This Philly Tri was an awakener. We drove south Friday night in the midst of heavy hail and thunderstorm. There was a split of interest in the car about the rainfall. Some of us joked and secretly hoped for a red light on the swim portion due to the rain - meaning the race officials would deem the water too contaminated to swim in. Meanwhile Konrad, our professional photographer hoped for rain so his sports portfolio would look intensly dramatic. We ate dinner in the car, and after about 3 hours we arrived around 9 pm. In the hotel room we pumped our tires, showered and slept at 11 pm. At 5 am we awoke ready to race - well sort of. As soon as we arrived the site we noticed that the lines for packet pick up were long and ridiculously disorganized. By the time I reached the front, it was 7:45, literally 15 minutes before the gun shot of my wave (Female 25-29). How was I going to set up transition, put on my chip, stick on my race labels, and squeeze into my wetsuit WHEN I CANT EVEN FIND MY TRANSITION SPOT at 7:48 am??? Marianne suddenly appears wet from her warm up swim and points towards my transition rack. "Joy aren't you supposed to be there?" I was totally out of it! As soon as Marianne said "I'll help you set up transition" she instantly became my superhero! I wanted to hug her so tight but instead I froze and was almost speechless but tremendously greatful. She helped me do EVERYTHING! - including pin up my race number, stick on my bike number - the whole shebang and even zipped me up and sent me off to swim start. Before I left I hugged her - she was literally my life saver! When I entered swim start Konrad was right in front of my face. I looked so excited and happy from the picture he took but deep hidden inside my tight wetsuit was my heart throbbing, wanting to jump out. I tried to ignore it by looking around. No familiar faces like my first triathlon - it felt empty. I was scared. I listened to the athletes around me talking about the swim course which was unbeleivably confusing even from reading the description and drawing out the route yesterday. I stepped in the water and suddenly it was about 10 ft deep. I freaked out and quickly swam back to the rock. I wasn't going to spend the 2 minutes that I had treading water. As soon as they honked the horn I went in - BIG MISTAKE JOY. This shot my heart rate up. Though I didn't wear my heart rate monitor, I knew my heart beat was too high to begin with. I encountered twigs and water bottles floating. I tried to find the sun to help calm me down, but the clouds were in the way. I noticed many fellow girls in the gold cap struggling as well. Some were breast stroking and a few others back stroking. Because I ate a large breakfast 30 minutes before my swim, I developed air pockets that made me regurgitate non-stop. It made it difficult to breathe and I had to stay afloat on my back. I swallowed some water and choked. Then I tried to tread water. Even before I hit the first marker, I already thought about waving my swim cap to the kayakers. I knew if I did that though, I would disappoint myself and my family who came to support me. I threw my face back into the water to freestyle but the continuous burps wouldn't allow me. Even the backstroke couldn't lower my heart rate. I started to notice a few swimmers in the green cap swim pass me. Crap! The next wave already caught up! When I hit the first bouy I grabbed onto it and rested. My leg got tangled on the rope. A man with the green cap also hung on the bouy with me for about 25 seconds. I didn't want to let go but as soon as the man left, I felt obligated to let go as well. It felt almost like a survival swim. Soon after, I started to feel the chip on my leg hanging loose. Uh oh. That's not good! I have no way of adjusting it unless I grab onto something. I tried not to kick as hard and when I saw a kayak, I grabbed on to fix it. I backstroked 95% of the swim and during no part of the swim did I feel comfortable. I can say that I honestly freaked out the whole way through and this morning the only thing sore in my body is my neck. Though it was a disappointing swim, I am glad I didn't give up - no matter how uncomfortable it felt. The half mile swim took me 29.40 minutes to complete.
After 3:57 minutes in Transition 1, I hopped on my bike. The ride was smooth. The sun peered through during this time. It was mainly flat and I enjoyed seeing familiar faces up and down the route. It had many narrow rounded turns where family and friends gathered to cheer us on. It may have been a little dangerous having so many riders make 180 degree turns though. After my good ole friend Dennis helped me install my new Cateye cycling computer the day before, I was able to maintain 90 cadence throughout most of my ride. This really helped me. I completed the bike route in 55:07 minutes averaging 16.3 mph.
In Transition 2, someone yelled "The one in blue, you have 30 secuonds to get out of transition!" This scared the crap out of me. Did I really take forever at that swim and bike that I'm THAT much behind??? I ran faster outta there and another man cheered "C'mon Number 3131!" This gave me a boost of energy. Transition 2 took me 2.31 minutes (could be faster Joy!). The run wasn't so bad, though it was hot. The sun burned my shoulders. Luckily I had a cap this time to help. I completed the run in 29:45 minutes, averaging 9.35 pace. Dinky - as it wasn't much of an improvement from my first race.
Race complete at 2:01:02.
My commitment from here is to swim at least a mile everyday until my next race. Unless you want to regurgetate, no eating before swim!!! The NYC Tri is in 17 days!!! Here I go!
