I TRIed... and I did it - Be your own hero!
racing to the finishIt's been long overdue - the race report from my first ever triathlon. First off, can I say it's been a CRAZY CRAZY past 2 weeks. I think work, training, and engagement party planning decided to just be BFF and sabotage my life lol. In any case, one thing at a time: the race.
days leading up to race:
It was taper week so I did rest for the most part. I fit two 4-5 mile runs. My one bike workout was on Tuesday(?) when I decided to be a bike commuter and rode to work. It was surprisingly quick (20min or so) and somewhat safe - I stuck to the west side highway bike lane and then 8th ave which has a separate bike lane. If I get a bike anytime soon I may just try to do that at least 1-2x a week til it gets too cold/snow. I fit two swim workouts - one being Friday right after my class. I had a little drama since I lost my swimsuit so I had to purchase one randomly then run to the pool before it closed. Luckily it was empty and my goal was to do a 400m swim again. I did (relief!) and left with a little more confidence under my belt.
Expo day:
Interesting. It was at 10am. in long island. Fortunately, coach Jody came to the rescue and drove me and a fellow teammate to the race. We got there super early so I registered for the race and got as many freebies as I could. Drooled over the trek hybrid bike. Listened to sally edwards speak. then it was off to run a full day of errands gathering food and house items for the e-party. I tried to get to bed reasonably early and finally force myself to get some shut-eye around 11. (yeah, bad)
RACE day:
so when you have a race with a 6:30 start time , in tri-world, that means you have to be at the race site around um 5am. If the race is an hour away that means You need to leave by 4am. If it takes you 30 min to get ready that means you wake up at 3:30am. See where i'm getting here? Your day starts just when everyone is getting home from the club. Early as hell. lol. My dear friend Lisa, did the unthinkable and came and supported me for which i'm oh so grateful... thanks pinky! Coach Jody came ot the rescue again and drove me and kiana's target bike to the race site.
Setting up transition:
- pitch black
- realized a few people didn't know what they where doing
- so early that I got near the front of the rack
- didn't have much stuff so spent the next hour talkin to team mates, taking pics
- getting nervous about swim
- found lisa...more pics...lol
- after getting bodymarked, I finally head to pool to see if i could warm up
- A lot of people weren't getting in the water but I let go of feeling/looking stupid and did a warm up 50m in the pool to just get acclimated to the water
- finally calling everyone to line up to get ready to start
- talked to a few women in line who were also nervous about the swim...even ran into another woman who just learned to swim in early summer just like me! made me feel better :)
- pledge of allegiance (oh crap...aabout to start)
- a lot of cheering from the stands and from everyone in line waiting to start
me and lisa
530 am. passing time in the transition area
with my heartzones team
in line about to get in the pool...see my nervous smile?THE SWIM.
- there was a little holding area where you jumped in and held onto the wall. you pretty much ducked under the lane line and get ready to push off when a race official screams "GO!" we go one-at-a-time in 10 sec intervals. Much more relaxed than what we practiced in our mini tri which was jumping in at the intervals and then pushing off wall. so that was a relief. the nerves were building in my 10 seconds to go!
- first 100 m I knew i would probably pull out too fast so I let myself do it for about 50m then when my body and brained realized, ok you're in the water swimming, relax, I relaxed.
- oh crap, ring feels like it's slipping off - i break lol to push it back down and keep going
- touched wall and pushed off to the next 100
- I think the girl behind me is catching up to me... what's new (i expected this)
- think, boy this pool is awfully deep (but not thrown off by this since we practiced in this pool already)
- touch wall and swim under lane line but i'm not deep enoug hso head grazes lane line...dang..
- girl behind me has caught up - i move to the right to let her pass
- oh i see a traffic jam coming up ahead -
- yes - traffic jam it is as 6 of us reach wall or is pushing off at the same time.. I swam past two people and by the middle of the 3rd 100m - it's pretty much evened out ..
- wait did you just catch that? i swam past two people?!! lol
- I find a pretty comfortable pace for the rest of the way (told myself to relax - this is the relaxing part of the race- reach and glide..reach and glide) and just keep at it until the last 100m when I see the end is in sight - I speed it up to finish...thinking I DID IT!!!!!!!!! I DID IT!!!!!!!
- who would have known in about 2 months I went from not knowing how to do freestyle and passing out before 25m to swimming in a race finishing 400m! it can be done!
that is a big @*! pool
the line to start the swim
getting out of the pool - how relieved am i?
the last 100m of the swim
I did notice from watching video that I have this crazy kick thing going on. maybe someone can offer pointers on how to fix that. I knew I was doing something weird with the kicking but doing this sporadic kick thing felt like less energy than constantly kicking - and i felt it could save my legs.
TRANSITION #1
I get out of pool and run to transition. i see people walking (why?) I get to my spot. take a breather. There's a girl next to me who I met at the expo - a first-timer.. she was a swimmer so I knew she probably finished fast. But she was taking SOOOO long in transition changing/etc... I Drink some water. then throw on my socks and sneakers. put helmet on, asked how is she doing, then grabbed bike, and ran outta there.
transition #1
BIKE
- I just have to put it out there that I am riding my girl, Kiana's bike. We joke about her bike all the time b/c it was like the target special. It's a mountain bike. It's not a road or hybrid with fancy shmancy tires and gears that I saw most people have at the race. But it's a bike! it rides! I knew i would get passed but I did get out early enough . I kept to an easy rhythm. it was 4 loops around the track
- My first 2 loops were dictated by the volunteer who told me to keep left and not go right at a certain junction - which would cause huge controversy later for many race goers- so that sucks...luckily it was fixed halfway and I went in the right direction for the final 2 laps. I checked in with a race official and wanted to confirm that it had happened out there and if i should repeat my first two loops and she said no - to go ahead and transition (thank god!)
on the bike...
throwin the deuce lol
Yay - Ki's target bike!easy. rack bike. drink water. throw on race belt. and go!
RUN
- I had sport beans so I tried to chow down on a couple of those because I didn't drink enough on the bike. Ki's water bottle is out of reach while riding so I can only drink when i'm off the bike-pointless huh? (girl, add another holder!) so yes, I ate sport beans and started off on the course.
- saw one of my workout leaders/swim mentor (amanda) who looked confused but happy and said "Eunice?! what are you doing out here!" then she must have realized i finished the swim hahaha -- and cheered for me more.
- saw another workout leader/run mentor (elise?) who was also cheering for me
- didnt have major bricks in the legs (strange - i was expecting them) so i picked up the pace
- then, using elise's advice, i started picking people off - she said if see someone ahead of me, try to catch them..and when i pass, find the next person and pass them. so i did...
- until... i got to a junction in the run path that wasn't marked. I didn't really study the run course so I had followed the chalkmarks/cones in the road but there were 2 points that weren't marked. crap. this could be a dnf/disqualify if i go the wrong way... and there were no volunteers in sight. so i looked up ahead and in the distance, saw this girl to the left - so i picked left. reached some cones and was relieved i was on the right track
- that happened twice.
- some girl caught up with me at the second fork in the road - so we decided together to run left and chatted as we ran... she had a quicker pace but I could only keep up for like half a mile so I said good luck and let her pass - trying to stay within reasonable distance behind her.
- finally - the finish line was in sight.
- and so...I picked up the pace to a mini sprint.
- Saw elise on my way to the finish who yelled "yes! way to go - kicking up those legs - you're almost done!"
CROSSED
THE
FINISH
LINE.
(with a huge smile on my face)
I got my medal.
and that is how I completed my first triathlon.
POST RACE highlights:
- getting tons of hugs and high-fives from my heartzone teammates
- pics with lisa who showed me all the videos you see here (thanks lisa!)
- pics with the team
- going back out with the whole team and finding our teammate jennifer and walking across the finish line with her. She is overcoming a tremendous weight loss - and on her way to losing even more ... and was a source of inspiration for all of us. literally. if she can do it, no one else has ANY excuses. none.
- it was pretty emotional crossing that finish line with her - she was in tears. everyone else was in tears. we were all hugging.. and we got a pretty great group photo in at that moment.
that's Jen in the middle with the entire heartzone team around (and behind) her - she completed her first tri ever as well
with Sally Edwards - the spokesperson for the race..
with half the team and coaches.. that's coach jody below opposite me.
BEST POST RACE HIGHLIGHT:
driving back to NYC and looking at the race results online on my phone and was so confused as to why my name was near the top of the finishers list... my bib number wasn't that low... but as i read across the stats - I find out that I
- finished in 1:08:27 (hello!)
- finished 3rd place in my age group (WTF?! for real?! lol! wait 3rd?! out of 21)
- finished 12th overall in the race (out of 191 finishers!) holy crap!
- coach jody was ecstatic and called coach marty...we were floored!
wow to my RUN!!! I PR'ed with 23:06 for a 5k - at a 7:42 pace! hello!
So yeah it was a good day.
I came home. ate. and slept. all freakin day.
it was nice.
peace.