Lost Duck!

TODAY I RAN MY FIRST TRIATHLON!!

Now for a race report....

I raced with my friend JS who is wicked fast.  Fast enough to have sponsors.  She is kind of a gazelle but she's pretty awesome so she's allowed on these pages.  She helped me set up my transition area and was right there for me all the way up to the start of the race.  BIG shout out to JS!! 

Then she raced in the elite group (those crazy fast folks that win these things) and placed third.  She went off in the first wave and I went off in the last with the First Timers division.  I saw her leave the water and head for the bike and then it was time for me to get ready.  Kept control of the nerves... amazingly!  As they were counting down, I started my watch.  Apparently, starting a watch is the hardest part of a triathlon.  I pushed the button too many times and when the starter went off, I was pushing buttons.  I ended up surrounded by swimmers and was never able to find any swimming space.  I finished behind where I would have liked but in one piece. 

I headed up to the bike transition but there was a loooong sand run getting there.  The old foot didn't like that much so I had to walk/jog it.  Spent a very long time (sat down, had a sandwich, knitted a sweater) getting on my bike.  But once I was on it, I took off like a Duck out of Hell!!  I steadily passed riders for five miles and was feeling pretty froggy.  AAANND... then I took a wrong turn.  After I realized what I had done, I returned to the course and assumed I had been disqualified.  Nonetheless, I was angry.  I bolted off in zoom mode and re-passed entirely too many riders.  I finished the bike feeling strong and still pretty angry. 

I dawdled less at T2, but still managed to take twice as long as JS (did she freakin' fold space/time?).  I headed off on the run but about a mile into it there was a stretch of grass and sand that had gotten a little deep.  By halfway through, my foot felt like there were knives in it.  I had promised RW that I would go easy if I felt pain.  I figured I'm disqualified anyhow so I walked a while, jogged a bit walked some more, stopped and stretched it out... twice.  Then jogged to the finish line and crossed it feeling a dose of that personal pride that comes with finishing your first Tri, no matter how badly you performed.

When I got done, I checked the results to confirm that I was, in fact, disqualified.  I wasn't.  I was in sixth place.  Seriously?!?!?!  If I had known, I might have gotten out of "mosey" and run a little.  Of course that probably would have been a huge setback in my training, so it's probably just as well.  Silver lining, perhaps.

On a personal note... I was waiting for some work to be done on my car so that I could drive to California and start my new job.  Except that on Friday (after I moved out of my apartment, after I forwarded my mail, after I said goodbye and told everyone out west I was coming, after I bought a vehicle to use BUT before I actually started working, yeah... so thrilled), they pulled the plug and fired me.  So now I am not moving to CA.  Instead, I am staying in Florida, working the horse shows on the road and going to pursue the necessary education to start a career in the fitness industry.  Diet and exercise has changed my life and I would love to spend my days helping other people discover the joy of a full and vital life!!

Biking the MC Escher Trail

Yesterday was a good day for biking in South Carolina so I figured I should not pass up the opportunity.  I headed out to Fort Jackson where I have biked (and consistently gotten lost) a few times before.  My workout was supposed to be 30 mins easy, a 30 min TT (time trial), 20 mins easy.  I knew the base well enough to know that if I went in the main entrance, rode past and checked the big map, turned there and did the loop backwards, it would put me on the backside of the base for the TT.  That meant that I would have reasonably easy hills for the first part to warm up, then climb the monsters during the TT, and have rollers for the final part.  The time trial would not be fast but my handy dandy GPS/HRM would allow my coach to make allowances for elevation and it was really more about my heart rate anyhow.  The back part of the loop was also nearly devoid of traffic and easily had 30 mins worth of riding without any stop signs (you have to come to a complete stop, clip out and put a foot down... base rules.  When there is that much heavy artillery nearby, one is inclined to comply.)  GOOD PLAN.

What actually happened....

I rode into the base, took the wrong road past the guard shack, missed the map and proceeded to take a two-hour tour of every part of the base but the road I intended to ride.  My first wrong turn sent up a monster hill five minutes into my ride.  I was not yet warmed up and could feel the lactic acid burn immediately.  I tried to ride it as slow as I could without losing so much momentum that I ended up on foot.  Then I rode through some areas that had all kinds of speed deterrents in the road and found my body position, speed and bike handling  to be more reminiscent of mountain biking than time trialing.  That led to several more monster hills (lactic heaven) and finally a guard shack exit... "Excuse me sirs, do you happen to have a map?"

I determined that it was three simple turns to get back on track.  I was now 20 mins into the "easy" part of the ride which had alternated between virtually no elevation of heart rate and nearly blowing a vessel with very little in between. 

I turned back, empowered by my map session and headed back towards the center of the base.  It was then that I entered Escher-land.  For the next forty minutes, every turn I made and every road I took ended up somewhere else... or back at this one corner that I think I passed four times.  I began to feel like the roads were shifting, or a matter of perspective, like MC's famous illusions.  Going back the way I came inevitably put me somewhere I'd never been and going away always brought me back to that corner.  ARGHHH!!

So much for the TT.

I got back out into the more rural parts of the base by taking a road that I was familiar with.  Except that the last time I rode it, the WHOLE thing was paved.  I thought I had a stretch of good riding ahead of me, so I began to hammer a little.  I crested a small hill at a pretty good clip and discovered no pavement, only sand and gravel on the other side.  Did I mention that I was practicing my mountain bike skills?  Fortunately, I was on the hoods and not the aero bars, so I managed to keep the rubber side down and turned back to Escher-ville.  Finally (and I am really not sure how), I turned onto the one of the two roads I had been looking for. 

Thrilled to finally have a stretch of good riding, I began to press myself.  At that point, my body was feeling not just lactic acid but the fact that for all the rough riding, I had not been able to take my hands off the bike to drink.  I was more than 1:20 into this ride and had consumed maybe a quarter of a bottle and no calories.  OOPS.

BONK.

Better luck next time.

Still, it was a beautiful day to ride.