Turtle Crawl Sprint Triathlon:
First, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to pick up a friend and drive an hour to Jekyll Island. Very Disneyish, except I had to be reasonably alert since I couldn't hop on a bus!
Uneventful drive. We found the place with no problems (probably because for once I was really early!) Picked up our race stuff and handled transition relatively well. I would much rather do it the day before, but I still managed to get all my stickers and numbers in the right places. They had a tri-tat system- you put temporary tattoos on for your numbers. Great in theory, but took too long. Being the needy type that I am, I grabbed a volunteer to help me with mine. We both messed up, so I had tattoos and regular Sharpie markings. Tons of people reversed their numbers, scratched them out, and wrote them in marker, which I found amusing.
What I did not find amusing?? They had already lengthened the bike to 14.4 miles because of construction, and then they added 50 yards to the swim for 650 total. (Thankfully, I wasn't doing the Olympic!)
The swim:
So you might have gathered that I was nervous about the swim... we walked for an eternity down the beach. A bunch of people from our class were together, sharing the apprehension. Our coach told us to get in the water. It was really windy and there was a strong current. He said it would be hard to get to the first buoy, but then the current would drag us in to the finish. (You went out to a buoy, hung a left and went straight until turning for the finish). It was a timed start. We entered in pairs within a couple of seconds of other people.
Getting to the first buoy was sooo hard. I heard some people screaming for help behind me. I was conveniently breast stroking (also known as treading water) because I'd swallowed a ton of salt water already, so I could see the lifeguard on her surfboard- she was paddling over and yelling something like "I can't get there yet." This did not encourage me... The current kept shifting- I didn't know that at the time, I just knew that my coach was a big liar! I did a lot of freestyle once I calmed down and changed up my stroke to deal with the fact that I was breathing on the side with the waves. It still took forever to reach the buoys. I was swum over a couple of times and a guy knocked one side of my goggles- nothing like some salt in the contacts! Anyway, after about 30 minutes of sheer terror, I was finally out of the water. (Our coach later said it was the most challenging open water swim he'd done in 15 years).
The bike:
It's a long way to transition, up a boardwalk and through sand. I was fine with that, cause I was out of the water! I put on my shoes without socks, grabbed my helmet, and headed to the mounting area. I got going without any real problems. Now here's the thing with my bike- I've ridden a lot on a trainer, and I've ridden a lot slowly outside. So I had no idea how fast I should be going. I was averaging about 17-19 mph (I did take my Garmin). I passed a bunch of people (cause if I didn't make it clear, after the swim, pretty much everyone was in front of me). I realized I was at about mile 4 and about to pass a guy with 20 on his leg. And I thought to myself, perhaps I'm not much stronger than a 20 year old boy and I should stick with him... So that's what I did. (I eventually passed the 20 year old at the end of the run, which really pleased me. ) The bike was great, except for the last 3 miles in a headwind. But again, I wasn't in the ocean, so I was happy.
The run:
Dumped the bike and helmet. Grabbed the hat and race belt. Drank some water, since I'm still too nervous to grab my bottle on the bike. Couldn't think of anything else to do, so I started the run. Here was my happiest moment- even though I only did one brick in training, the run felt fine. Legs weren't heavy (so should I have pushed more on the bike after all?) The course was a mess because of more construction. It was an out and back, so I saw some people from my class both ways which was a nice distraction. My Garmin said the course was a little short and that I averaged about an 8:17 (hard to tell since I was not the best at turning it on/off at just the right spots). I was extremely pleased that I wasn't running much slower than just a regular 5k without all that near drowning and biking stuff first! I saw our coach before the finish- he yelled about a final kick. Miracle of miracles, I was able to pull out a little sprint to the finish. I never can do that! The run ended up being a 24:42, so maybe I started my Garmin early? Hey- tied my 5k PR with all that drowning/biking before it!
So that was it. They had lots of food and goodies afterwards. We sat around a bit and cheered for people and talked about the race (mostly sharing swim horror stories). Got a sweet albeit ridiculously bright t-shirt. The official results have me at 1:51:xx and 4th in my AG. I'm dying to see the splits so I can tell just how horrible I am at swimming!
There's another sprint tri in October at the same place. The swim is only 400 yards. I'm torn between never, ever wanting to see the ocean again and wanting to redeem myself. In the meantime, there may be a local duathlon in August- now that I can work with!
OK- final results. For my age group: 10/16 in the swim, 7/16 on the bike, 1/16 on the run. I guess I know where I'm most comfortable!
Here I am with my friend at the finish. I'm the Goofy one in the pink hat.
