It was AWESOME! Hands down, one of the hardest but BEST experiences in my life! I don't claim that I rocked it...actually I think I was moving a little slow...but I felt great and finished with no problem so that's what matters to me!
I'll get to how the day of the race went, but first a little pre-race prep...
Friday afternoon we went to packet pick up, which is one of my favorite times! It's like a stocking on Christmas morning! It's filled with goodies and freebies and I just get so excited digging through it! It was at this moment though that we found out we were in different wave start times with Kelli starting before me. This was not ideal because that little fish already swims faster than me, so we'd planned for her to start later so we could end up biking and running together. Oh well, all plans out the window, gotta go with the flow on race day! We then went to Clear Lake Park to check everything out! Here's us at the transition point:
And right on the shore near where the swim would start:
We then drove the entire bike course so that we'd have an idea where we were going when we were very first leading the pack...HA HA YEAH RIGHT! It was so that when the entire race left me in their dust I'd know where the turns were! Oh and did I mention that the Kemah bridge was part of the race route and we'd never trained a hill?
Then that night before the race Kev and I went with Wes and Kelli (and a few of their clan) for a yummy CARB FILLED dinner at Freebirds (does this count as effective carbo loading?...I think it does) :)
I gave Kelli a cute charm that I had found and bought for both of us
Here's a closer look at it
My good friend Kelli learned something about Kevin that night. Poor girl brought her bike over just for him to air her tires...oh I could've warned her :) Kev got giddy like a little school boy (as he LOVES biking and everything to do with it) and here's how we found him 30 minutes later:
He took the whole stinkin bike apart, washed it, cleaned it with a citrus degreaser, eventually did put air in the tires! So we both had smelly-good, sparkling bikes...if only that would help my performance in any way!
After a delish dinner and a melatonin, I crashed at 10pm (which is nice and early for me)! I slept like a rock and when the alarm went off at 4:45am I woke up very excited!
We threw on our cute tri outfits, loaded up the bikes and were off!! We arrived a little later than we would have liked. As we walked into the transition area (after unloading, walking a mile with our bikes and bags, getting numbers drawn all over us, etc...) the announcement was made that we only had 15 minutes until the transition area would close. If you know anything about us, we DON'T LIKE TO BE RUSHED! Especially on a day like this! So we quickly set our stuff out, got our chip timers strapped on and made our way to the swim start! Of course we still found time to goof off, take some pictures, and chat with people that we knew....which by the way, I saw WAY too many people I knew while wearing barely any clothes and a swim cap...not a great look for me:
Kelli's wave started and I had to stand on the shore getting nervous for 10 more minutes! Then as if a 45 minute swim isn't hard enough, they put us in the water (where obviously we could not reach) to tread water 5 MINUTES before the gun was to fire! 5 minutes may not sound like a lot of time, but when it's treading water it's an eternity!!! Finally, the gun went off and I started "swimming"...i put that in quotes because at first it felt like just crazy flailing and thrashing!
(All those little specks and ripples in the water are swim capped people)
Once the nerves settled a little bit, I actually felt like I got into a rhythm! From the shore we could see the Hilton what seemed like 10 miles away! So our instructions were to "swim toward the Hilton". And that's the FIRST BUOY!! As long as I could keep myself going in a straight line, I was doing good! But I swim a straight line about as good as I could draw one. I'd look up once and be headed straight for the buoy, then look up again and see Nasa Rd. 1! When I got to the last straight-away toward the shore is when I started to get antsy. I NEEDED to be done! I could see the shore, but just couldn't get there! That's when the 215 lb. man in front of me decided to practice his synchronized swimming routine! He went left, he went right, he popped up, he dove down...AAAAHHHHH!! I finally, in my nicest race voice, asked him to PICK A SIDE AND GET ON IT! (*please note my "i've been in this stupid salt water too long- race voice" is NOT A NICE ONE! :)
But I finally made it to the shore, took way too long to transition, hopped on the bike and took off! I headed confidently toward the Kemah bridge and was surprised that I climbed it with no problem...granted my speed slowed to about 10 mph, but it felt like a really good workout on the leg press machine! I'd spent so much time worried about the climb that I forgot to think about the descent...HHHHHOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYY CCCCOOOOOOWWWW!! Before I knew it I was tucked down and flying like a bullet at 33 miles per hour down that stinkin thing!! I've never gone anything about 25 mph before this, so as you can imagine, I thought since the water hadn't killed me, the asphalt surely would! But I think at one point I closed my eyes, said a quick prayer, and before I knew it I was at the bottom! Hooray!!! I was so pumped to see about a hundred people behind me! I felt on top of the world! But that quickly ended when the Sprint Triathlon turnaround came up at the next light! All of a sudden at least 3/4 of those people behind me were GONE and all of a sudden I felt like I was at the BACK! Which if you know anything about me, this is NOT OK with me! :) The rest of the bike ride in a nutshell:
1. Forced myself to eat a protein bar at mile 6
2. Rode about 3 miles (FM 1266) on a rode which I still swear was made completely out of rumble strips and I think permanently damaged important parts of my body!
3. I must have looked like I was hurting because every police officer directing traffic along the way felt like they needed to give me an update of how many miles I had left
4. All was made well again when I came up to the Webster Fire Department and, get this ladies, the guys were outside (SOME WITH SHIRTS OFF) washing the fire truck! HELLO???? All is right in the world again! Sorry, I would've taken a picture if I wasn't sure I'd fall off my bike!
When I transitioned from bike to run I MAY OR MAY NOT have yelled at my poor husband when he tried to be encouraging by saying "come on, it's almost over"! My mature response was yelling at him and throwing my water bottle at him :)
The run was FABULOUS! I felt GREAT and felt like I could run forever. My legs were SO happy to get back to what they are used to! I never thought I'd say that running is my strong point, but when compared to the other two events, it is! Besides the one nasty hairy man that I was right behind 1. BURPING, 2. WARNING ME HE BURPED BECAUSE I WAS "DOWNWIND" and 3. ASKING ME IF IT SMELLED, the run was pretty uneventful! Seriously, if my muscles were still functioning I would have punched him in the throat! How NASTY!!!
Well, I'm not sure if anyone is still reading, but there it is! BEST experience of my life! Can't wait to do it again! Upcoming: 1/2 marathon in January, Tri Girl next summer, and who knows what else in between! I'm thinking eventually the HALF IRONMAN! :)
But now that I think about it...maybe this ride is next:
Love and kisses,
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