Jen and I participated in the
olympic distance KC
Tri this year. I loved the triathlon I did 2 years ago and knew I wanted to try another one. The first one I did was a sprint distance, and the swim was a breeze since it was only 200m in a pool. I've always been a swimmer, and never had any anxiety about swimming. Until the
tri got closer and closer. Then I started freaking out. The weather here has not been as warm as May usually is, and that means the lakes are still cold. And this swim was 1500m (.93 miles) in the lake! I didn't help matters any by checking the lake temp daily, which dipped down to 59 degrees 3 days before the
tri. Let me just put that in perspective a little. A 78 degree pool is cold. A lot of indoor pools are kept around 80 degrees, and that has quite a chill to it at first. They allow wetsuits if the water is below 76 degrees. So 59 freaked me out. I dipped my toes in the outdoor pool at the gym, which was 64 degrees and it took my breath away. And I don't own a wetsuit. I'm going to die. Not to mention the distance was messing with me a little. That last 500m gets tough. So I invested in a 2mm wetsuit, which is not very thick, but it was all I could find on such short notice.
I picked Jen up at 5:45am and headed to
Longview Lake. Upon arriving I spotted the Water Rescue Team truck. It looked like an ambulance and made my stomach turn. We got our transition stations all set up and headed to the
porta-potty line. And who do we see? Our dear friend Cori's first patient was in Lee's Summit that morning so she stopped by to watch us (make sure we didn't die) start the swim. She knew right where to find her two nervous girls... in line for the bathroom! It was so nice having her there to support us, and also to take some pictures of us while we were still "fresh". I'll have to post those pictures when I get them from Jen, but all I have now are from Dusty's camera, and they are, well, not so fresh.
As we stood on the beach and the
mens waves started, my stomach was in knots. I looked out at all the
buoys that I had to somehow swim around and make it back. In that cold water. Then it was our turn. Jen and I were in the same heat, and the bull horn went off. Our super competitive heat all ran into the water, dove in, and were on their way. Jen and I ran in, and stopped. We looked at each other and started laughing. How in the world were the rest of our bodies supposed to get in? Once we finally got in the water it was like I had never swam before in my life. I just couldn't go. My body was in shock. I couldn't even take one stroke. We finally got into a rhythm about 100m in. Open water swimming was very different for me. You can't ever just put your head in and go, or you'll end up way off track in the middle of the lake. And there are people just as lost as you, bumping in to you. I finally started doing about 4-5 strokes, poking my head out, getting back on track, and continuing on, with Jen right by my side. We finally made the turn to head back, but the water got really choppy. Every time I went to take a breath, I would open my mouth and a wave would crash into it. Yuck. We were very pleased with our swim time. I was expecting it to take me forever, but we got back to the transition area in 36 minutes.
At the transition area I had to try to remember what all I needed to do before jumping on the bike. First things first, get out of that wetsuit. Fun. Then I put my socks and shoes on, my t-shirt and my bike helmet. And we were off. Almost. I forgot to take my
Gu and Jen had a rock in her shoe. So we stopped to get organized, Jen's bike fell over, she yelled, "It's
ok, it's just a Schwinn!" and we jumped back on. Expect now her handle bars were crooked from the fall! We were laughing at our great start. The first loop of the bike was intimidating. These people are competitive. And mean. I decided I don't like triathletes. We got yelled at several times for slowly being in peoples way.
Sheesh. However, the second loop was better because all the men were off the course. The best part was when I saw Dusty and the boys. I was waving frantically and ran smack into a cone. I don't know how I didn't wreck because that cone barely budged. We were laughing so hard I almost had to get off the bike so I wouldn't pee my pants. Booker was so excited, telling everyone, "My mom ran into a cone!" We finished the 25 mile bike in 1:43. Not bad for us, but pretty much the slowest people on the course. We didn't care one bit though, we had so much fun and that's all that mattered to us.
And then came the run. It was 6.2 miles of torture for me. My mind was completely in the wrong place. I just wanted to quit and walk the entire time. I can usually pull myself out of it, but not this time. The sun was out and it was humid, and the heat and I don't get along when I'm running. Jen was such a good friend, trying to keep me motivated. I felt bad because I know she could have done better, but she stayed with me the entire time. We did our run in 1:02, which isn't horrible, but if I would have been in the game, I know we could have done a lot better than that. But you know what? We finished this bad boy in 3:29 and that is our personal record... for now!
Finishing the bike
Run... I don't even know how I got a smile out.
Finally done, STUDS!
Me and Booker, Bodey didn't want anything to do with me.
