Carlsbad Triathlon Race Report!

Sooo... I did a little triathlon yesterday. :) I don't know where to start!

The night before: I made poppy seed chicken for dinner, because I was tired of pasta and rice has similar amounts of carbohydrates per serving to pasta. I set up a pseudo-transition area in my bedroom and then packed everything in color-coded Chico Bags (love them) and stuffed it all into my transition bag. I got to bed around 9, and then kept thinking of things I needed to do, but I was officially in bed by 9:50, after some, um, pre-race gastrointestinal issues.

Race Day: I was up and at 'em at 450, and out the door by 515. I got to the race site at 537, thanks to my Nascar-like driving skills. Super-early, but I am so glad I got there when I did. I found a parking spot a block and-a-half from the transition area. As I was getting my gear out of the Beetle, Margaret showed up and snagged a spot right across the street from me. More awesomeness.

As we headed over to the not-yet-open transition area, there were about 15 people in line. I thought, "wow, those are the crazy ones." Um. Then I got in line behind them, thus becoming one of them. Good times. The pay-off for getting there before the sun was awake is that we got great spots in the transition area.

They had the Athenas in the same area as the 40 and ups. Women kept coming up to me and saying, "NO WAY are you over forty!" Me: "No, no. Just fat." At first I just explained that I was in the athena group, but no one knew what that was, so I started being more, um, descriptive about it.

Since we got there so early, we had nearly two hours before our waves took off. We went through the porta-john line a couple of times for fun. Margaret and I cruised around, checked out the water temp (cold!) and bounced back and forth between her transition area and mine. We met a woman who was making the Carlsbad Triathlon her comeback-her first triathlon in four years. She had recently beaten breast cancer. It's a good thing I didn't just cry right there, 'cause I almost did. I saw her afterward and we exchanged "good jobs" and all that good stuff. She had an Ironman tattoo. Ironman tattoos on women are hot.

As if by magic, it was all of a sudden time to head to the start. Maybe later. Margaret and I went back and forth on a very important issue: wear our pants to the starting line and risk losing them, or bare all and walk down the beach in our bathing suits. My love for my black fleece pants surpassed my modesty, so made the walk in my suit. David showed up around that time, but could only stand up on top of the bluff, so there are several horrible pictures of me from behind that will never, ever see the light of day. Actually, they're on Flickr, if you're in a stalking mood, but I am not going to post them here. I realized that I forgot to take off my ring, so I ran up the stairs to give it to David. While I was running up, I was trying to dig it out of my sports bra pocket, so my hand was all up in my boobs. One guy was looking at me funny, so I said, "Excuse me, I'm trying to get my wedding ring out," and he laughed. Anyway.

Short bus moment of the morning: I thought Marg's wave was about to go off, so I screamed out, "GO MARGAREEETTTTTT!" And then the wave in front of hers started. oops. She was only about ten feet in front of me, which made the screaming more awesome.

The swim: Ok, so for those of you playing along at home, you may remember that I had been sick all week. Sore throat and cough, fun stuff. The moment I was all the way in the water, my chest constricted and the wheezing began. I struggled to catch my breath during the entire swim. It really sucked. I don't know my time yet, but I imagine I was at least ten minutes slower than normal due to all breaststroking I had to do. Once I rounded the first buoy, I remembered that I am a fast backstroker, so I flipped over and did that for awhile, and managed to pass a few people and catch up to a few more people. About halfway through, I finally got my breathing under control and was able to do freestyle. I caught a few more people that way. Gladly, I was not the last person out of the water. I have a very fragile self-esteem.

As I got out of the water, I had a little case of the woozies, but nothing too bad. I honestly don't even remember what I was thinking. Probably mostly relief that the swim was over and that I was now able to participate in activities that didn't require me to put my face in water. And why is this sand so damn hard to run through? Do those lifeguards think I am fat? Seriously, what is with this sand?

The Bike: And then I was on my bike! As I was in the transition area, it all felt so surreal. I don't feel like I was thinking, I was just following my plan and doing what I needed to do to get out of there and on my bike. I made the choice to leave my heart rate monitor, because what I was mostly concerned about was being able to keep track of times, and the watch part was already mounted on my bike. I stuffed part of a Clif Bar under my bra strap and I was off.

I was by myself a lot during the bike, but I managed to catch five or six people, which was cool. There was a woman in front of me on a mountain bike who kept alternating between all-out sprinting and omg slow riding. It was killing me to be behind her. We played tag for awhile, but I didn't manage to leave her behind for good until the second lap. She probably ended up passing me on the run, but I was glad she wasn't in front of me anymore on the bike.

As I approached the turnaround on the first lap, my bike refused to shift out of the large chain ring. Problem! I rode about a mile and-a-half feeling a little helpless. I was resigning myself to a crappy bike ride, when BAM! Someone actually read-ended me! WTF? I cried out and kind of braced myself for what would surely be a horrible fall, but it never came. The woman who hit me apologized profusely, saying she had looked down for a second and didn't see me. Then she left me behind. Proof that God can show up wherever he wants: the rear-ending fixed my bike! I was about to have a celebration right there on the side of the road. Instead, I concentrated on catching the people I could see in front of me. Then the bike was over! A couple of co-workers and my husband were there, cheering, which was great.

On the bike, I passed an 85 year-old man. I wanted to say something, but I didn't even know what to say, I was so overcome by his awesomeness. I should have said something. I stared, instead.

The bike-ro-run transition was more mindless plan-following. I took the water bottle off of my bike because I hadn't drank drunk imbibed very much on the bike, and I also wanted to have a gel.

The run: Ow! I'm not a fast runner, so I didn't expect to be blazing out of the transition area, but I was pretty slow. My calves started cramping up immediately, which told me I should have grabbed a banana instead of a gel. I run/walked the first half-mile. Once I got up to street level (the first part was on a paved path along the sand), I brained my way through the pain and found a pace. It helped that the San Diego Tri Club was right at the top of that little hill. They didn't know who I was, but they cheered me like they did. Thanks, guys. :)

I passed the finish line around mile one. David was there to tell me that I was 1/3 of the way done. Not so helpful, but he meant well. haha I'm not gonna lie: the run was really slow. Probably half of the people I passed on the bike passed me on the run.

Once I got to the turnaround, the finish line, although still a mile away, was visible. That kept me going. The voices in my head were warring the whole time. "Waallkk!" "No. You can see the finish line. Keep going!" etc, etc. I am proud to say that I didn't walk (you know, except for that part at the beginning). As I approached the finish line, I curse the race directors for the uphill finish. MEAN! But, hey, there's the finish line! Approaching the finish, I felt the same way I felt running on the sand after the swim. Is it getting any closer? It doesn't seem like it's getting closer. OMG, is that chafing I feel? Crap. Seriously, where is the damn finish line?

And then I was there! And I was a triathlete. And now I am crying a little. :')

In case you're wondering: there will definitely be more triathlons in my future. I am looking forward to improving and losing more weight and having more fun. It's gonna be awesome.















You can do it, too, ok? I promise you can.