calculating my pace and potential end time, my form smoothed out, I gained my zen, and I started actually racing against the people around me (and trying to use them to keep a straighter course).
I "arrived" on shore with a swell that threw me off my feet and carried me almost all the way up to the water line. (Sometimes there's just no dignity!). Whew! It was done and I could start enjoying myself!
T1: Commando squirrel units, move out!
From when I pulled out of the water through transition I was dizzy, which is normal. Having done this a few times, I seem to be able to go through transition in auto-pilot even though my head is spinning. It's kind of like using the bathroom when you're a little drunk; you know what you're doing and you can do it while dizzy, but maybe you stumble around a little and bump into doorways. I had a helluva time getting out of my wetsuit and ended up landing on my butt on the fresh-cut grass. I had bits of grass sticking to my legs for the rest of the day. Heh.
I heard later on that the local population of ground squirrels swarmed the transition area and stole racers bananas and snacks as soon as the racers had cleared the area. Bwah-ha-ha... My snacks were all loaded on my bike and were still there, un-nibbled, when I needed them.
Ride like the Wind Bullseye
The bike course was fine. I didn't set any land speed records, but I think I was faster than last time. I had one oops; my water bottle flew out of my hands, so I had to pull over and go get it. It caused some swearing and swerving from the people behind me. Ooops!
The course is simply beautiful. When I wasn't trying to race down someone I was enchanted by the ocean waves and shoreline. The ocean is very inspiring and it was a day for powerful waves.
T2: Get your shit off my shit
My neighbor at the transition, who apparently pulled out of the water after me, had her wet suit on my rack-spot and her running shoes in the middle of my stuff. Piss me off much? Hell yeah. And when I'm in the midst of physical stuff like racing, fighting or what-have-you, my endorfins seem to make me a bit more aggressive. I give myself a gold star for only kicking her shoes back into her area and tossing her wetsuit onto her crap instead of punting her shoes over the rock wall and onto the beach below. I go all "Bill Bixby does the Hulk" when something gets in my grill under that kind of situation.
In hindsight, maybe the squirrels stole her banana and her stuff went flying as she looked for it? ... but truly, I don't care. Tri-ers need to mind their own shit and not spread their stuff into everyone else's zones. The distraction and annoyance actually slowed me down as I tried to figure out which wet suit was mine and which was hers.
Running...
I don't think I was as swift as I was hoping to be. I don't know my total run time - I forgot to hit "stop" on my watch, but I think it was in the neighborhood of an hour. Times will be posted later.
Running out of the gate my quads/thighs were super stiff, which is typical. I seemed to skip the calf-cramps that frequently accompany the shift from biking to running, to which I say, "Woot woot!" But I felt like I was in low gear the whole time, which bugs me. It's hard to know without the guys from work running with me or all the readouts from a treadmill to tell me. I fueled myself well both before and during the race and I didn't feel especially exhausted in terms of energy. My legs were tired, but not "done", and yet I couldn't seem to pull any more speed out of my legs. Ah-well. That just means I have growth potential, right?
About 2 miles into the 6.2 mile run one of the ladies I met at the crack of dawn at the transition spot caught up to me. We exchanged "hellos" as we recognized each other and ended up running the rest of it together; our pace and stride were so similar that it was spooky. She was a hoot to chat with and we ended up spurring each other on since our energy peaks and dips ran counter to each other; I'd be setting the pace as she was crashing and then she'd set the pace as I was crashing. 4 miles later I grabbed her hand, threw it up in the air and we cheered out loud for "us" as we crossed the finish line together. That was a great experience and one I will cherish.
Other stuff
Boo-boos and owies: My neck is raw from rubbing on the wetsuit; I hear it looks like a burn that's scabbed over. I also had some sand in my running shoes, so my left heal got bloody where it rubbed against my shoes; I ran w/o socks. And my neck is stiff - something about not swimming for an entire year, probably. heh.
At the end of the race my sloppy transition neighbor was gone (hopefully the wetsuit I have is really mine). I bumped into another lady I met during 6am set-up and I asked her how it went. She had a bad race. She talked about how the water felt colder than last year and how it threw her off; she never gained her mental space. She was pretty sad and down on herself, so I offered her a facial wipe (I keep these facial wet-wipes in my work-out bags. They make you feel fabulous after a work-out because they smell nice and remove grime). She thanked me and started to cry. I think she'd been holding in the tears but it was one of those moments where I think the unlooked for act of kindness pushed her over the edge. I shared my wipes, we talked, I asked her to tell me what had gone well and we found 5 things that she could call victories. It's weird, but that conversation has stayed with me and "feeling" the impact of being kind made me glad that my facial wipes and I were there for her at the right moment. Maybe I'd have missed her if I'd run faster. And maybe cosmically that conversation was more important than my running time. Things happen for a reason.
Last year I finished the race, ate a pile of seared meat and then slept like the dead for 4+ hours. This year I had a BLT after the race, we walked around Pacific Grove, and then we just chilled out in our cozy room with the fire place. There was napping, but not the total exhausted sleep I had last year. I count it as a victory and proof that either I have a better cardio base than a year ago or my recovery has gotten better.
I am a bit amused at myself. At the start of the race I was calm. I entered the water and immediatly questioned my sanity for doing this. During the bike I was focused on catching up with people. By the time I was done with lunch after the race, I was already plotting. I'm excited and energized to continue training. After our upcoming camping trip I will resume biking to work adn swimming in the mornings. I'm going to maintain my running, but on the days where I run at work I am going to do weights in the morning instead of doing "double run" days.
I feel so full of life and potential. Instead of being drained, I feel charged up.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 01:56 pm (UTC)Can you put a lanyard on the water bottle to prevent future losses?
Again, congratulations on a job well done!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-14 02:27 pm (UTC)Yay for you!
Date: 2009-09-14 05:06 pm (UTC)I am so proud to know you and read of your accomplishments!
Total win!!
Date: 2009-09-14 07:49 pm (UTC)