This past weekend was another to remember.  On Saturday morning, I kissed my girls goodbye and headed to Melissa and Jeff’s house to pick up Jeff.  We went to TrySports so the bike fit master could make some last minute tweaks.  The guy there was amazing.  He analyzed my pedal form while on the bike trainer and made minor, yet noticeable adjustments to my seat position and aero bar position.

After that, we headed to Inside Out Sports and picked up my race packet.  They made sure that I knew that shoes are required to get from the lake to T1.  I asked what the deal was with that and they told me that the transition area was a little ways along a gravel path from the lake, so shoes would keep your feet from getting injured.

Jeff and I made our way to Kings Mountain State Park where I had registered for a campsite.  We found the site, set up the tent then drove back out to scope out the bike and run routes.  The first half of the bike course was pretty straight forward.  Then, the road turns to a narrow road that is poorly maintained and very hilly.  It continues to be very hilly the rest of the way back to the transition area.  The run is also pretty hilly, using the road into the camping area as part of the course.

I was then not only intimidated by the longest swim of my life of 1300 meters, but of a difficult bike of 27.5 miles and a hilly run of 6.2 miles!  I changed my official “goal” from finishing between 3 hours and 3.5 hours to “just finishing” with no regards to time.

Andrew and his daughter, Breanna, arrived early that evening and we all sat around and talked for a while.

That night I hit the hay early and tried to sleep in the muggy conditions.  We had a thunderstorm in the middle of the night which brought the temperatures down, but made everything wet.

I woke up around 4:45 and caught a shower.  I got changed and did some last minute prep for the race.  I mixed up my HEED and made sure everything was in my transition bag.  I drove down to the race area and unloaded my bike, walked over to the transition area and set up my area.

From there, it was mainly a wait as I was set up around 6:30 and the race did not start until 7:30.  I did get my timing chip and the body markings with my race number and age.  I found a toilet and did some last minute “prep” there too.

The Swim

At 7:15, I headed down to the lake.  When I was told “transition area was a little ways along a gravel path from the lake” I did not expect it to be mud and rock down a steep slope for about 1/3 mile!  That would surely be a tough climb after swimming that far.

I got into the water and did a little warm up.  I felt a lot of algae under the surface which would prove to be a problem in the water.  The race director made some last minute announcements, one of which was to warn us that he would have to consider the bike course “a little cruel, so have fun with that”.  We started in 3 waves, 3 minutes apart.  I was in the first wave.  I got in the back of the pack because I knew that I would be slower than the rest.  When the second wave passed me, I knew I was going to have a slow time.  I had such a hard time with breathing and the algae, that I spent the majority of the time on my back doing a backstroke just trying to calm my breathing.  I knew it was bad when someone swimming past me before the halfway mark asked, “Hey are you okay?”  I answered, “I’m fine”, but I knew that if I looked that bad, I am just hoping to finish!

I made my way from buoy to buoy until I was on the homestretch.  When I finally got out of the water, I realized there were only a few others still swimming and I had a 6 minute head start on some of them!  I ended up in 59^th place out of 60 that swam the course.  So not last, but close to it!  Then I grabbed my Keens and made my way up the hill.  I walked most of it, but when it flattened out, I started to jog.  Just before the transition area, I saw Jeff, Andrew and Breanna cheering me on!  I got to the transition area and dried off, changed into my bike shoes, put my helmet on, ate a Hammer Gel and took some Endurolytes.  I grabbed my bike and headed out on the course.

The Bike

The bike portion started off as I expected with it being relatively what I am used to.  It was just slight ups and downs, but nothing too crazy.  The one thing that I did not expect was that I was alone!  I was so slow in the water, that all but 3 others had a huge lead on the bike already.  In fact it took me 8 miles or so to catch up to someone!  I passed several people before I saw the first accident.  A guy took a wet turn too fast and wiped out, apparently slamming his knee and hitting his head too.  After I passed them, more ambulances passed me and were on their way to tend to him.  Although I did not see any others, there were apparently 3 accidents that resulted in DNFs for the participants.

The rest of the ride was very challenging with lots of hills.  I passed several more in these sections and had a good enough ride for 29^th out of the 57 that completed the course.

As I approached T2, I saw that Melissa and Great Mia had arrived and joined Jeff, Andrew and Breanna to cheer me on.  That people are there to cheer for you is a mental motivator more than anything else.

I spent the majority of the time in T2 changing shoes, trading my helmet for a HeadSweats visor and trying to get the cramping that had begun in my quads to stop.  I stretched for a bit and then headed out for the 6.2 mile run.

I ran by my “support crew” again and managed a smile and wave, although my body is already yelling at me to STOP!  As soon as I got around a bend and they could not see me, I started to walk while I ate another Hammer Gel.  Then I cam upon the race camera man and I told him, “If you are going to take pictures, I’d better run!”  So I did for a while and started to get into a rhythm.  Then I came across the hills at around the halfway point.  I finished the rest of the race walking up the hills and running down.  I was not alone.  Everyone that was around me did the same on the difficult course.  I finished the 10K, quads burning and cramping, with everyone cheering, with a time of 1:01:47, good enough for 43^rd out of the 57 that finished.

Overall, I placed 44^th, so I am not at all unhappy about it, but elated to have finished at all.  And to have my soon to be 93 year old grandmother see her first triathlon and my first of this distance was priceless.

You can see the event results here.  I will add pictures to this post as I receive them.

I am all smiles on the outside but inside is a different story... Photo by Andrew

finishing the bike - photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

photo by Melissa

the campers - Jeff, myself, Breanna and Andrew - photo by Melissa

more support crew - Melissa, myself and Great Mia - photo by Jeff