how I did the tri

I was freaking out all night over the whole last wave thing, and barely slept a wink. I tried to focus on all the positive things Sally Edwards had said the day before, but my anxiety was getting the better of me. I tossed and turned until I gave up at 3:45AM and just got out of bed to prepare to leave.

The good news is that I took 23 minutes off of my triathlon time from just a month ago when I did a trial triathlon at the island. I knew my "wave" was scheduled to begin the swim at 7:38, so I told the husband I was hoping to finish at 10:15. I gave myself some extra transition time, I was concerned by the number of women there, and was worried that it would be chaotic, when in actuality it was not.
To keep myself happy I started taking photos with a disposable water camera I had brought. Each time I would bump into someone I knew I would ask another stranger to take a photo of us. I just tucked the camera into my tri shorts for the swim.

Waiting for the swim, and watching the 900 or so other participants begin was torture. I was already anxious, and this did nothing to sooth my nerves. There were going to be two groups of women in my color coded group, so I inched my way towards the front to assure that at least I would be in the first group to hit the water. As soon as I began swimming, I swallowed a big mouthful of the extra salty bay water. It was a bad way to begin. I haven't trained at all in salt water. In addition to the salt there were also seaweed and jelly fish to deal with. The water was also choppy with a current. I ended doing some serious negative talking during the first half of the swim. I definitely touched one jelly fish and caught a clump of seaweed, and there was a slight brush of another jelly like substance, it was something but I am not sure exactly what. The other thing that was brushing up against me was bodies, women who were trying to swim past, or just kind of going sideways. Lots of contact. So, it was tough swimming, waves, bodies, critters, and I am sure that at about the mid way point I got a good whiff of poo, and think that someone before me might have been sick. (gross!)

My plans for slipping out the camera and taking pictures during the swim were quickly forgotten. The swimming was much tougher than I had imagined. Then we turned around and I couldn't really see because my goggles were all foggy and I started going towards the wrong finish line. All the finish lines looked the same, and I saw the bike finish blur of redness. I didn't know why the guys on the surf boards kept saying "Stay left". Finally I realized they were talking to me, and I headed the right way. I was pretty far out to the side. After that I followed the other pink bathing caps. Finally, with 3/4 of the course behind me I got into a groove and started to swim with more power. Despite veering off course, I did the swim in 24 minutes, which is good for me. Coming out of the water, I was looking around for the family. I didn't see them. I was on the verge of tears, thinking that they had not made it down on time to cheer me on, feeling disappointed myself and knowing how disappointed Matt would be.

I took a pretty long 8 minutes to change and start the bike leg of the tri. During the transition, I saw lots of women with lower numbers than me taking their time, snacking and chatting and realized that they were all taking it easy and felt much less terrible about being in the last wave. I was not going to be last one in! I got on the bike, started down the path and saw the kids. Oh, it made me so happy. They were so happy to see me too, and after seeing them I really gave it my all. I still tasted that nasty salty bay water in my mouth. The first half of the ride was fine.. The wind was at my back and I was sailing, passing people, and feeling fabulous. However, at the half way point we did a hairpin turn to go back and then faced into the wind and I had to triple my effort just to go half as fast. Every one was going slower, we had to, the wind was incredible. I just tried to keep pace with the rest of the group of serious looking bikers. The last 4 miles I realized that I had not sat squarely on my seat and that I was getting pinched on one side of the girl part. Owww! I kept chanting "pain..pain.pain.." until I glided into the end, stashed my bike, grabbed a water and a camera, and headed for my walking finale.

The strangest thing about transitioning to walking, besides my totally numb/throbbing girl part is the feeling that I was moving in slow motion. It was almost dreamlike. After the speed of the bike, there is a definite lack of airiness to moving at my own speed. Keeping in mind what Sally Edwards had suggested to us, I just kept moving forward with small quick steps until my legs became accustomed to walking and I could lengthen my stride a bit more. I was walking pretty good, and crossed two friends who were finishing up the walk. The second of whom opened up her arms to give me a big sweaty hug, and that really helped keep the spring in my step. The kids saw me, we took photos of each other, then they cheered so loud that the volunteers were all smiling and laughing, and it felt great. All I wanted to do was finish, and be back with them, and I was motoring as fast as I could go. When I turned the corner at about 250 yards left, the kids were there again, and so was my group of friends from home. could see the finish line up ahead. Evan yelled "Run, Mom, you're almost there." So, I ran, and my friends all cheered my name and then the other groups of people all started to cheer for me, until tons of folks were cheering for me by name, and I ran over the finish line. I had the biggest smile on. Matt ran over to hug me, Evan took photos, Josh was all hugs next, and I was so happy. It was 9:50.