Oh mon dieu, what an experience.
On Saturday the plan was to leave for packet pickup, practice swim, and bike racking. We got a little later start than we wanted to, but did manage to get to the hotel in time for a "mandatory" safety meeting. They had 5 or so mandatory meetings scheduled throughout the day, one every hour, in an auditorium which held about 200 people. (Total number of race participants was 2,700.) The meeting gave us no new information about the race itself, although we were told that parking would be limited for the race and it was highly recommended that we park at the hotel and take one of the shuttles to the race site. Also these shuttles would bring us and our bikes back to the hotel after the race. After the meeting, which was remarkably short, all 200 people tried to get out to pick up our packets so we could attempt to make the swim practice. We weren't allowed to get our packets without first getting our hands stamped to prove we'd been to the meeting. Then we all rushed down to the packet area, which was swamped with people waiting to get processed. There is a term frequently used by the military which describes the logistical process of this tri. It includes an f*bomb so we'll alter it a little bit to keep this G or PG rated. Packet pickup was a total cluster-chicken*. S and I were discussing how they might have made the process a little smoother. We think staggered safety meetings might have helped so as to not have 200 people cramming to get through. Frankly, that stupid meeting shouldn't have been mandatory at all.
Finally we got through packet pickup into the expo where we picked up our race bag and tshirt. Oh, and United Healthcare gave us a race belt but it has the snaps that I don't like as opposed to the bungee snaps which works better because no two race numbers have holes spaced the same distance apart. (That's about it for goodies. Philly Tri was less expensive and at least gave us a water bottle too.) We noticed that there is not enough time to make the swim practice so we wandered around the Expo for a while. Got a free dixie cup of juice from Naked Juice (the mango is delish), wandered around the area, stood in line for chair massages until we saw 2 therapists pack up and go home and only 1 therapist left so we bailed. All this time we were grumbling about what a cluster chicken packet pickup was, and how other tris have handled it so much more smoothly. Also, why in the heck do they have mandatory bike racking and why is it so far away from packet pickup? Grumble grumble grumble.
We drove to the official parking lot for the tri (our first mistake), which is about .5 mile or more away from transition. Parked, got out, decided to ride our bikes there in our street shoes (i.e. flip flops for me) because it seemed easier than fussing with our bike shoes. Debated about putting the number on the bike, decided we'll just take care of it tomorrow, and off we went. Got to transition and were told we must have our number on our bikes in order to enter transition (our second mistake). You know, that would have been nice to know. Too bad the effing mandatory meeting didn't give us that information. Saw everyone parked much closer to transition. Sighed heavily. Biked back to the car. I decided it was just too hard to bike with my flippies on my very small SPD pedals. S has Look style pedals which have a bigger platform so she was ok. I dumped out my race bag, put my flippies in, put my shoes on, and attached the number to the bike. First good news of the day - the bike number is vinyl so won't peel the paint off our bikes the way the adhesive adhered ones do. Unfortunately, my bike is a lot fatter on the top tube than most so the number didn't quite fit the way it was supposed to.
Finally got back to transition and found our rows which were handily marked with signs. Another good thing because we won't have to find external markers to find our bikes and apparently they clip all the balloons people typically use. (That's 2 good things, and some bad things, in case you're keeping score.) S and I are not transition buddies for this tri, she's in a completely opposite place. We dropped off our bikes and also decided to leave our helmets. Finally got back to the car and got ready to leave for Heidi's place. Found it, got a great parking spot outside, and lugged our crap inside. I'm still pretty rookie, so I brought practically every piece of sports nutrition I have. We went to Otello for a yummy yummy dinner (I had the linguine burli) and then went back to Heidi's place. We checked Sundays weather. 96 degrees with 70% humidity. Oh, joy. (Basically it would feel about 100 degrees.) We watched 2 Secondes again while I packed my stuff, and then it was bedtime!
I set my alarm for 3 am but didn't actually wake up until a little before 3:30. S and I got up and started to eat some PowerBar Energize bars. These are basically pure sugar. I have salt water taffy that isn't as sweet as these bars! I tried the Tangy Tropical and S tried the Berry Blast. If you try these, the Tangy Tropical was tastier than the Berry one. Anyway, we didn't actually eat the whole bars because of looming diabetic coma, so we switched to bagel with cashew butter and jam. I also drank some Cytomax and ate a banana and a few brownie bites. I put some brownie bites in a bag to take to the race, thinking I might eat them on the bike. While I was at it I packed a cashew butter and jam sandwich to eat an hour before the race. I filled my water bottles with regular water. I decided not to fill with Cytomax because last time I wanted just water and not anything else. Because it was so blasted hot I knew I needed one of the bottles to have Nuun. I planned to put Gel Blasts in my bento box and two vanilla Accel gels on my frame; I figured that should last me energy-wise through the bike leg.
Finally we gathered all our stuff and got down to the car. We had decided yesterday that the shuttle sounded like a good option. Partly because we saw where the shuttle was dropping people off really close to transition, and partly because they warned us about parking. We arrived at the hotel and chose to park in the pay lot for convenience. We waited outside with a lot of other triathletes and then got on the shuttle. The shuttles were nice, although we weren't sure exactly how our bikes were going to fit for the return trip. Oh well, I'm sure they have something figured out because they told us that was how it would work. The shuttle dropped us off far far away from transition, not at all the place they were dropping people off yesterday. (I actually didn't see a shuttle yesterday; should also have been tricky because that's when people had to bring their bikes over to rack.) We joked about how nice of them to give us a chance to warm up. We are irritated, but what are you going to do? Maybe they'd blocked the road off already and the shuttle couldn't get closer. Finally we got to transition area and stopped to pick up our timing chip and got body marked. Fortunately our race number was printed our our wrist band because I had no idea what my number was. Hooray, we're all ready to get into transition and set up our spot. Which we did. I laid out my towel with my race belt, hat, luna chews/clif shot bloks, and a flask of water on the back half. I did not want to have to carry my fuel belt, and they told us that there would be aid stations every mile so I figured I didn't need to carry that extra weight. I put my running shoes on top. In front I positioned my bike shoes and my socks. I also had extra sunblock and a sunblock stick to use on my face. I positioned my helmet and sunglasses on the wires in front of my handlebars like I saw other people doing. Worked pretty well, actually. The race director announced that the water temperature was 77 degrees, the same temp the Schuylkill was for the Philly Women's Tri. So wetsuits were legal, but not necessary. I decided even after all the drama in getting a wetsuit that I hadn't practiced enough to feel comfortable wearing it and since the water temperature was so nice I wouldn't need it. S decided she would wear her wetsuit because of the buoyancy. I decided I didn't want to add the brownie bites to my bento box; they just weren't sounding good. I added a nuun to one of my water bottles. I got my sunblock on and had S finish up the spots I couldn't really reach. I was jumping around a little trying to keep moving. I didn't need to stay warm because it was already hot, but I needed to do something to calm my mind a little. Did I practice enough? Would I survive? Suddenly it was 6:30 and time to eat my sandwich. By the time I finished my sandwich it was about time to leave transition and get corralled in the Swim Pen.
We listened to the National Anthem and then the Elite Men were the first to start the race. We sat on the grass to wait, and had to move once because the lines for the Porta-Potties was incredibly long. (Another irritation; they doubled the registration but didn't double the number of porta-potties.) I figured I'm just going to wait until I get in the water to pee, so no need to jump in the line for the john. We waited until we needed to line up. Oh my goodness it's about to be a reality. And we're up! Most of the women in my group decided to suit up. I was one of the few without a wetsuit. I jumped in the water and waited for the horn to blow. And the race has started for me!
I was able to get some good freestyle strokes in before coming up for air. I was a little disoriented. There weren't a whole lot of kayaks or buoys in the water so you really had to look for direction. It seemed I was pretty far out from the buoys so I tried to aim inward as I swam. It's just like a practice swim, right? But there were people all around me and I couldn't catch my breath! I know I had done this before at the last tri, but this was such a longer distance and there seemed to be so many more people. I started to panic a little and had a hard time breathing so I flip over to backstroke. But then I worried about using too much leg power and not having enough energy for the bike or the run. Flipped over and tried to freestyle again. Came up for air, looked for a buoy, where the heck is it? Switched to breathing every other freestyle stroke instead of every third. That helped a little. Ack, I needed to flip over onto my back again. Why could I not get it together? I've been able to swim before, Get With The Program! Alas, no. My goggles kept leaking a little bit which also did not help. I kept burping a little and the ghost of sandwich past repeated on me a little. Yuck. I could not get a mantra to run through my head for this tri, and in fact it didn't even occur that I didn't have one to chant until it was all over. I got to the first turn. Hooray! I managed to get to the next turn. Then it was the long, slow trek down the last stretch before the short jog over to the exit. I looked at my watch. I was really hoping to get the swim over in 40-45 minutes. It was already 40 minutes and it seemed like I had a long way to go still. Discouragement set in as all the women's waves behind me came and passed me, and then the last of the men's waves too! Ugh. Was that the last buoy to turn? No, people kept swimming past it. Why! I needed to be done swimming! Ack. Ok, finally reached the last buoy for the long length. Ooh, almost there! Turned for the last time and made it to the stairs. Climbed up the stairs and slogged through the muddy run back to transition. My big toe on my right foot got caught in the mud and I pitched forward, almost falling on my face. I caught myself and continued to run to my spot.
Thankfully the rows were numbered. I got to my spot, squirted water on my feet, put my socks on, put my shoes on, put my helmet and glasses on, and off I went. I ran to the mounting area and got on my bike and headed off. One of my gels fell off not too far into the course. Oops. I'm not stopping to pick it up. Technically I could have received a penalty for leaving stuff on the course, but nobody seems to be paying attention. The route was relatively pleasant. It would have been nice to know where I was along the course. There were no mile markers for the bike course and I still could not get my bike computer to work after I reset it that one time plus I had forgotten it at home anyway. Also, I was feeling some urgency to use a porta-potty, but there weren't any along the bike route and there wasn't a good secluded spot either. My body was feeling pretty rough after the swim. I figured that I didn't need to push too hard through the bike part, since I was only there to finish and not to shatter any records. Sometimes I was able easily bike and other times it took more of a push. Part of the bike course was shaded and the air felt nice. I didn't feel too hot. I did drink all of my water and part of my nuun. I needed to stop a couple of times because the rassen-frassen frame pump kept knocking into my crank. I figured out to turn it 180 and then it was fine. I didn't see anyone I recognized on the bike, but I sure did see a lot of Team In Training suits. Who knew it would be 80% or so Team In Training athletes? Wished it didn't feel so exclusionary for those of us who weren't with Team In Training. Finally I saw signs for the Dismount. I was a little disoriented by the time I made it back to the dismount. I was tired, so I did not run back to my spot. I got there, sat down, took my cycling shoes off, put my running shoes on, put more sunblock on my face, sprayed more sunblock on my shoulders, added a nuun tablet to my 7 oz flask, took my helmet off, put my hat on, stuck my nutrition in my back pocket, got up and lumbered to the Run Out. Did you catch what I forgot to put on? I was almost to the exit when I saw someone else with their race number on and realized I'd forgotten to put my race belt on. Crap. Turned around and lumbered back to my spot. Put my race belt on and headed for the run again. Attempted to run. Much like the Philly Tri, it wasn't so much happening for me. Plus, I was having increased urgency for a bathroom. I tried to run from time to time, walking the other bits. It was really hot and I was sweating a lot. Passed the first mile marker. At the first Aid Station downed some water and some Powerade which I assumed was the electrolyte fluids. (Turns out, nsm.) Continued to walk/run for a while. No porta-potties to be found. Somewhere between the second and third mile I think I ran into the Haines Point bathrooms. Huzzah! My intestines were still not feeling happy, but at least I was feeling a little better. People kept passing me and encouraging me to run. I tried. My body rebelled. Around the 3 mile or 4 mile mark I met Carmen. I walked with her and she became my run buddy. We got to the point where we would run for 30 seconds and walk for a minute. Run for 30 seconds and walk for a minute. I felt like my tum was going to explode. "You're doing great!" I would hear from people. Liars!! I would think. We struggled on. I drank water and powerade at every stop. They offered ice, but I didn't think to actually put some in a cup to chew, and after the first time I tried to put some in my hat I didn't bother. My tum was spasming. Come on, Carmen would cheer. Ugh. Somewhere around the 5th mile they have misting tents. Oh, could I just stay in the misting tent? No, less than 2 miles to go! The course winds around. Just when you think you are done you have to keep going. (The bike course was like that too; kind of irritating to be winding so much.) Got to another misting tent. Almost there, you can do it! Heidi spots us before the last misting tent. "Where have you been?" I almost cried. "No, no, you're doing great, almost there!" S had finished and all my supporters were waiting for me. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it to the end. I figured I would walk mostly until the chute and then run. I got to the chute and didn't actually realize that was it because I was confused. Where exactly is the finish? Oh, it was right before my eyes. Run! No fists of huzzah for the picture this time, just let me get to the end without dying. I think I smiled, because there were cameras and I of course want pictures to look good, but it was totally a facade.
I was feeling nasty at the end. I collapsed on the side and Heidi went to fetch people to come to me instead of me going to them. We watched as the Emergency Medical people took people away. At least I didn't need that. Right? They had pizza at the end for food. That's recovery food? Ugh. I ate a couple of slices and had some water and some more powerade. Blech. S had my flip flops in the race bag, so I didn't have to put my shoes back on. I got up to go to the porta-potties. Ouch! At least they still had TP. I waddled back to the group. Several people left to do other things and it was then just Heidi, S, and I. We thought about how to get our stuff from transition since the race finish was pretty far away from the race start, and thought it would be a good plan to walk to the hotel to pick up the car and then drive to transition. I'm all doubled over from spasming in my tum. We get near a Barnes and Noble and I needed to go inside to use the restroom. Oh, it feels good to sit. While I'm looking for them to start walking again I realize that I don't have my car keys. I hadn't put the key into the race bag because they told us not to put anything valuable in the race bags. No key, no way to get the car. We said goodbye to Heidi who had to go to the office to do stuff and walked to the shuttle. There's a big long line and I don't think I can stand in it. I go sit on the wall. There's a guy who needed some medical attention. The EMS people are on their way with ice. Ooh, maybe I can get some of that. But then S is in line to get on the next bus before I could get some. Oh well. Get onto the shuttle. At least we won't have to be outside for too long before we can get back to the car, right? Oh, no. The shuttle stops far away from transition at the World War II Memorial and tells us we're at our transition stop. What? Are you kidding me? What kind of BS is this? We have no choice but to get off the bus and walk. In the heat. I was hobbling along, still thinking if I can just make it to transition and then get on the shuttle I'll be ok. We came across a bathroom. I needed to go again. I'm not looking good but what could I do? We continued to walk towards transition. Why does it seem that everybody is riding their bikes from there? We get to transition. There are shuttles to take us and our bikes back to the hotel, right? Um, no, the volunteers said they were getting conflicting reports and most people were getting cabs. At least the cabs are being helpful, that'll make you feel better, right? Um, NO. What the hell kind of operation is this, anyway? I'm really really having a hard time at this point. They sat me down in a chair and some team in training coach came over and asked me questions. She looked at my hands and told me I haven't had enough salt. Were you drinking enough? Yes, I really think so. And I had that powerade stuff at every stop, that's got salts in it, right? (Turns out? Not really.) She gave me a salt pill and had them move me into the shade. Some race official type person comes over and says he'll call EMS. They bring some ice and start shoving it into my clothing. Ah, that starts to feel good. An ambulance comes. No, I really don't want to go to the hospital. Seriously, with the ice I am feeling so much better. I'm totally lucid, I did not pass out, I didn't even feel like passing out, seriously, it will be ok. We're still stuck on how to get back to the hotel, and also stuck on how to get home because my car is a stick and S doesn't know how to drive manual transmission. A very nice lady, Margaret, offers to put my bike on her rack and take us to the hotel. But the EMT doesn't want to let me drive. Neither S or I brought our cell phones to the race site, so we can't even try to track anyone down. Someone lends S a phone. She calls her husband but it's not really feasible for him to come with the kids and we still wouldn't be able to get everyone in the car. Margaret thinks she'll be able to put all our of bikes on her rack. Where do we live, because she'll just take us home. God Bless Margaret for being so kind.
We got to S's house and unloaded the car. I got into the house and collapsed onto the couch with a cold pack and ice water. I also chowed down on some salty pretzels. Yes, I think I will be ok. I was still a little shaky but about an hour later when I was doing much better we went back to the hotel to get my car. S and I were able to really rant about the whole logistical aspects of the race. We decided we would not do this race again or recommend it to anyone else unless they make some serious changes. I don't want to participate in any race where they lie about the transportation issues. We would have had a whole different game plan had they told us the truth.
So, to sum up, I finished and I have a medal. It was a lot harder than I mentally thought it would be, although I'm sure a lot of that was due to the heat cooking my organs. I won't put off the idea of doing another olympic distance, but I'm not upset I won't be doing Columbia with my friends. I'm going to need a lot of training time to build up for another one. I think we're going to do a 10k in October or November. That'll give me something to train for. Also, I should be happy with my results. Even though it took me longer to finish than I hoped, I still finished under twice my time in the Philly Women's Tri.
phillytrigirl Race Results
Swim 52:14
T1 2:14
Bike 1:41:38
T2 5:16
Run 1:44:46
Total Time 4:26:06
Overall Placement 2330/2395 (did 400 people not show up/disqualify/fail to finish?)
Age Group Placement 171/174 (why does mine differ from S's?)
Gender Placement 905/953 (out of all women?)
S's Race Results
Swim 41:27
T1 3:11
Bike 1:29:31
T2 3:13
Run 1:34:51
Total Time 3:52:11
Overall Placement 2123/2395 (did 400 people not show up/disqualify/fail to finish?)
Age Group Placement 54/84 (why does hers differ from mine?)
Gender Placement 755/953 (out of all women?)
Nice Job!
*Cluster-Chicken Definition: Its more precise usage describes a particular kind of Catch-22, in which multiple complicated problems mutually interfere with each other's solution. The looser usage, referring to any chaotic situation, probably prevails.
On Saturday the plan was to leave for packet pickup, practice swim, and bike racking. We got a little later start than we wanted to, but did manage to get to the hotel in time for a "mandatory" safety meeting. They had 5 or so mandatory meetings scheduled throughout the day, one every hour, in an auditorium which held about 200 people. (Total number of race participants was 2,700.) The meeting gave us no new information about the race itself, although we were told that parking would be limited for the race and it was highly recommended that we park at the hotel and take one of the shuttles to the race site. Also these shuttles would bring us and our bikes back to the hotel after the race. After the meeting, which was remarkably short, all 200 people tried to get out to pick up our packets so we could attempt to make the swim practice. We weren't allowed to get our packets without first getting our hands stamped to prove we'd been to the meeting. Then we all rushed down to the packet area, which was swamped with people waiting to get processed. There is a term frequently used by the military which describes the logistical process of this tri. It includes an f*bomb so we'll alter it a little bit to keep this G or PG rated. Packet pickup was a total cluster-chicken*. S and I were discussing how they might have made the process a little smoother. We think staggered safety meetings might have helped so as to not have 200 people cramming to get through. Frankly, that stupid meeting shouldn't have been mandatory at all.
Finally we got through packet pickup into the expo where we picked up our race bag and tshirt. Oh, and United Healthcare gave us a race belt but it has the snaps that I don't like as opposed to the bungee snaps which works better because no two race numbers have holes spaced the same distance apart. (That's about it for goodies. Philly Tri was less expensive and at least gave us a water bottle too.) We noticed that there is not enough time to make the swim practice so we wandered around the Expo for a while. Got a free dixie cup of juice from Naked Juice (the mango is delish), wandered around the area, stood in line for chair massages until we saw 2 therapists pack up and go home and only 1 therapist left so we bailed. All this time we were grumbling about what a cluster chicken packet pickup was, and how other tris have handled it so much more smoothly. Also, why in the heck do they have mandatory bike racking and why is it so far away from packet pickup? Grumble grumble grumble.
We drove to the official parking lot for the tri (our first mistake), which is about .5 mile or more away from transition. Parked, got out, decided to ride our bikes there in our street shoes (i.e. flip flops for me) because it seemed easier than fussing with our bike shoes. Debated about putting the number on the bike, decided we'll just take care of it tomorrow, and off we went. Got to transition and were told we must have our number on our bikes in order to enter transition (our second mistake). You know, that would have been nice to know. Too bad the effing mandatory meeting didn't give us that information. Saw everyone parked much closer to transition. Sighed heavily. Biked back to the car. I decided it was just too hard to bike with my flippies on my very small SPD pedals. S has Look style pedals which have a bigger platform so she was ok. I dumped out my race bag, put my flippies in, put my shoes on, and attached the number to the bike. First good news of the day - the bike number is vinyl so won't peel the paint off our bikes the way the adhesive adhered ones do. Unfortunately, my bike is a lot fatter on the top tube than most so the number didn't quite fit the way it was supposed to.
Finally got back to transition and found our rows which were handily marked with signs. Another good thing because we won't have to find external markers to find our bikes and apparently they clip all the balloons people typically use. (That's 2 good things, and some bad things, in case you're keeping score.) S and I are not transition buddies for this tri, she's in a completely opposite place. We dropped off our bikes and also decided to leave our helmets. Finally got back to the car and got ready to leave for Heidi's place. Found it, got a great parking spot outside, and lugged our crap inside. I'm still pretty rookie, so I brought practically every piece of sports nutrition I have. We went to Otello for a yummy yummy dinner (I had the linguine burli) and then went back to Heidi's place. We checked Sundays weather. 96 degrees with 70% humidity. Oh, joy. (Basically it would feel about 100 degrees.) We watched 2 Secondes again while I packed my stuff, and then it was bedtime!
I set my alarm for 3 am but didn't actually wake up until a little before 3:30. S and I got up and started to eat some PowerBar Energize bars. These are basically pure sugar. I have salt water taffy that isn't as sweet as these bars! I tried the Tangy Tropical and S tried the Berry Blast. If you try these, the Tangy Tropical was tastier than the Berry one. Anyway, we didn't actually eat the whole bars because of looming diabetic coma, so we switched to bagel with cashew butter and jam. I also drank some Cytomax and ate a banana and a few brownie bites. I put some brownie bites in a bag to take to the race, thinking I might eat them on the bike. While I was at it I packed a cashew butter and jam sandwich to eat an hour before the race. I filled my water bottles with regular water. I decided not to fill with Cytomax because last time I wanted just water and not anything else. Because it was so blasted hot I knew I needed one of the bottles to have Nuun. I planned to put Gel Blasts in my bento box and two vanilla Accel gels on my frame; I figured that should last me energy-wise through the bike leg.
Finally we gathered all our stuff and got down to the car. We had decided yesterday that the shuttle sounded like a good option. Partly because we saw where the shuttle was dropping people off really close to transition, and partly because they warned us about parking. We arrived at the hotel and chose to park in the pay lot for convenience. We waited outside with a lot of other triathletes and then got on the shuttle. The shuttles were nice, although we weren't sure exactly how our bikes were going to fit for the return trip. Oh well, I'm sure they have something figured out because they told us that was how it would work. The shuttle dropped us off far far away from transition, not at all the place they were dropping people off yesterday. (I actually didn't see a shuttle yesterday; should also have been tricky because that's when people had to bring their bikes over to rack.) We joked about how nice of them to give us a chance to warm up. We are irritated, but what are you going to do? Maybe they'd blocked the road off already and the shuttle couldn't get closer. Finally we got to transition area and stopped to pick up our timing chip and got body marked. Fortunately our race number was printed our our wrist band because I had no idea what my number was. Hooray, we're all ready to get into transition and set up our spot. Which we did. I laid out my towel with my race belt, hat, luna chews/clif shot bloks, and a flask of water on the back half. I did not want to have to carry my fuel belt, and they told us that there would be aid stations every mile so I figured I didn't need to carry that extra weight. I put my running shoes on top. In front I positioned my bike shoes and my socks. I also had extra sunblock and a sunblock stick to use on my face. I positioned my helmet and sunglasses on the wires in front of my handlebars like I saw other people doing. Worked pretty well, actually. The race director announced that the water temperature was 77 degrees, the same temp the Schuylkill was for the Philly Women's Tri. So wetsuits were legal, but not necessary. I decided even after all the drama in getting a wetsuit that I hadn't practiced enough to feel comfortable wearing it and since the water temperature was so nice I wouldn't need it. S decided she would wear her wetsuit because of the buoyancy. I decided I didn't want to add the brownie bites to my bento box; they just weren't sounding good. I added a nuun to one of my water bottles. I got my sunblock on and had S finish up the spots I couldn't really reach. I was jumping around a little trying to keep moving. I didn't need to stay warm because it was already hot, but I needed to do something to calm my mind a little. Did I practice enough? Would I survive? Suddenly it was 6:30 and time to eat my sandwich. By the time I finished my sandwich it was about time to leave transition and get corralled in the Swim Pen.
We listened to the National Anthem and then the Elite Men were the first to start the race. We sat on the grass to wait, and had to move once because the lines for the Porta-Potties was incredibly long. (Another irritation; they doubled the registration but didn't double the number of porta-potties.) I figured I'm just going to wait until I get in the water to pee, so no need to jump in the line for the john. We waited until we needed to line up. Oh my goodness it's about to be a reality. And we're up! Most of the women in my group decided to suit up. I was one of the few without a wetsuit. I jumped in the water and waited for the horn to blow. And the race has started for me!
I was able to get some good freestyle strokes in before coming up for air. I was a little disoriented. There weren't a whole lot of kayaks or buoys in the water so you really had to look for direction. It seemed I was pretty far out from the buoys so I tried to aim inward as I swam. It's just like a practice swim, right? But there were people all around me and I couldn't catch my breath! I know I had done this before at the last tri, but this was such a longer distance and there seemed to be so many more people. I started to panic a little and had a hard time breathing so I flip over to backstroke. But then I worried about using too much leg power and not having enough energy for the bike or the run. Flipped over and tried to freestyle again. Came up for air, looked for a buoy, where the heck is it? Switched to breathing every other freestyle stroke instead of every third. That helped a little. Ack, I needed to flip over onto my back again. Why could I not get it together? I've been able to swim before, Get With The Program! Alas, no. My goggles kept leaking a little bit which also did not help. I kept burping a little and the ghost of sandwich past repeated on me a little. Yuck. I could not get a mantra to run through my head for this tri, and in fact it didn't even occur that I didn't have one to chant until it was all over. I got to the first turn. Hooray! I managed to get to the next turn. Then it was the long, slow trek down the last stretch before the short jog over to the exit. I looked at my watch. I was really hoping to get the swim over in 40-45 minutes. It was already 40 minutes and it seemed like I had a long way to go still. Discouragement set in as all the women's waves behind me came and passed me, and then the last of the men's waves too! Ugh. Was that the last buoy to turn? No, people kept swimming past it. Why! I needed to be done swimming! Ack. Ok, finally reached the last buoy for the long length. Ooh, almost there! Turned for the last time and made it to the stairs. Climbed up the stairs and slogged through the muddy run back to transition. My big toe on my right foot got caught in the mud and I pitched forward, almost falling on my face. I caught myself and continued to run to my spot.
Thankfully the rows were numbered. I got to my spot, squirted water on my feet, put my socks on, put my shoes on, put my helmet and glasses on, and off I went. I ran to the mounting area and got on my bike and headed off. One of my gels fell off not too far into the course. Oops. I'm not stopping to pick it up. Technically I could have received a penalty for leaving stuff on the course, but nobody seems to be paying attention. The route was relatively pleasant. It would have been nice to know where I was along the course. There were no mile markers for the bike course and I still could not get my bike computer to work after I reset it that one time plus I had forgotten it at home anyway. Also, I was feeling some urgency to use a porta-potty, but there weren't any along the bike route and there wasn't a good secluded spot either. My body was feeling pretty rough after the swim. I figured that I didn't need to push too hard through the bike part, since I was only there to finish and not to shatter any records. Sometimes I was able easily bike and other times it took more of a push. Part of the bike course was shaded and the air felt nice. I didn't feel too hot. I did drink all of my water and part of my nuun. I needed to stop a couple of times because the rassen-frassen frame pump kept knocking into my crank. I figured out to turn it 180 and then it was fine. I didn't see anyone I recognized on the bike, but I sure did see a lot of Team In Training suits. Who knew it would be 80% or so Team In Training athletes? Wished it didn't feel so exclusionary for those of us who weren't with Team In Training. Finally I saw signs for the Dismount. I was a little disoriented by the time I made it back to the dismount. I was tired, so I did not run back to my spot. I got there, sat down, took my cycling shoes off, put my running shoes on, put more sunblock on my face, sprayed more sunblock on my shoulders, added a nuun tablet to my 7 oz flask, took my helmet off, put my hat on, stuck my nutrition in my back pocket, got up and lumbered to the Run Out. Did you catch what I forgot to put on? I was almost to the exit when I saw someone else with their race number on and realized I'd forgotten to put my race belt on. Crap. Turned around and lumbered back to my spot. Put my race belt on and headed for the run again. Attempted to run. Much like the Philly Tri, it wasn't so much happening for me. Plus, I was having increased urgency for a bathroom. I tried to run from time to time, walking the other bits. It was really hot and I was sweating a lot. Passed the first mile marker. At the first Aid Station downed some water and some Powerade which I assumed was the electrolyte fluids. (Turns out, nsm.) Continued to walk/run for a while. No porta-potties to be found. Somewhere between the second and third mile I think I ran into the Haines Point bathrooms. Huzzah! My intestines were still not feeling happy, but at least I was feeling a little better. People kept passing me and encouraging me to run. I tried. My body rebelled. Around the 3 mile or 4 mile mark I met Carmen. I walked with her and she became my run buddy. We got to the point where we would run for 30 seconds and walk for a minute. Run for 30 seconds and walk for a minute. I felt like my tum was going to explode. "You're doing great!" I would hear from people. Liars!! I would think. We struggled on. I drank water and powerade at every stop. They offered ice, but I didn't think to actually put some in a cup to chew, and after the first time I tried to put some in my hat I didn't bother. My tum was spasming. Come on, Carmen would cheer. Ugh. Somewhere around the 5th mile they have misting tents. Oh, could I just stay in the misting tent? No, less than 2 miles to go! The course winds around. Just when you think you are done you have to keep going. (The bike course was like that too; kind of irritating to be winding so much.) Got to another misting tent. Almost there, you can do it! Heidi spots us before the last misting tent. "Where have you been?" I almost cried. "No, no, you're doing great, almost there!" S had finished and all my supporters were waiting for me. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it to the end. I figured I would walk mostly until the chute and then run. I got to the chute and didn't actually realize that was it because I was confused. Where exactly is the finish? Oh, it was right before my eyes. Run! No fists of huzzah for the picture this time, just let me get to the end without dying. I think I smiled, because there were cameras and I of course want pictures to look good, but it was totally a facade.
I was feeling nasty at the end. I collapsed on the side and Heidi went to fetch people to come to me instead of me going to them. We watched as the Emergency Medical people took people away. At least I didn't need that. Right? They had pizza at the end for food. That's recovery food? Ugh. I ate a couple of slices and had some water and some more powerade. Blech. S had my flip flops in the race bag, so I didn't have to put my shoes back on. I got up to go to the porta-potties. Ouch! At least they still had TP. I waddled back to the group. Several people left to do other things and it was then just Heidi, S, and I. We thought about how to get our stuff from transition since the race finish was pretty far away from the race start, and thought it would be a good plan to walk to the hotel to pick up the car and then drive to transition. I'm all doubled over from spasming in my tum. We get near a Barnes and Noble and I needed to go inside to use the restroom. Oh, it feels good to sit. While I'm looking for them to start walking again I realize that I don't have my car keys. I hadn't put the key into the race bag because they told us not to put anything valuable in the race bags. No key, no way to get the car. We said goodbye to Heidi who had to go to the office to do stuff and walked to the shuttle. There's a big long line and I don't think I can stand in it. I go sit on the wall. There's a guy who needed some medical attention. The EMS people are on their way with ice. Ooh, maybe I can get some of that. But then S is in line to get on the next bus before I could get some. Oh well. Get onto the shuttle. At least we won't have to be outside for too long before we can get back to the car, right? Oh, no. The shuttle stops far away from transition at the World War II Memorial and tells us we're at our transition stop. What? Are you kidding me? What kind of BS is this? We have no choice but to get off the bus and walk. In the heat. I was hobbling along, still thinking if I can just make it to transition and then get on the shuttle I'll be ok. We came across a bathroom. I needed to go again. I'm not looking good but what could I do? We continued to walk towards transition. Why does it seem that everybody is riding their bikes from there? We get to transition. There are shuttles to take us and our bikes back to the hotel, right? Um, no, the volunteers said they were getting conflicting reports and most people were getting cabs. At least the cabs are being helpful, that'll make you feel better, right? Um, NO. What the hell kind of operation is this, anyway? I'm really really having a hard time at this point. They sat me down in a chair and some team in training coach came over and asked me questions. She looked at my hands and told me I haven't had enough salt. Were you drinking enough? Yes, I really think so. And I had that powerade stuff at every stop, that's got salts in it, right? (Turns out? Not really.) She gave me a salt pill and had them move me into the shade. Some race official type person comes over and says he'll call EMS. They bring some ice and start shoving it into my clothing. Ah, that starts to feel good. An ambulance comes. No, I really don't want to go to the hospital. Seriously, with the ice I am feeling so much better. I'm totally lucid, I did not pass out, I didn't even feel like passing out, seriously, it will be ok. We're still stuck on how to get back to the hotel, and also stuck on how to get home because my car is a stick and S doesn't know how to drive manual transmission. A very nice lady, Margaret, offers to put my bike on her rack and take us to the hotel. But the EMT doesn't want to let me drive. Neither S or I brought our cell phones to the race site, so we can't even try to track anyone down. Someone lends S a phone. She calls her husband but it's not really feasible for him to come with the kids and we still wouldn't be able to get everyone in the car. Margaret thinks she'll be able to put all our of bikes on her rack. Where do we live, because she'll just take us home. God Bless Margaret for being so kind.
We got to S's house and unloaded the car. I got into the house and collapsed onto the couch with a cold pack and ice water. I also chowed down on some salty pretzels. Yes, I think I will be ok. I was still a little shaky but about an hour later when I was doing much better we went back to the hotel to get my car. S and I were able to really rant about the whole logistical aspects of the race. We decided we would not do this race again or recommend it to anyone else unless they make some serious changes. I don't want to participate in any race where they lie about the transportation issues. We would have had a whole different game plan had they told us the truth.
So, to sum up, I finished and I have a medal. It was a lot harder than I mentally thought it would be, although I'm sure a lot of that was due to the heat cooking my organs. I won't put off the idea of doing another olympic distance, but I'm not upset I won't be doing Columbia with my friends. I'm going to need a lot of training time to build up for another one. I think we're going to do a 10k in October or November. That'll give me something to train for. Also, I should be happy with my results. Even though it took me longer to finish than I hoped, I still finished under twice my time in the Philly Women's Tri.
phillytrigirl Race Results
Swim 52:14
T1 2:14
Bike 1:41:38
T2 5:16
Run 1:44:46
Total Time 4:26:06
Overall Placement 2330/2395 (did 400 people not show up/disqualify/fail to finish?)
Age Group Placement 171/174 (why does mine differ from S's?)
Gender Placement 905/953 (out of all women?)
S's Race Results
Swim 41:27
T1 3:11
Bike 1:29:31
T2 3:13
Run 1:34:51
Total Time 3:52:11
Overall Placement 2123/2395 (did 400 people not show up/disqualify/fail to finish?)
Age Group Placement 54/84 (why does hers differ from mine?)
Gender Placement 755/953 (out of all women?)
Nice Job!
*Cluster-Chicken Definition: Its more precise usage describes a particular kind of Catch-22, in which multiple complicated problems mutually interfere with each other's solution. The looser usage, referring to any chaotic situation, probably prevails.
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