What a weird day! I am just trying to pass some time in my hotel room until the awards dinner, so why not post my race report? Today was alot of "firsts". Lets start out at the very beginning. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night due to the fact that I have a hard time falling asleep before 11, add nerves to that and a 3:50 A.M. wakeup-call and I might as well have just stayed up. That is what I felt like anyway. Surprisingly when I was rung awake by the "pleasant" sound of the hotel room phone, I got up and felt OK. Must have been the enormous amounts of sleep at lower elevation I got the previous two nights. Mom, sis, dog and I leave our hotel at 4:20 A.M. to start out short drive over to the Lake. It is pitch black outside with lightening on the horizon every few minutes. There is an 80% chance of rain today. I am getting pretty excited by the thought of rain and cooler temps and feel blessed not having to race in the typical TX heat of upper 90s that this race is known for. After getting lost on our way, we find ourselves in the midst of a huge line of red tail lights waiting to park. I look behind us, and a line about 1 1/2 mi long has formed in less than 5 mins. Glad we got there early...
I set up transition, even tie a helium balloon to my "space" so that I cannot miss my stuff this time. (Oddly enough, no one else seems to have thought of this idea, weird... I must be the only retard I guess...JK) A few trips to the bathroom/trees and I feel pretty unloaded. A short warmup run has to be performed rather cautiously since I can't see a darn thing. At 6:20 AM ( it is just now getting dim out) we are ordered to the start area. I test the waters and realize I could have probably worn my FS wetsuit instead of my sleeveless. It is overcast and misty out.
The pros are the first wave to go off ( I am second to last half an hour later) and the weirdest thing I have ever seen in triathlon happens. Their run in start becomes a run along the banks of the lake for a good few hundred meters. Some are still running even after they have made the turn and I can no longer see them. Ofcourse all us AG'ers see it and wonder what to do. The next wave goes off and people do the same thing. So naturally, everyone copied what the pros did, and while it is totally legal to do this, I felt like it was just wrong. So my wave comes around and I line up at the front, realizing that if I want to have a good swim, I will need to follow suit and run the banks, which are about 2 ft deep at the most. So I line up next to Jax who is determined to make a run for it, and once the gun goes off, so are a good 3/4s of our wave; running along the shore, on the swim course. I lasted for about 25m before I hit a rock and decided to take the safe route and swim. At every breath I can see the black figures jogging in the shallow waters to my left, single file. It was just soo odd. Now the good part: As the water finally becomes deep enough for no more running, alot of these people start to swim, in front of me, but sloooowwww. Ugh, I felt like I was in the wrong race. Luckily I was able to avoid alot of the mess and swam around them and got into somewhat of a rhythm at the first buoy. And yes, at 2000ft less elevation, the swim felt alot easier and I had none of the breathing problems that usually occur in the water.
As we near the finish of the swim, I can see volunteers in the water, guiding us to the exit and helping us out! And to top it off, they even unzip the backs of our wetsuits for us! What a service! Then, there are more volunteers as we exit the water and they ask if we need help getting our wetsuits off. Hell yes! However, my wetsuit won't come off, as usual. So instead of speeding the transition up for me, it actually gets slowed down as two pairs of hands try to free my legs from the suit. Finally, after a minute of sliding up and down the ramp, and using two people's forces, I am free and off to my bike. (Once again, I am sure I managed the slowest transitions)
The bike course starts off brutal right away. Up a steep hill, then down and then up another. All before exiting the park. 10 mins into the ride, it starts raining and it's windy, about 20mph. It will continue to rain the remainder of the bike. Honestly, I don't remember much from the ride at all. I do remember seeing the mile markers on the road, and the refs out on course by the dozen, making sure we stay 7m apart between each bike! ( seems impossible, but I managed not to get a single penalty, yay me!) 20 mi into my ride and I am soaked, shoes and top and everything. I am wondering if my running shoes in transition will be soaked as well when I get back. (luckily, they magically stayed dry) I have stopped looking at my computer and watch and am just focused on passing people. And I do pass people, alot. But it takes alot of energy. Since the refs gave all of us a scare last night with their rules, I had to make sure to obey the 20 sec rule and the "drop out of drafting zone" rule. So every 3 minutes or so I would have to make a sprint to pass someone within 20 secs and then hold that pace. Definitely need to work on interval workouts on the bike so that racing like this becomes easier. It is raining pretty hard about halfway into the ride, and although it keeps temperatures down and thirst away, I am becoming slightly annoyed at the situation since it is supposed to be dry here. I only go through my aerodrink and a waterbottle with Coke, and two gels. It's REALLY hard for me to eat ANYTHING at all on the bike (or run) so I had to force these down, even though I hate gels.. But i didn't want to waste energy chewing... (obviously, long races take away my common sense)
We get to some more hills, and I have taken my glasses off because I can't see a thing anyway. Ever time we hit a downhill, people get on their brakes, and go about 15mph, and I can't pass them because it is two abreast on each side of the road already. Frustrating, I felt like I couldn't really race the speed I wanted to/am capable off, but safety first, and I am glad I didn't crash. The rain was coming at us sideways, a good downpour, and it hit my eyes hard and I had to squint on every descent. I pretty much just hoped I'd make it down the hills. Scary! Finally we get back on the flats and I see 40 mi, which means 16 left! Piece-a-cake! I put my head down and start cranking the pedals in an effort to make up some lost time. I am pretty sure my bike leg will be over 3 hours. I finally reach transition, so relieved and looking forward to the run, and sure that I am last in my AG at this point. I need to take my socks off, because they are soaked, and luckily I brought two pairs. Another long transition...
I don't feel wobbly when I start running (prob means I didn't ride hard enough...ha) and I am getting my turnover pretty quickly. I am also running next to some familiar faces and my fuel belt is almost sliding off of me, it's so heavy (not sure if I'll be using that again). Mi 1 takes forever to pass. At this point I see the pros returning and finishing up their race. Must be nice... After feeling sorry for myself for a few seconds, I get my game face back on and focus real hard. I am passing more people, and that keeps me going. I have no idea what time I am at, and I am guessing it's not very fast. Around the lake I run and then there it is, say it ain't so: the monster hill (14% grade) that I ran yesterday pre race, thinking I had taken the wrong turn. I make it up and I see Jax on top. I get closer, and we exit the park and are off to the charming Country roads of Lubbock (the town of Lubbock deserves a whole separate post my itself, more on that later maybe). Another monster, downhill this time. ( I immediately think of the pain it will cause on the way back at around mi 11 or 12) Before the lasso uphill on the other side, I can't take it anymore. I need to pee! So I step off the road and try to relax and I go. In my shorts, and it runs down my leg into my shoe. Yay, now I have a wet shoe.. But I feel better. ( last year I managed to go while running!) So once I get up this hill monster I turn left and begin my run towards hell. This stretch of road had to be the most mundane thing ever. I think we ran a total of 5 miles or so on it, including the turn-around, which seemed to never come. Time to play the aid station game. Get to the next aid station, think about nothing else. I manage to take ice water at every stop and drink some and then pour some over me. I also slowly sip on the salt-fortified gatorade I brought along in my 2lb fuel belt. Some really fast girl who looks like she's running 5 min pace, passes me and I don't respond. I am on survival mode. I am starting to feel bad, it is getting more humid out and I guess I am getting dehydrated (although I just peed in my shoe)
The rest of the run is a blur, which includes several stops for my cramping foot and calf ( which seems to ALWAYS be a problem when I do long events- gotta figure that one out still) I couldn't stand the thought of eating anything, so I didn't. Stupid idea, but I felt like I was going to puke if I put anything in my mouth besides water. Finally, after what seemed like years going around the lake, I see the home stretch and I can see the clock, and two other racers in front of me ( one guy, one girl). I suck up every last drop of energy and get on my toes in an effort to pass them. I do and then I cross the line, into the arms of a volunteer who has to almost carry me to the med tent where I get 2 IVs ( I feel pretty good now, no post-race headache!) and sit there for a good hour. My fellow Boulderite from the start of the run lands next to me with an IV himself. This was my first IV experience, and I am not quite sure why I was in such bad shape, considering the temps were probably about 10-20 degrees cooler than normal. Can't imagine what the med tent would look like if today was hot.
Still I have no idea how I did, but maybe top 5 if I'm lucky. Well, Jax runs over to me after the race and yells that I won our AG. Whhaaaaat? Can't be. She says her friends have been online all day following our progress, and she had been first until the run when I took over. So I checked the results and yes, I did win. How- I don't know. I thought for sure I was a snail today. Jax ended up second and got a Clearwater slot, which is what she wanted. I am about to head off to the awards and grab my Kona slot. It hasn't sunk in yet, I am not sure what I am getting myself into, but I am going to be going to the 30th anniversary race of Ironman Hawaii 2008! WOA!
Some pics to come later when I get home. Not looking forward to the drive back up 287 tomorrow.. Some scary landscape out there...
