Well here it is, my official race report for the 2012 Omaha Women's Triathlon. My first completed REAL triathlon!
The weather couldn't have been better. It was beautiful. Mostly sunny instead of the 30% chance of rain they called for, not quite as hot as I worried about. Totally beautiful. It was probably low 70's when we started, and low 80's by the time I was done. It got up past 90 later in the day, so I'm super glad it waited and wasn't too hot during any part of the race.
The pre-race meeting was held on Saturday. I went to the first option at 1:00 and met up with Theresa from work there. Kelly and her boyfriend were there too (it turns out Kelly the Clerk is Theresa's niece, cool!) so it was nice to see some familiar faces.
Theresa said the meeting made her less nervous. I'm not sure it eased my nerves any, but I don't think it made them too much worse. Although seeing the swim course buoys was pretty scary. They looked so far apart!
So after the meeting we were allowed to pick up our race packets. They actually came in little drawstring backpacks! Super cool. They're purple and have the race logo on them. Inside were numbers for our bikes and helmets along with the standard race bib and shirt, and also a wristband with our number on it that was our "ticket" into the transition area and which they checked after the race against the number on our bike to make sure everyone went home with only their own bike.
The race shirts are nice tech shirts. Of course they're girl-cut since it's a women's triathlon, so mine's way too small. Someday it'll fit, but no time soon. Oh well! I don't need to wear the shirt, I have a nice shiny medal to wear ;)
SO anyway, after we got our packets we put our wristbands on and put the bike number on our bikes we found our numbered spot at the bike racks, deposited our bikes, and hiked the 1/4 mile to our cars. (That was annoying, the whole parking way over at the Women's Hospital thing .1/4 mile uphill to the car. Ugh! More on that later).
It was weird leaving my bike there. They had volunteers there all night guarding them, but it still felt strange even though you had to have the matching wristband to leave with a bike.
After the meeting I went home to spend time with Dave and attempted to read a lot so I wouldn't have to think about the next day. Dave and I went to Outback for dinner and then to HyVee. I picked up some pork tenderloins and threw them in the crockpot when we got home so they'd be all ready for the sq1 meal swap the next day (no way was I cooking after the tri!) I napped a little, read a lot, and tried to relax. Dave and I had "dinner" at DQ (yes, naughty, I know) and then I went through my checklist, made sure I was all packed, and went to bed really early.
Sunday I was up super early. I dragged Dave out of bed, put up my pigtails, bodyglided everything, put on my swim outfit and we were out the door. It felt odd driving to a triathlon without a bike strapped to my car! We got to the lake, parked way over at the hospital, and hiked the 1/4 mile to the transition area. It was sooo nice having Dave there to help carry all my gear. We headed over to the body marking area and I got numbers written all over me. I picked up my timing chip and strapped that TIGHTLY to my ankle (I learned my lesson at Papio last year when it kept trying to fall off during the swim and I had to kick with my foot flexed the whole time so I wouldn't lose it) and then I went in and set up my transition area. After that we still had an hour so Dave and I each grabbed a banana and went to sit at some picnic tables. We were already regretting not bringing a chair for Dave. I learned a few lessons about what spectators need, actually. For the Papio this year I will DEFINITELY make sure Dave has: a chair, my Kindle with games loaded, and sunscreen. He had a lot of waiting around to do and nowhere to sit and not much to do.
After sitting nervously for about a half hour watching all the people file in I saw an orange stroller I recognized being pushed buy a gut in a shirt I recognized with a blonde lady I recognized. Marty and Amy WERE there!!! I was so excited to see them, I wasn't sure if they were coming. I hadn't seen Amy at the meetings the day before so I wasn't sure if she was still participating or not. I was SO GLAD she was!!! It made it soooo much more fun and relaxing having someone else there to do it with me.
It was almost 7:45 so I made one last trip to my transition spot to make sure everything was in order. I grabbed my sport beans and an extra gel for Amy, ate my lara bar, and started sipping on my gatorade "prime" drink. Then we started walking over to the swim start. I left my sandals with Dave, put my goggles on, then put my white cap on. There were three waves, the youngest competitors had white caps and hit the water first. Then there was a purple group of 35 and olders, and a pink group of the oldest participants. The waves all started 3 minutes apart.
We waited awhile for the swim to start. I was nervous about how cold the water would be. The boat ramp, as usual, hurt my feet super bad. We ran into Sarah K from the Biking 101 class I took a few weeks ago. We got some pictures of me and Amy ready to swim. They played the national anthem. They told us to get in the water and counted down and off we went!
Amy was way ahead of me right away. That girl can SWIM! She ended up beating me out of the water by ten minutes. She's amazing. I pretty much hung behind the pack (not even "at the back of the pack", but behind it by a ways). I was barely out into the lake when the purple caps ran me over....three minutes later the pink caps did the same. Then for the rest of the half mile swim I was back with the slowest swimmers. But I didn't mind too much. A few people around me had issues. One girl felt suffocated by her wetsuit and was hyperventilating a bit. A few people had to had kayakers come over and give them noodles to float with. I just kept swimming...I didn't stop at all, just kept going. I did freestyle, sort of, for more than the first half of the swim. I kept my head up out of the water because the lake was murky and creeping me out, so my body position was all wrong and it really slowed me down. I had decided right when I got into the lake that I was just going to go slow and steady with it, no rush, and just stay comfortable. About 3/4 of the way through I passed by a girl who was REALLY struggling. She just couldn't breathe at all, it was scary. I stayed with her awhile and talked to her. She had a noodle so she wasn't going to sink or anything, she was just scared I think and couldn't breathe. I felt very grateful that I'm really comfortable in the water. I may be slow, but I'm not scared and I know I would never drown. I may not have put my head under but that wasn't fear as much as disgust...lakes are just icky. The seaweed in this particular lake was the worst I've ever had to swim through.
Eventually, after about 30 minutes, I finally made it back to the boat ramp and climbed out of the water. Nice volunteers were there to give us a hand, and I was grateful. Boat ramps just REALLY hurt my bare feet! Ouchy!
Once I was out of the lake I trotted over to the transition area. I was grateful that they had carpets set up in the aisle so we didn't have to walk the entire way on the gravel. I just had to take a few steps off the carpet and over to my towel, but in those few steps my feet were completely covered in tiny rocks and dirt. I wiped them off the best I could, got my socks on and got into my bike shoes.. I changed my shirt (I hate that part, but it's still more comfortable than biking and "running" in my swim shirt. I put on my sunglasses and helmet, grabbed the bike, and trotted out of transition.
That's when my day almost was ruined. There's a big hill coming out of the park so I downshifted on the left and immediately knew I had a problem. My pedals just spun and spun, no resistance. Someone said "oh no she lost her chain" and it registered. I couldn't get my feet out in time. I said "Damnit I'm gonna fall over" and over I went. Landed on my left elbow. It hurt but I didn't look at it right away, I just unclipped my feet and stood up and someone was there already helping me put my chain back on. We got it on and I tried again, but it still wasn't catching right. So I got off immediately and picked up the bike and spun through my gears and got it all settled. But by that time my confidence was shot. I ended up just walking my bike up the first hill. One lady who passed me tried to talk me into getting on the bike but I just told her I was having chain issues and would get on at the top of the hill so she rode on.
Anyway, at the top of the hill I got on the bike and everything was fine for a long time. There was one NASTY hill right after the cobblestone section that just went on forever. It wasn't super steep, it was just sooooooo loooooonnnngggggg. I kept worrying that my legs would just wear out, but I told myself that wasn't an option. There was no choice but to just keep pedaling, no matter how slow, just keep going, because if I stopped (either on purpose or otherwise) I knew I would fall over again. And bruises on top of bruises are NOT fun! SO I finally made it up that hill.
The bike seemed to take forever. I FINALLY made it to the turn around and almost right away I felt better. But then I hit the first hill going back, just before the lefthand turn by the hardware store. I saw the hill coming up and downshifted again on the left....and immediately regretted it. The chain was off AGAIN.
I have no idea how, but somehow magically I got my left foot unclipped JUST in time. Thank goodness I was able to prevent another fall. I managed to get my right foot unclipped too, again without falling over. Then I looked behind me and there were at least four cars, so I pulled off into the grass and started trying to put my chain on. Three cars went by but a nice man in a truck stopped and got out of his truck with a pair of some sort of pliers (GIANT pliers, lol!) and asked if I needed help. I took him up on it and asked if he could just hold my bike up so I could get the chain back on more easily. It took all of two seconds and I was good to go again. I love good samaritans!
So anyway, I once again found myself halfway up a steep hill with no hope of momentum to get me going so I walked up another hill. At the top of the hill I was on the bike again and was almost able to coast the rest of the bike leg, it was so much flat and downhill. SO nice.
When I got to the GIANT hill coming up to the park, though, on 192nd street I was too scared to downshift and knew I'd never made it all the way up in 2nd. I biked up the first third and then pulled off where there was some extra pavement on the side and unclipped without falling (yay!!!!) and walked up the rest of the way. Then it was mostly coasting all the way down to the transition area.
When I crossed into the transition area they announced my name...three times....saying that I had just finished. I think they were definitely confused (lol!) Marty was there and asked if I heard it and I said I did and did that mean I was done? LOL! But I changed into my running shoes, racked my bike, took off my helmet, put on my pink sq1 hat (THANK YOU MISHI I LOVE THAT HAT!) and off I went. Walking...quickly-ish, but walking.
When I was midway up the first hill a sweet lady named Deb caught up with me and we walked and chatted all the way out to the turn around and back to the water station again. That's where I told her to leave me, I knew she could finish by her goal time but only if she left me (she wanted to finish by 11:00, and my goal had been 11:30. I didn't think I could push hard enough to make it by 11:00. And I still don't think I could have, it was just after 11:12 when I finished). Anyway, the first 3/4 of the "run" was so fun! She was a great walking buddy. .I even showed off some Zumba moves for the water station volunteers on the way back.
Halfway up the dreaded hill I saw Marty, Amy, and Blaine. They were on their way to the car while I was coming up the hill. I was SO HAPPY that Amy finished, she did amazing! Marty came down the hill and met up with me and walked with me to the top. Then it was mostly downhill the rest of the way, it was awesome. Everyone who was walking by leaving was super nice and supportive. I finally made it to the bottom of the hill and ran the last few yards to the finish. Lots of high fives at that point. I got my medal, got water, and made my way through the crowd (who had gathered for the awards ceremony) and grabbed some gatorade. Lots of people came up to congratulate me. I heard people discussing chocolate milk and talked to one lady about how they're always out of that stuff by the time we finish, and a few minutes later she came back and handed me a chocolate milk!
I turned down donuts. That was huge I think. It's been over five months since I've had a donut. And even though that was the only food left I still turned it down! I didn't need it. I had gels left, I had a lara bar left, I had bananas somewhere.
I posed for a few pictures, we hung out for awhile. I got some "recovery drink" from the complete nutrition people in a new bottle they gave me that came with a $22 gift card too (yay). I like swag. :)
So anyway, we packed up my transition area. I almost forgot my swim shirt, luckily the lady next to me noticed it, it had blown into her area. I got all my stuff packed up, gave my basket and bucket to Dave, and started wheeling my bike up the hill.
And I barely made it 20 feet. LOL! I had to stop and rest. Then I made it to the porta potties. I had to rest again. And then use the nasty porta potty (since I'd had to go since before the lake, and let me tell you riding on cobblestones? NOT fun when you have to go! LOL!) And then rest some more....
Eventually we made it up to the playground area and I just put the bike down and sat. I talked Dave into going to get the car. He was confused and nervous, he didn't remember where we'd parked or even how to get to the parking lot. I explain it a few times and we both had our phones so off he went. He called when he got to 192nd to make sure he was in the right place. That's about when Sarah K came back in her car and parked and we hung out for awhile while I waited for Dave to get back. She's so fun! She had forgotten her flip flops by the lake and had gone back to get them.
Eventually, after his 1/4 mile hike up the giant hill, Dave was back with the car. He put the bike on the rack, put the stuff in the backseat, and off we went. Actually we went just a few feet, pulled over, and I strapped in the bike (whoops! I didn't notice that Dave just set it on the rack and hadn't strapped it, lol!) and THEN we were off.
SO we went home and I showered right away because I smelled like lake water and sweat. Dave worked on sending me the pictures he'd taken. Then he showered and I posted pictures. Then we went to Zios to celebrate. I wore my medal, heheh. I'm a dork.
The rest of the day I tried to mostly relax without sleeping. I facebooked and read, and then I left for book club at Torri's house. That was super awesome. Then I went to Sq1 with my cooler full of pork tenderloin and read some more while I waited for meal swap time. Then I went home and went almost straight to bed! :)
So that was my big race day. I'm a real triathlete now. :) :) :)
