It was an experience. One that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.
The night before races I normally can’t sleep, I’ve always been that way. Fortunately, Alex has taken care of that. My need for sleep whenever I can get it overrode my nerves and I had a good sleep the night before.
I had all kinds of problems registering for the race. I think it’s because fate knew I was a slow swimmer. I registered 4 times and only the last time worked. The first time I registered I put in 6:30 as my swim time, with each attempt to register I extended my estimation until I put in 9:15 and it was accepted. Does the computer know something I don’t? Apparently, it does.
With my estimation of 9:15, my start time was around 8:35. The first person in the water was in at 7:05. My race number was 368, the swimmers started in order of their race number with 15 second breaks between every racer, hence the huge difference in start times. A bunch of people finished the race before I even got into the water. As I approached the water my nerves got jittery. Talking to the swimmers around me settled me down a lot though. None were fast swimmers and I wasn’t likely to piss anyone off with my slow swimming. Once in the water I swam my butt off and strove for the finish. The water was very nasty tasting, it wasn’t a cesspool (what does cess taste like?), but it was a sweat pool. It pays to be fast I guess. The 2 racers behind me were not present which meant I had 45 seconds in the water before the next person, yet I was still passed by several folks. As my sister and wife later told me, my first 3 laps were slow and then with my 4th lap, I just started speeding up. I felt myself getting faster in the water as well, like I finally ‘got’ part of the stroke. It felt great.
There were 360 folks who did the swim; my time of 10:14 was good for 352nd. In case you are wondering, that’s pretty slow. There is a but though, I did make it out of the pool!
After I got out of the pool I did something Rebecca said not to do, I put on socks. It wouldn’t have been so bad had I put my socks on correctly initially, but I didn’t. Putting them on wrong initially and me being tired made putting on socks a very slow process. After I finally got them on, I ran to the transition area. I passed one of the people who passed me in the pool along the path. The Friday before the race Rebecca taught me how to transition with my shoes already in my bike. It took some time, but I learned it. Saturday morning I practiced getting on and off the bike over and over. Rebecca also told me not to ride with a shirt, but I did and putting that on took a few extra seconds as well. My time of 2:13 in the transition was good for 113 overall.
I ran the bike to the mounting area and jumped on and got my feet in and clipped and was riding very quickly. I immediately noticed that my magnet for my computer was hitting my sensor. Thwack-thwack-thwack. I thought about stopping the bike to fix it, I thought about ignoring it and finally settled on fixing it as I rode. It was a little hairy leaning over to fix it, but I had no traffic on my back and a clear road ahead. Once that was done I kicked it up a notch. My goal was to average 20mph and to pass as many people as possible. For most of the ride, I didn’t go more that 1 minute without passing someone. I always checked numbers as I rode to see how far ahead these people were from me in the swim and love seeing all the low numbers I was passing. I was not passed during the ride at all and passed at least 25 people. Once the ride was over, I was in 137th place, having gained 215 places in the first transition and the ride. I average 21.1 mph for the ride
Coming up to the second transition I had to take my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike. The tricky part with my shoes was the locking mechanism for the top strap. I had to press the release and pull out the strap with one hand. While taking off my right shoe my calf tightened up and almost cramped. I was able to quickly pull out my left foot and was ready for the dismount with time to spare. I passed three riders at the dismount line and dismounted into a run to my bike rack. Since my shoes were already off, I was able to get in and out quickly, my time of 0:36 was the 18th fastest overall.
The cool thing about the transitions was hearing my cheering section. Carrie and Kristin were loud and encouraging. Gonyo was even able to cheer me on during my second transition since he was already finished by then. You can never say too much about cheering sections.
With the cheers in my head I took off on the run. I settled into a decent pace and then heard someone catching up behind me. It was a young lady and I didn’t want her to pass me, so I upped my speed to a faster pace. I wasn’t sure how fast I was running, I just knew I wanted to walk. The run was a simple out and back with one turn in the middle. The whole time I was running out I was thinking the turnaround had to be around the next corner. It seemed like it took forever to get to that darn turnaround. I really wanted to walk, but told myself the effort would be over soon. The way back was much faster than the way out (in my mind at least). I passed a bunch of people on the run, some with numbers in the 200’s, it was a good feeling. I passed more people running that biking and that helped to keep me moving.
As I came to the last turn into the finish I saw an old guy in front of me and I figured I had enough to pass one more person. I sprinted the finish to the sound of my cheering fans. My run time of 23:08 was my second fastest 5K and was good for 83rd place overall.
My total time for the race was 1:11:25 and I came in 106 out of 360. I wanted to be in the top 50% and I did that. I passed 246 people (in person and on the clock) after my slow swim.
I am so glad I did this. Everyone in this email knows how I am with water and everyone has pushed me to keep trying and striving. I thank you all for helping me do this race. Without your help and support, I would never have tried the race.
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