After 4 nights of insomnia and getting yet another headcold, due to the insomnia...I was a bit nervous about the race today. Gotta love being a women in her 40's......
As with the previous 3 Triathlons, I woke up at 5am thinking "WHY am I doing this??" But, it was SO nice to have my husband, Blake, suffering along with me in the early morning. After a Starbucks run, we hit the road at 6am and made it to Black Diamond at 7:00am. Mount Rainer was starting to turn pink and it looked like we could reach out and lick it like an ice cream cone. It was amazing!!! There was fog low to the ground on all the farms.....with Muckleshoot Casino gleaming in the distance (with a packed parking lot). Okay, so that part wasn't beautiful..but everything else was!!!
After setting up our transition area, we went for a 1/2 mile run to warm up. When we returned from the run, having to go the bathroom again, the line for the 11 porta potties was SUPER long! We waited, and waited, and waited (for 20 minutes) and gave up because we only had 3 minutes to get to the swim start for the pre-race info and we didn't have our wetsuits on yet. We finally made it down to the swim start. The start was late (probably due to the long bathroom line or the fog on the water) and so we were able to get in a warm up swim. It wasn't exactly warm though....61 degrees from what I understand. Brrrr....
The swim start was anything but fun....Everyone starts in long rows about 4 people deep...The rows cover the entire beach area and then everyone funnels in before the 1st buoy. Slam!!!! Usually it clears in a couple minutes of a swim start but I got beat up bad for the first 7 or so. I just couldn't shake the other swimmers off of me. The water was very cold and my face felt numb. My heartrate was a bit on the high side (I think due to lack of sleep) and I couldn't get it down until I was heading to the finish of the swim..... The water was deep to the very end so you really had to swim all the way up to the beach in order to run out. I remember feeling happy to be passing some yellow caps - the men that started out 5 minutes ahead of our wave.
My T1 was painful. My toes on my left foot were blue and I could NOT get my wetsuit off of my left ankle! (Blake had the same problem)...Note to self: Next wetsuit will have zippers at the ankles! I had a hard time getting my cleats on for some reason as well. Felt clumsy..and pooped and it all made me laugh.
The bike ride felt really good...a freezing cold start but it was SUPER sunny and it felt warm out to me after about 5 minutes. My bike computer wasn't working so I had no idea how fast I was going or what my cadence was but it felt pretty good the entire time....even with frozen toes. I saw Blake heading back down the hill (as I was going up one of the many hills) and I was able to force out a scream. He told me later that he thought it was a dying rooster. Close. As I was coming up the last steep hill, I dropped a chain. Messin with my gears again....I had to get off the bike and fix it. Several of the women that I had passed, happily zoomed by me. Not a good feeling. This cost me 3-4 minutes.
The run felt great..My toes thawed out after mile 1. I love trail running and it was nice easy hills in the woods. Beautiful.... I got a side ache and started to walk for a second to stretch it out when a woman came up behind me and pulled me saying "You can't walk! It's my goal not to walk the run today so you can't walk!"...So I ran....I owe her big time as it was MY goal not to walk as well! I paid it forward by dragging someone up a hill and making her run when I saw that she was walking.
As I was approaching the finish, Blake came up behind me and slapped my in the rear. I was HOPING he was literally behind me in the race (ha) but he was 1 lap around the lake ahead of me and headed over the finish line....It was very painful to know that I had to run around the lake again. But I did and I didn't walk....I wasn't super speedy but the run felt good. The girls on the run were super supportive, giving high fives and thumbs up....yelling how good everyone looked...The boys on the run just grunted along and said nothing.
I came in 7th for my division, Blake came in 8th for his. I'm happy with my results - 1:28:35. Blake's time: 1:20:15. He only beat me by 8.20 minutes. Not that we are competing with each other, of course. I'll be the one slapping his rear next year. : )
