Short
version: Dad & I finished our first triathlon! We swam .5 mile,
biked 16 miles, ran a 5k and crossed the finish line together with huge
smiles on our faces. Our total time spent racing and in the 2 transition
periods was 2 hours 49 minutes & 24 seconds. We cracked our goal of
finishing in under 3 hours and since this was our first sprint tri, we
both set a personal best. :)
Swim = 21.50
T1 = 11:03
Bike = 1:24:43
T2 = 9:09
Run = 42.39
Total = 2:49:24
Long version: Sam, the kids & I packed up and headed out to Geneva on Friday afternoon. Had a
plan to stay at a hotel that night, race on Saturday & camp on
Saturday night so we could be in town to see my brother & sister in
law race in the Musselman half ironman on Sunday. The kids were excited to see their cousins,
stay in a hotel, go swimming & listen to books on CD for as much as
possible for the 3+ hours on the road. Pulled into town
and checked into the hotel. Got the kids & all our luggage settled
into our room (including the bike). There
were a LOT of athletes & their families in town for the weekend. I
loved how friendly, upbeat, healthy & excited everyone was for a
race weekend! Such a great environment...
After
we were settled in somewhat, I met up with Dad and we did a short bike
ride down to the swim start. The ride took us along a pathway right from
the hotel where we were staying that was right on Seneca Lake and down
to where all the excitement of the start & finish of the race would
be the next day. It was so beautiful. Hot, but the lake breezes felt
great & it was nice to stretch our legs after the long car ride. Dad
led the way & had a great feel for what the course would be on race
day. He showed me the race start where we would get in and later on
further along where we would get out of the water - EEK! - okay, now I
was getting a little nervous!
We biked back to the hotel & met up
with my brother & sister in law & we all piled into Dad's car to
get over to packet pickup. Okay, for the record...I love packet pickup!
It's so exciting to finally get your bib number, all the goodies they
hand out to the racers and The Race Shirt. Got through packet pickup and I looked around for a few more items I still needed for my
bike (pump or co2, saddle bag to hold my bike tire tube & a second
water bottle rack). The bike company that was to be set up at the expo
wasn't there yet, so we decided to go find them. It was a great bike
shop called Geneva Bike & I found all I needed there. Headed back to
the hotel to find the rest of the family...my mom was there, my sister, Sarah, her husband, Kevin and their 4 kids, my sister, Rebekah & one of her daughters, my sister, Mary & her 2 children all the way from India! My friend & coworker, Sharon Strodl & her husband were due to arrive the next morning. Sharon's now raced with me in my first 10k, half marathon & now first tri. Wow! What are we doing next, Sharon?! ;-)
Had a
great quiet time in the hotel room & ate a pre-race meal that Dad had put together of a
yummy chicken macaroni salad, Ritz crackers, cheese & a Diet
Coke. Repacked my transition bags all into one bag to bring to the race
start in the morning. Got my bike all geared up and ready to go &
laid out my clothes for the morning. Took a relaxing shower and rested
up some before Sam & the kids got back from having pizza.
Went down to the hotel pool with them for a bit to watch the kids swim
& headed back up to the room around 10 to get ready for bed. Everyone else fell asleep and I lay
there staring at the ceiling, going over details of the next day, thinking
through all the conversations I'd had with my sisters & family that
day, praying for folks who came to mind...this went on and on and on
& I could not settle down to sleep. :-/ Got up and took a couple
ibuprofen and finally fell asleep around 2am.
6am.
Got up & started trying to get down a banana, plain bagel &
some greek yogurt with raspberries. It's hard to get food in your
stomach that early when you're not used to it! But I knew I had to get
it down. Those carbs & bit of protein were all I'd have in my system
to get me through the whole race. Dad had written out a whole nutrition
plan for us and he'd prepped my water bottles for me with an
electrolyte mix that I added ice & water to that morning. Cliff Bloks were all stowed in the Bento bike bag. Sam got up and made some coffee in the hotel room coffee pot.
I continued to get dressed quickly, eat slowly & we started waking up the kids. Katie
popped up and said to me "How's my little athlete?" :) Ahahaha...made me
smile and laugh. We picked up the room, packed up our bags and all
herded down to the hotel lobby to meet Dad. Checked out of the hotel
room, loaded up the car - my brother met us there and installed the 2nd
water bottle rack & checked the pressure in my tires - they were low
and he added some air. The plan was that if I
blew a flat tire on the ride, Dad would change it for me. What a
princess athlete I am, eh?! I should have super glued a tiara to the top
of my bike helmet.
We
headed to the race start and parked. The sun was shining bright & average temp was about 78 degrees and climbing. Grabbed our bikes & bags and
proceeded to find the transition area. Along the way, my brother was
instructing us to find the body marking people and head straight to the
transition area to get our bikes racked & our transition spots set
up. The body marking people were basically a group of folks with
indelible markers that wrote my race number on my left arm, left
leg & my age on the left calf. Made our way to the transition
area where Dad & I split up at this point. His number &
transition spot were a ways from mine. I had trouble finding my
transition spot. The numbers were all out of sequence. I found the place where my number should be in between 1581 & 1583 and proceeded to set up my area & rack my bike. Eventually a race official came
along because someone questioned the numbers being out of order...the
official went and checked and came back telling me and 2 other racers to
move our bikes up and over 2 whole lanes. We were in the wrong spot! Yikes! I moved to the spot indicated and
found my sticker with my number 1582 on it set up for a second time but
this time in the right place.
Dad came over at this point and we took
our wet suits, caps, swim goggles & ear plugs over to the swim
start. We were in Wave 7 and had red caps. All the waves of swimmers had
different colored caps and were separated by age group. We were in the
last wave because we had signed up as Novice. It was a great wave to be
in! The race started and wave after wave entered the swim corral and
entered the water. As we watched, we found our family & friends,
chatted it up and tried to stay relaxed.
Finally our wave was called and
off we went into the water! We picked our way carefully over the sharp
mussels in the water and made our way to the buoys where our wave was
being held. We had to tread water for a bit until our wave began. The
countdown began and we were off! Swimming in our first tri! We had
decided to each swim our own race & meet up in the transition area
to begin the bike & run portion together. We swam straight into a
canal and before I knew it I was passing the first buoy! woohoo! First
hurdle done! The water was deep, murky and I could see lots of different types
of things growing in the bottom of the lake. I tried not to think about
all the episodes of Swamp People that Sam & I had been watching lately. :-/ And had to keep shaking seaweed off my arms, legs and even around my
neck at different points. Was super thankful for the 2 open water swims I'd
had with the Bethlehem Tri Club earlier that month...otherwise I would
have been really freaking out at this point. I kept steady with my
strokes and just tried to plow my way through the water and get that
swim over with! I passed other swimmers and got kicked a couple times -
kicked back and just kept going. Passed 2 more buoys and followed the
kayakers directing us to turn left. Kept going straight and it felt like
I was really flying. Tried to focus on the beaming sun as it glinted off my mirrored goggles, on the green treeline & blue blue sky...kept moving along and before I knew it, there
was the turn off and a race volunteer telling me to keep swimming up to
the end point and more volunteers telling me to follow the ledge up and out
of the water, up a carpet and into the area where I would run into
transition. It was done! The swim portion was over! I couldn't believe
it. I was grinning from ear to ear and just so elated that the hardest
part of the race was over for me.
Headed
into transition & stripped off my wet suit. Started to prep for the
bike, took my bike off the rack & looked over to see my dad
entering transition. He'd had a great swim also! We got ready and
started out on the bike portion. Our family had cheered for us at every
point along the way. Out of the water, into transition & now out of
transition and out onto our bikes. We had the best cheering section
ever! Mounted our bikes and the designated spot and started to make our
way into the 16 mile course. Dad took the lead and I followed behind
him. The route took us out onto the main highway out of town and we
followed it out almost a full 8 miles. Up hills, down hills, through
beautiful countryside, the lake views were amazing. I tried to get down
my bottle of electrolytes, but by that time in the hot sun the liquid
was very warm and did not taste good at all. I finished most of it and
started in on my pack of Cliff Bloks followed by water. I tried to pace
all this over the entire bike ride and maintain hydration. It was
getting hot out! We reached the 1/2 mark and a volunteer called out to us
"Welcome to the Fingerlakes!" Headed down to the lake and past more
lovely farm land, took a right and headed back into town. I chattered
away endlessly to my dad (I had him all to myself!) and we had a great
time making our way through this adventure. A couple groups of
spectators closer to town had cow bells and I would call out, "That's my
dad up there! Isn't he great?!" and they would cheer louder and yell
"Go Dad!!" The closer we got to town, the more spectators there were and
the race support was awesome. We headed to the transition point yet
again and there was our family. Woohoo! Changed out one last time and
prepped for the run. Hit the port a john in transition and headed out
for our 5k. One last sport! 2 done and 1 to go!
We
carried water through the run and found a comfortable pace to stay at. We stayed at a good trot through the
whole 5k. Towards the end, I started counting
the lovely willow trees providing some shady spots along the path that were on our right near the lake and making
up little songs about willow trees. Dad humored me by coming up with a
few lines too and we definitely were getting to the bottom of our
endurance levels near the end. Saw the tents come into view and the blue
border finish line getting closer and closer. We grabbed hands, raised
them high in the air and there it was...The Finish Line...cheering family & spectators - over the finish line we went! My son ran along with us yelling out "My
mom's a triathlete!" over and over. So funny & awesome :)
It
took me awhile to cool down & get my legs back under me. I was
pretty dehydrated at this point and could feel my muscles starting to seize up. Much
water, ice, a cool shower in the park bathrooms & some chocolate
ice cream later...I was finally starting to feel like myself again.
Recovery
went well from that point on & I really had no major issues with
recurring pain or injury afterward. My foot even feels great! Thankful
for that... I was also super thankful when my loving husband decided to
bail on the camping out adventure we had planned on for that night and
sprang for air conditioning & a soft bed at a hotel that night
instead. Boy, did we all sleep good that night!
Woke
up and headed back to the park the next morning to watch Jeremiah &
Sara compete in the half Ironman. They both did amazing and it was a
great race to watch. Super proud of both of them.
Home
now and searching around for what's next on the horizon. Now that I
have all the gear needed to do this sport and knowing how doable it all
is, I want to get another race on the family calendar! I'm pretty sure
Sam is getting ready to join me so that we can do this next race
together. Right, babe? ;-)
