Clermont Draft Legal Triathlon: PartII

Pre race

I woke up Wednesday morning with my bags packed and ready to hit the road right after masters. On the way to the Y, I started to feel queezy, like really queezy... This was not just nerves... I started to feel extremely warm and couldnt sit still for the last 5 minutes of our ride...I almost didn't make it, and after we pulled into the parking lot I darted straight to the potty. I ended up missing the first 20 minutes of masters (yeah, it was THAT bad). Fortunately, I had an easier workout than everyone else, so I was able to get my swim in in the hour remaining without too much of a problem.

I hit the road right after in the Prius rental (great car if onlynbecausenindidnt spend a FORTUNE on gas). I stopped in Tallahassee in the afternoon to squeeze in a 30 minute run- a necessity to loosen up the legs after being crammed Ina car all day. I arrive in Tampa at around 9, ate some food (I don't think I ate enough on the drive, I just didn't have much of an appetite after that morning), and had a brief visit with my grams. My Aunt Kathy and I were in bed catching up a bit when the feeling hit again and I had to dart to the bathroom. It was rough...

The next morning I went for a short ride, had some lunch, engaged in some retail therapy, then topped the day off with a very short run at race pace. Legs felt great, body felt depleted. The rest of the evening I made sure to eat with a hearty appetite and go to town with my electrolyte beverages.

Friday morning I cleaned up the bike, ate brunch with grams, and hit the road for Clermont. I met Kyle at the airport and we went straight to the race site to check it out. I jumped on my bike and rode the loop a couple times- legs felt strong- I was ready! We went down to the swim start to check it out. E water was pretty chilly, about 61 degrees, so I decided not to suit up and play around- I could practice starts in the morning.

We had just enough time to sit down to a nice but quick dinner before heading to the pre-race meeting. We had a gift card for Olive Garden which was pretty close to the National Training Center, so we went there. I had the herbed Salmon with broccoli and of course some delicious salad. The bread tasted crappy (stale- yuck!) and the fish was practically sacked with olive oil. Seriously, when I pressed down on it with my fork the oil seeped out. I ended up wasting half of it because I could NoT afford to to get sick again.

The pre race briefing was at the National Training Center. We picked up our packets and discussed the race course and some basic rules. In the middle of it my stomach got that familiar cramping and you know what happened soon after. Explosions. And super-hydration to try to catch up.

The next morning I woke up refreshe and ready to go. This was my race- I had been training hard for several months when most people were enjoying their "off-season", I'd been consistent with my workouts, I'd done everything I needed to do to have a great race.

We arrived at the race site early for athlete check-in. The check-in official used a board to check the length of my clip on aerobars and instructed me to remove them since they extended past my handle bars by a quarter inch. We frantically ripped them off, then saw another girl 4 feet away from us simply anle hers upwards so they were no longer too long. After asking the official if that was ok (he said it WAS) we quickly reinstalled them, which was no quick task. As we received aproval and began walking away, the lead official approached us and instructed us that they HAD to be parallel to the ground and needed to be taken off. So off they went again, and off he went to try to locate the other girls who had already racked their bikes with upward tilted bars.

I was a little freaked out at that point because the 20 minute ordeal had cut into my warm-up and zen time. I quickly got my transition area ready and did a very short and rushed warm up, jumped into my wetsuit, and rushed into the frigid water for a short swim. We got to pick our start position based on numbers, and i had a low one (204 our of 200-230ish), so i checked the start line for the most direct route to the buoy ( it was on the left side of the start line). It was cold. It took me several minutes to get any type of breathing pattern going- I had to work extra hard to just relax and get acclimated to the cold. I finally did and got in a couple hundred yards with sighting. I quickly realized I was going to have major issues with my clear goggles as we were swimming directly into the sun. I jumped out and grabbed my tinted goggles and got ready for call outs.

They had us line up in order from lowest to hightest number, I was number 4. They called our names one by one and we ran to the start line and chose our positions about 50 meters out from shore. I bee lined to the left. After several minutes, I looked to my right and realized a majority of the women were opting to line up on the right. That was weird... I wanted to be in the crowd but we weren't allowed to change our lateral position once we were at the line. Why were they over there when the left appeared to be more direct?

The race

If you've read this far, you'll be happy to know that this part will be considerably short.

The horn blew and off we went. I ran a few steps, began my dolphin dives, and took off in a hurried swim. When I looked up to sight, I was blinded! All I could see was bright-ass sunshine. I tried to sight around me to locate where the other women were... I saw a few here and there, but where was the crowd? Not around me... I could see some splashing around ahead so I used that to direct my path. I had a hard time getting my breathing right, maybe because I was just panicked, and i felt a stitch in my side which gradually got more sever, probably the result of all the fluid and nutrient loss in the previous days. I could finally see after i rounded the buoy. I picked up the pace a bit, got my bilateral breathing on track, and finally felt likes was swimming as I Had in practice.

I finally felt bottom and began those stupid dolphin dives back in. As I regained orientation, I realized the shore was practically empty with exception of a few poor supporters waiting for their pathetic "athletes". The clock read 14ish minutes... Wtf?! I was supposed to be out of the water around 11:30. And that was it. In 750meters, I put myself out of the race. I was done. What a waste.

I arrived in the transition area and ripped off my wetsuit. As my left leg came free I realized my timing chip got left behind. I fished around in the leg for a while, pulled it free, and ran off with my bike. As I mounted I heard Aunt Kathy yell something to the effect of "it's ok honey, keep your chin up". Great, everyone knows how shitty I'm doing! I was grateful for the sup at this point I was already devastated.

I hammered it on the bike, or thought I was, but when I looked down my speed was hovering around 14-15 mph. PATHETIC! My chain was rubbing really bad, and I was having difficulties in every gear I switched to. I just felt like there was a lot of resistance. hindsight, every time I took the bike out of the car it had fallen out of place again. My breathing was labored, i was mentally defeated, and I just couldn't get my legs under me. As I approached the end of the first lap the motorcycle official informed me the lead group was less than a minute behind so I needed to work really hard or I'd get lapped out. It happened right after I started my second lap. I pulled off to the side, turned in my chip, and I was done.

It was heartbreaking. And embarrassing. I know how foolish I looked THEN AND now. I don't care about looking stupid or naive, because I know I'm not and the work and ability was there. What I'm disappointed about is the fact that so many little things got the better of me and affected me so much. The bottom line is that I was prepared to be great, and I let that not happen. It was an expensive learning experience, but a valuable one nonetheless. The good thing is that the training and ability is there, and I'm set up to have an amazing season.