Friday, September 08, 2006

Race Report


Before the race
Originally uploaded by stephanielynn.
Race Report

We picked up our registration packet and our timing chip, then headed over to the race site for bike inspections and racking. We looked around at the course and got a feel for where we would be heading out of and into for the transitions. Beth and I were a rollercoaster of emotions. When I felt nervous, she felt excited and vice versa. We sat in on the course talk given by the race director and had a lot of questions answered thus fears calmed (some fears, anyways). For instance, we learned that the bike course would be manned by 120 volunteers so we wouldn't have to stop at any intersections. Whew! I cannot tell you what a relief that was to hear. We also found out that while we had to be at the park at 5:30 AM, my wave wouldn't start until 8:04, and Beth's start was at 8:12, the third and second to last groups to start! What a bummer. We were more bummed that we wouldn't be able to start together, for even though we are the same age group, they split us up alphabetically because our group was so big.

Saturday evening we went shopping at a nearby mall to get our minds off the race and just have some fun. I was in bed by 10:30 hoping to get a good six hours of sleep before the 4:30 AM alarm went off. Unfortunately, I think I had maybe an hour of sleep. I remember looking at the clock every hour, trying hard to think of anything other than the day ahead but I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I was scared. I was scared that I would be so tired that I wouldn't be able to perform, at all. Mainly I was concerned about the swim. Eventually I gave up all hope of getting back to sleep and just wanted the time to speed up so the even would be here already and I would not have any more time to worry about it.

We headed out the door into the dark hours of 5 AM. On our way we decided that the song "Staying Alive" would be our theme song that we would sing to ourselves to get us through tough moments of the course. Once there, we got marked, set up our transistions, and waited. The sun came up, Peter and Griffin met up with us and at 7:40 AM I stood in front of the swim start, scared out of my mind. I almost wanted to cry I felt so scared. I don't know why, but I just really lost all confidence in my swimming and I couldn't even think about how I felt about biking and running. Peter tried to calm me down but telling me to ignore all the "hoopla" going around me and just tunnel in on my task. He told me I was ready, I had prepared, I could do this. He believe in me more at that point than I did. I'm so glad he was there.

They called my group and I headed down to the swim start. I still felt scared and I tried to focus, but by the time they shouted "Go" or whatever they shouted (I don't remember), I was still freaking out. I hung out at the end of the pack and started to freestyle but I couldn't catch my breath. I realized my breathing was too fast and there was no way I could continue like that. Oh man, that was a scary moment. It's like I forgot how to swim. But, thankfully I prepared for that kind of moment by telling myself that if I got flustered on the swim I would just breaststroke until I felt calm. So, I started out with the breaststroke. Then it was just me and the water in my mind. My breaths slowed down and the panic had passed. It also helped to see someone doing a backfloat. I told myself that if all else fails I know I could do the backstroke. I started freestyling and found my groove after a minute or so. I actually enjoyed the moment. I remember at one point I was looking out over the lake on a breath and saw the most scenic view of the sun over the trees over the water. If I hadn't been doing this event, I wouldn't have seen that. It was beautiful.

Before I knew it, I was at the swim finish. I almost cried when I saw it ahead. I knew at that moment that I would be great. I got up out of the water and Peter was there cheering me on. I was so happy. I felt so proud. At T1 I moved a little slowly getting ready for the bike leg. I'm a little ashamed to admit this but my time was 5 minutes. That's a little pathetic, but oh well. I got on the bike and head out. You might not be able to see it in this picture, but I was smiling as I headed out onto the bike course. I felt like I was smiling the whole way. Having done the bike course a few weeks ago, I was completely confident in myself and my abilities. I got passed by a lot of road bikes, but that didn't bug me at all. I passed a few people, but not too many. There were a lot of people out there on the roads cheering on the bikers. It was a great show of report and I was really impressed. I didn't have any problems on the bike (no flats, yay!) and everything went smoothly. The hills seemed smaller than I remembered them, even though they weren't small.

I got back to transition, quickly took some gatorad and some cliff blocks, and headed into the run. I thought my T2 time was good, but then I saw it was 2 minutes. I didn't think I took that long but then I realized that I was at the back of transition and I think a lot of that time was spent going from the entrance to my rack, and then from my rack to the run start. Oh well, it is what it is. Peter met me at the run start and told me that I was doing great and that my times so far were better than my expected times! I purposefully chose not to wear my watch that day because I was afraid of what it might tell me. Hearing that just made me want to push harder. The run course was a lot of fun. I passed quite a lot of people on the hills (oh my, it was a hilly run course!) and thanked myself for getting in hill training. I still felt really great at this point and I think I must have been smiling the whole way. I kept cheering people on as I passed them, or as they passed me (which did happen a few times).

Then, the finish was before me. I pushed and sprinted the last tenth of a mile across the finish line. At the end, we all got Iron Girl medals.

I made it. I am a triathlete. I am an Iron Girl! I met my goal of 2 and a half hours and middle of the pack. My final results:

2 hours, 26 minutes, 09 seconds.

I had such a blast doing this. I challenged myself and became better because of it. Beth crossed the finish a little after I did. She said she is going to do Iron Girl 2007. Already we are thinking of how we can improve our times for next year.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I am an Iron Girl!

Full race report and pics(!) tomorrow.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

On my way

I'm on my way to being an "Iron Girl". Beth and I are heading to Columbia, MD in an hour to sign-in, pick up our goodies, check in our bike, etc. I've been really calm about the event until recently. Thursday night I had a dream that I got a flat tire. Friend, I must confess that I never did learn how to change a flat on my bike so I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will not happen tomorrow. Last night I had a dream that I was walking by the lake and there were Gi-normous waves crashing about. Whew...that was a nightmare! Luckily I woke up and remembered that I'm swimming in a smallish lake, so I don't think I have to worry about huge waves (only those caused by other swimmers).

I've got to pack and check over my list three or four times (OC, a little!) before I leave. I wish the best of luck to anyone racing this weekend...especially Sherry, I hope to see you out there strong tomorrow!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Back at 'em

Thanks for all the kind supportive comments regarding my last post. I am continuously amazed at this blogging community. It turns out that a few days rest was just what I needed. I slowed down this week. My workouts, however, thanked me for this little repose. I have had the best two runs this week in a long time. Yesterday I went for a four mile jaunt around Northwest DC. The combination of the beautiful, almost fall-like, weather and the rested muscles made for an awesome run. I was still going strong by the time I rounded the corner onto my street. Training for the tri has been great, but I miss running. It's just so easy to throw on a pair or running shoes and head out the door. No need to worry about swim caps, goggles, dehairing (yup, I said it), towel, etc etc...or helmet, air in tires, yada yada. Also, there's no other exercise where I can turn all the daily frustrations into power and strength. When I'm biking and swimming, I'm too worried about my form or my vehicle, etc. I really enjoy swimming and biking, but I guess I'm just a runner (albeit a slow one) at heart.

Anyways...many things to look forward to this week. Discounted dinner with my baby at a fancy restaurant for DC's restaurant week (yippee!), oh and vacation! If anyone has a recommendation for must sees in San Francisco, please send them my way. I also need some tips on restaurants to try while I'm there.

Race Day: 14 days.
Feeling: Ready.

Monday, August 07, 2006

In a Funk.

Everything was going great. I had my first open water swim experience since training on Saturday, July 29th (outcome: challenging but manageable). I've been really sticking to the schedule, so much so that I went for a pool workout right after my haircut and style (had to fit in the workout somewhere…which meant I couldn't enjoy my hair at it's best since I'll never be able to style my hair as well as Damian).

Beth and I also rode the Iron Girl event bike course in Columbia, MD this past Saturday. The course was extremely hilly and difficult but never did I think that I couldn't do it or curse myself at signing up for the event. I was really really excited afterwards, as a matter of fact. I felt to proud and accomplished that I had come this far.

And then…Saturday night as I'm lying in bed I start freaking out. My body hurt. I was exhausted, mentally and physically. So yesterday I decided to take a break from training. I cleaned the apartment. I ran some errands. I had an iced chai with whip from Starbucks. I painted.

But I still feel blah today. I know I should run today, but I just don't feel like it. I'm going on vacation next week and wish it were this week. I think I just need a break. I hope I didn't use up all my energy out there on the country roads this past weekend. I know I just need to push through until this cloud passes.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Everywhere and here

My summer classes are done. Done I say! These eight weeks have flown by and amazingly I have accomplished in this short amount of time what has normally taken me a whole year! See what happens when I put my mind to something. Yes, I am the little choo-choo that could.

Ok, I don't want to get too ahead of myself. I really can't complain about the classes. I enjoyed them but I am glad they are over. Now I can get back to other important things. Like training! Oh, and blogging!

Last night I had a dream about swimming. I think this is the third time since I've started swimming (back in January) that I've had a swimming dream. I love them. There's something so peaceful about dreaming that you're gliding through a body of water. Last night I dreamt that I was swimming in a lake. It kept getting bigger, which is a good thing, since it started out as a tiny little pond. It was never a scary dream. I even questioned in the dream if there were aligators in the lake but some kind dream character assured me there were no aligators, and I believed him. So I just swam around the lake, enjoying the serenity of it all. Can you tell I'm looking forward to my lake swim this weekend?

Tomorrow I am leaving work early to make it to the bike shop before they close for a bike fitting. Today is the first day that I have not had any tingling feeling since my ride on Saturday. I am determined not to have numb hands from my planned ride on Sunday.

I wish everyone luck on their races this weekend!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Time flies...

...when you're busy.

Quick recap of the past few weeks:
  • Went to Florida on family vacation. It was hot and a little crazy but it's always nice to spend time with family and get out of the office.
  • Mid-terms, and homework galore.

In training news, I'm sticking more to a schedule than I have over the past few months, but it's still not good enough. The triathlon is in five weeks and I am determined to stick to a training strict training schedule over these next five weeks. After this week, I really have no excuse to not stick with the program.

Not that I have been terrible about training. I have been running, biking, and swimming several times a week. Yesterday I went on a 22 mile bike ride around Northwest DC. It was my first time on the Capital Crescent Trail and it was an awesome and beautiful wooded trail! This city never ceases to amaze me. Around Chevy Chase I got a little turned around trying to find the trail and ended up riding along with 3 other people that just got back from a 3 week bike tour through France. I would love to do that some day. The only bad part about the ride was the fact that my hands are still a little numb...more than 24 hours later! I've read enough to know not to be too concerned...as it usually goes away. However, I also know enough to go to the bike shop and figure out just what the heck is wrong. I'm hoping I will just have to adjust the seat and maybe buy some gloves.

Now back to studying.