I still remember race morning as if it were yesterday. Sunrise over the lake was incredible and thankfully the single biggest issue that kept me awake for THE ENTIRE night was for naught … WAVES! That’s right. It was so incredibly windy on Saturday that the chop we witnessed when racking our bikes in the afternoon was truly impressive. Unfortunate are we that we did not document this on film, but no joke, the swells were reported to be 2-4 feet!! Uhuh … I didn’t sign up for an ocean swim!AND … NOBODY told me that it might be cold the morning of the race. For every race that I do following Timberman, I’m bringing fleece … LOTS of fleece. Nearly froze to death waiting the 35 minutes for our swim to start. For whatever reason race officials thought it would be funny to start the race 20 minutes late and then of course those of us whose waves didn’t start until many minutes after that but had already warmed up, stood and froze. So what looks like a terrific group photo is really Holly and Britta trying to warm me up.
All of that prerace fun aside … it was an incredible day … TOMboy and I scored a great spot staying at NewTOM’s parents house in Canterbury, NH … only about 45 minutes away from the race site. We arrived at the race site in time to park within sight of transition and finish. It was close, traffic was backed up for more than a mile. Not the stressless morning we’d hoped for, but we got through it.
Having nearly 2 hours to go before the start of the race, transitions to set up, bathroom trips to make and warming up to do, we separated, each to her prerace zone. I’m not sure where my prerace zone was … or even is … I was so keyed up I had to force myself to just sit down beside my bike and just be … a brief 2 minutes of meditation to try to get a handle on what I was about to ask my body to do. Yeah. Good luck.
Right on schedule, transition closed and we were escorted by the bagpiper to the swim start. Surreal. The winds calmed during the night and early morning posted temperatures near 40 degrees with a light breeze. Perfect race conditions … unless you have to stand and wait for your swim wave.
As I said, we got a bit of a late start, and then waiting for our wave chilled us a bit, but once we’d put our faces in the water and started moving, adrenaline warmed us right up. The sun was in our favor to the first tetrahedron, but upon making the right hand turn to swim facing the shore, we were greeted with sun glare which made sighting more difficult and I know for me, slowed me down considerably. The wind kicked up a bit and the waves tossed us around some, but once we made the final turn toward shore, we were home free!
I love wetsuit strippers! T1 was smooth! I had so much time to prepare prerace, I would have been disappointed if I’d not been ready.
Saw my family at mile 5 of the bike. Even managed to shout at TOMb as he cruised in the opposite direction headed for T2. Couldn’t believe how good I was feeling into the turn around on the bike. Only to be greeted with a SERIOUS headwind on the return. Miles 35-45 were tough … just grinding into the wind and knowing that I still had a LONG way to go. Then at mile 47 something that has never happened to me before happened … I threw my chain, going up hill! Fortunately I had the wherewithal to kick out of my cleat before I started to fall. I’m very pleased with myself that I didn’t panic. I switching sides of the road so as to be out of the path of other riders, then when I realized that I was not going to be able to get my chain back on myself, in ran up the hill to find that I was at an aide station. Not only was I at an aide station but the Mavic bike guy was coming around the corner. He had me back on my bike in 2 minutes. Unfortunately, he didn’t get me back on my bike before I had a chance to completely coat myself in grease. My Team IronTom shorts will never be the same.
T2 … even smoother. Grab and Go! There was my family to cheer me on!
The run was the biggest surprise of the day. I felt great right off of the bike. It took a bit for my legs to figure out that I wanted them to run, but once we’d reached and understanding, I was able to achieve a steady pace and hold onto it. Somehow I got into such a zone that I didn’t hear TOMb shout at me more than once. But I did see TOMBoy as she headed out on her run, all smiles and looking great! I’d been dreading the two loop run, anticipating just wanting to be done with the whole thing as I had to go back out on a second loop. And then there was my team, and my family and some of my team’s family, cheering me on! I was so excited to go back out on the second loop when I came into all of the excitement.
And finally, after rounding the 3 mile mark … a neighborhood where Mardi Gras had been happening all day … I knew I had it … and yet, I was feeling empowered by all of the energy around me and I picked up my pace. I had to keep calming myself because I was just getting too excited. 2 miles to go I was nearly jumping for joy. 1 mile to go and I could hear the finish line.
And then … there was the finish line. And more importantly … there was my family .. who had endured all of my hours and hours of training and supported me through every bit of it. Yelling SO hard! And I was pumping the air with my fists and laughing and crying and smiling! Psyched.
And the best part … I could have kept going!
Good thing. Since I’m signed up for Ironman Lake Placid ’08!
Good thing. Since I’m signed up for Ironman Lake Placid ’08!
