Triathlon At Pacific Grove - 9/13/08

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to write this race report. I have no words for much of what this race meant and continues to mean to me. But there are parts that I want to put out there - to share and to record in case I forget. In the interest of the quick read, here are the numbers for my first olympic distance triathlon:

Swim - 39:28
T-1 - 6:45
Bike - 1:44:52 (14.22 mph)
T-2 - 4:57
Run - 1:17:00
Total Time - 3:53:04

PRE RACE THINGS:

Putting our bikes back together in the hotel parking lot. That worked out okay.

Well, except for the part where my new best friend Hector of Winning Wheels checked Vivian over and said there were a few teensy things that needed to be fixed. Or replaced. Or recalibrated. Or put back in true. Dammit. (Thank you, thank you, thank you Hector for squeezing us in and making sure we had safe rides! Don't know what we would have done without you.)

The three of us (Lizichka, me, and Donna) at the pre-race meeting. Asking questions - even after attending the training clinic and reading everything on the website and in the registration packets. Can you say nervous neophyte racers?


One of the questions we asked was, "We have to swim to the SECOND line of buoys?! Are you sure?" Holy cow that looks a lot further out than we expected.


One of the things we were told was, "Don't worry. Most of those rocks will be covered by the tide at race time." Oh goodie. You know, I hadn't really thought about the rocks until the guy went on and on about it. I'd thought about the kelp and the otters and how far away the freaking buoys were and about sharks and the distinct possibility of getting stuck in my wetsuit, but not so much the chance of clanging into a rock.

THE SWIM: (1.5 K - 39:28)

Lizichka and I waving to John right before our swim start. Donna and the RBR girls are already in the water. Our wave was 15 minutes after theirs. A few quick things about the race start: I was not as "nervous" as I thought I'd be. There is usually a certain amount of dread involved in the feeling of "nervous" for me. That Saturday morning - after a year of training and half a lifetime of healing - I stood on that beach excited - not dreading anything. I had no idea how the day would go but it didn't really matter at that point. It was going to go - one way or another and I was ready to see how it would be. As we stood waiting for our turn, a woman Lizichka had been warming up with plucked a clinging kelp frond from Lizichka's shoulder. Then she waved it around and touched it to L's forehead as a blessing. The kelp benediction. It was such a small, silly moment, but it stands out to me as one I definitely want to remember. I love being in the midst of women and their energy.

Did I mention that we had to do two big triangular laps around those buoys? Or that in between the two laps we had to get out of the water and run around a big rock? The swim was harder for me than I expected. I hadn't warmed up enough for my body to acclimate to the cold water. I didn't feel cold but I had a very hard time breathing. My chest wouldn't expand and I couldn't get enough air. Finally, I scrapped all attempts at bi-lateral breathing (which was making me queasy in spite of the dramamine I'd taken) and settled into a good zone. I kept thinking, "This is happening. I'm here. I'm in the water. THIS water - the water that saved me. And I'm strong. This is happening!" It was cool. Until the very end of the first lap when a boat went by and the wake rolled in against the lower key tidal surge. Up, down, sideways, backward, up, down. Suddenly I was terribly, horribly nauseated. I hauled myself out of the water and around the rock, wondering if there was any way I could feel this bad and still swim another loop. When that picture was snapped I was thinking, "Oh God if I puke here everyone will run through it and hate me. You have to get around the rock, get around the rock, get around the rock and out of the way before you can hurl !!" I forced myself back in the water. While I wasn't "fine", I was much better and had a strong second lap. (I never did puke. Yay!)

T-1: (6:45)
I'm sure that's slow but I'm fine with it. I did it safely and there was a lot to navigate. I had to run up the beach and then some stairs and a ramp and down to the end row and then figure out how to get my wetsuit the rest of the way off and the warmish bike clothes on and then back out across the timing mat.

THE BIKE: (40K - 1:44:52)

That's RBR's run buddy in the pink right in front of me in the picture. You'd think I'd have been grateful to get on my bike but you'd be wrong. Biking is my limiter. It's mechanical and technical - two things I struggle with. Overall though - the bike was strong. It was a looped course so we got to go by our cheering section many times. We also got to wave at each other a bunch. It was fun to get to cheer and encourage each other when we were all at different paces. I'm not fast but I was steady in spite of a few challenges. I had to dodge a pigeon who was squatting in the center lane on the turn around by the announcer. The damfool thing CHARGED me as I wheeled around the curve. Stupid bird. The spectators got a kick out of it.

Then I hadn't secured my race number to my bike properly and I kept slicing my leg on the edge of it. Papercuts - who knew you had to worry about that on the bike? I tried to hold my leg at an angle but then it rubbed on the edge of my bento box. Clearly I needed to make some seat adjustments or something but I didn't want to stop and fiddle with all that. I did ask one of the officials if I could rip off my number but they said that would disqualify me. Stupid number. I got into the tough chica zone I suppose because I finally stopped worrying about the blood streaming down my leg and concentrated on pedaling evenly.

T-2: (4:57)
I felt like I was moving quickly in transition but even without a wetsuit I guess it just takes me a while. One negative: I discovered that someone had taken my Accel-Gel out of my shoe. Isn't that crazy?! What kind of triathlete steals another's nutrition?! (I needed that one dammit! It's the one with protein in it that I save for the second half of my run!) Oh well. Move on! Keep smiling! Keep thanking the volunteers! Keep enjoying the spectators like this one:

THE RUN: (10K - 1:17:00)

Yay! I finished! I walked some but I still beat my goal by seven minutes! I met a guy out on the course who was running with his brother, his stem cell donor. They ran it together to celebrate having a second chance at life. It was pretty motivating.


Here we are with our finisher's medals! (Lizichka, me, RBR, Donna, and RBR's LA Run Buddy)

AFTERS PARTY:

Here are a few pictures from Bullwhacker's down on Cannery Row - where we went for supper and to celebrate the day. I couldn't believe it was still there. (Twenty years ago we used to drink quite a few too many mudslides there and then try to navigate walking back up to the Presidio.) A special thanks to our beloved Sherpa John who was part paparrazi, part cheerleader, part pack mule, and all sunburned and worn out by the end of the day!

This triathlon represents tremendous growth and healing and change for me. I faced old trauma and celebrated my ability to create a new life for myself. I gained confidence by working for a specific goal over a long time and achieving it. I made fantastic, new friends in the process and renewed the friendships that got me through hell the first time I was out there.

AND I managed to write a race report about two months to the day after the fact! I have to say that I'm finally ready to let this sucker go: