The triathlon is officially past tense. I got through the swim and it was way harder on my head than my muscles. Luckily I could legally wear the wet suit that I rented because the water temp was below 78 degrees. It was really the only thing that helped me calm down when I felt like I was gonna loose it.
A short re-cap....at least I'll try to keep it short.
I woke up at 5:45 am and thought I'd just lay there til the alarm went off. The alarm didn't go off at 5:50 am as planned. When I checked I saw that I had set it incorrectly the night before - was set for 5:50 pm.....I don't know how I woke up on time, but I did.
I had breakfast and got dressed. I had loaded the bike and packed my bags the night before so I was ready to go. It took me about 20-25 minutes to get there and parked. I parked behind a woman who was there to watch the race. Her DIL was volunteering as a noodle swimmer. I told her that I would say hi since odds are I would probably be meeting her. (I didn't.)
I met friends on the way there and we walked to the transition area to set up our things and rack our bikes. Setting up your transition area is an artform all on it's own. You need your helmet, sunglasses, socks/shoes, race bib, etc all set and ready to go when you need them. And some people have shoes just for biking/just for running. We then went and got "marked up" with our race #, age, and swim wave. We got our timing chip, and had time for a bathroom run before the mandatory swim meeting at 7:40.
I was in swim wave 6 - start time 8:15. I was a deer in headlights. Can you see me up there?? Off to the left - white swim cap. Anyone that hugged me and wished me good luck brought tears to my eyes. I didn't know what to expect and didn't know if I was going to be swimming in on my own or riding in on a boat because I'd had to be picked up. The swim route is sort of like a triangle....you swim out at an angle (150 yards), turn a corner - swim the backstretch (200 yards), swim back at an angle (150 yards). They set us off and I walked very slowly into the water, letting others plow on ahead. I didn't want to louse up anyone's rhythm. Finally I got to a point where it was time to lift my feet up and go - I didn't think about it too much and am actually surprised that I didn't freeze right there. The toughest thing was just sticking my head in the water and finding a rhythm....actually I never did do that. Tried once and it was so unnerving not to know what was ahead of me. So most of the time my head was bobbing at water level - much of what was exhausting me in the beginning. I skipping the first noodle person and went to the second. Stayed a minute - then skipped another noodle person and went to Cathy. (At this point I was hanging out with them....I might as well get their name.) I stayed with Cathy about 2 minutes because by then the next wave was coming up on me and I just wanted to let them go by. I think I stayed too long because she pretty much had to say - get going! Just do it! This was right before the first turn and I think that was intimidating me too.
I went around the turn, and then started back floating - back floated past a noodle person (I think) and then flipped over to see where I was. I couldn't see anything - no swimmers, no noodle people, no buoys. I didn't have the first clue which direction to swim. For some reason things were turned around for me - it didn't seem like I was going in the right direction - yet I didn't know which direction I had come from. It was at this point - looking back, that I would have panicked big time if it hadn't been for the wet suit. In that - I could easily tread water and know that I wasn't going down. Just find a noodle person, get to them and ask directions. :) And that's what I did. I was a little less than halfway.
From this point on, I didn't try to skip noodles. I went to every noodle, just didn't stay very long. 30-45 seconds. Enough time to get their name and make my offer to run twice as long later, if they would just take me to shore now. They were great - very encouraging and calming. In the end I finally hit the sand with my feet - sweet, sweet sand. I wasn't very dizzy getting out of the water - I expected worse. Probably because I spent as much time vertical in the water as horizontal.
My swim time - 28:53. I beat my initial guess by 67 seconds. :) So that's something, right? Plus - there are TWO people that finished the race and were slower in the water than me. I'm thinking the 3 of us should get together and commiserate.
I pulled off the top of my wet suit, saw great friends cheering me on as I climbed up the sand - which made me cry...again. I washed my feet off in the kiddie pools waiting for us and ran to the transition area to get my bike. Pulled off the wet suit (easily)...pulled on my running skirt, socks, ankle wrap, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and watch. I was ready to go off on my bike. Time for all this madness - 4:08. I got held up a few times when I was getting wet suit off and putting my ankle wrap on because I kept having to take my timing chip off. (It was velcroed onto my ankle) Then I'd put it back on only to find out I have to take it off again to get the ankle wrap on.
Next up - 15.5 miles on the bike.
