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I had no idea of course what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this. I found out just over a week before the big day that the swim was 500 meters, not the 400 I originally thought. Uh oh. I'd been focusing mostly on the bike-to-run transition that the swimming had kind of gotten pushed aside. The only time I had to go to an actual pool (read- natural spring) to attempt swimming was on my one day off and we ran into so many road blocks between weather and wedding venue visiting that I didn't really get to do any open water swimming until 6 days before the race.
The experience was less than encouraging.
I drove out to Clermont on a rainy Sunday afternoon to swim in a lake with Steph as my guide/advice giver. The water got to around 10 feet deep and was the color of Coca Cola. Once she convinced me it WAS actually safe to put my face in it, I couldn't see a blessed thing. I flailed around a bit and managed to swim/side kick/doggie paddle/backstoke about 250 meters before I'd had enough. No way I could handle twice that distance!
The gross looking lake in Clermont
The same photo, after Instagram! Amazing! I wish it looked like this for real
I didn't swim at all the rest of the week. I figured there was no point- I wasn't going to be able to magically pull off this swim in the Intercoastal waterway so I figured eh what the hell, why bother. I biked and ran, I'm much better at that. I just figured I'd be the last one out of the water and deal with it then.
So my parents got in to town on Friday night to help us with some wedding stuff over the week so they came up to watch me in the race. Saturday morning we drove up to Port Orange (about a 40 minute drive) and I picked up my packet at 6am, got inked with a sharpie, and set up my gear.
My race number was 787, like the airplane. I thought that was pretty cool.
Me and little pink mountain bike are ready! Still dark out
You can see the timing chip on my ankle here
Standard-issue yellow swim cap for ladies! The guys had blue ones.
I had a velcro timing chip that wrapped around my ankle and fastened- this is what would activate every time I crossed the timing mat in and out of the transition area and across the final finish line. The transition area was a parking lot at the boat ramp just prior to the VERY STEEP bridge over the river. There was a long mat laid out going in to the water to protect us from the oyster shell beds planted there as grip for the boat trailers. I was glad to see that! I did what Steph told me and untied my shoes, put my GPS watch and socks inside them, turned my bike helmet upside down, and set my water bottle for washing my feet off nearby. I turned on my bluetooth earbuds too (but that didn't do any good because they shut off automatically since I didn't have music playing). My parents had my phone and car keys, and I laid out my towel under my bike. The transition area was very tight- barely enough room for 2 people to get ready side by side!
The men's swim started at 7am. After the national anthem, I started wading into the water- thank goodness it wasn't cold! It wasn't noticeably warm; it really just felt the same as the air temperature. Very comfortable. The air horn went off and the men started their swim. The ladies were due out at 7:03. I made my way to the start area- just below chest deep. The guy who was there posing at the start line (with his arms out, like we had to be really held back) briefed us again on where to go. I could see the water churning up ahead with all the men headed toward the inflatable pylon buoy where they would make a u-turn and head back toward us. The air horn went off again and I looked over and more than half the women were still wading in to the water! I dove forward and started swimming.
Steph was right when she told me swimming in a group is a whole different ballgame. Good lord it was crazy. As soon as I put my face in the water I tasted the saltiness. Face up, spit. Face back down. Swim.
I mean, it was crowded but the women were actually very polite. There were a lot of "I'm sorry"s and "Excuse me"s as we pushed forward. After about 15 seconds I was done with regular swimming. I started side stroking, doggie paddling, anything to just keep going forward. It's hard to breathe as much as you have to when swimming! About 100 meters in, I looked over at a woman who appeared to be moving through the water with quick, easy, relaxed strokes. Then I noticed she wasn't kicking. Then I lowered my leg and realized something.
DEAR SWEET BABY JESUS I CAN TOUCH THE BOTTOM!
I made eye contact with the walk/swim lady and smiled. She gave me a knowing smile back. I got my feet to the sandy river bottom and was able to sort of leap-swim-stroke at a faster pace with much less effort. Our secret was discovered by a few other women around us and there were some quiet cheers as about a half dozen of us swim/walked toward the buoy. When we got there, no joke, we all stood up, walked around the buoy, and then resumed our routine. It was like a weird water ballet.
The water got a bit deeper as we headed back but by then I had rested and was able to swim respectably toward the shore area. The crowd was pretty thick as a whole herd of people tried to exit the water at once. As soon as I got to waist deep, I stood and ripped off my cap and goggles. I got in line and everyone filed up the mat back into the transition area. I had survived the swim. The rest was going to be easy!
I was a hot mess in my transitions
I'll admit it first- my transitions sucked. I'd practiced it exactly zero times during my training. I poured my water bottle on my feet, chugged and spat from the same bottle as my folks came over to see me from the other side of the fence. I had some PowerAde, had to re-do my velro timing chip around my ankle because it came unwrapped, and got a little distracted fiddling with my earbuds. I couldn't get them to turn on. Eh, whatever. I started up my biking app and popped it and my water bottle into my pockets, walked my bike out of the transition area and headed out.
The morning was still pretty overcast, there was a nice breeze, so I wasn't afraid to push it a bit on the bike. The first mile included that goddamn bridge but I made it over okay. I coasted down the other side and passed 2 people at the bottom. After that, it was a normal bike ride for me. I cruised along at just over 4 minutes a mile, passing people left and right. I was starting to get weirded out- it was like no one was even trying! I didn't think I was going that hard- certainly not like the pros who zoom along at 20 mph! I just decided to mind my own business and ride my bike the way I ride my bike. Again, I kept passing tons of people! The ride was nice though, all along a neighborhood road into Ponce Inlet and then back north along beachfront property. I could look between the houses on the street and see ocean. It was a nice change from my neighborhood route that I was already getting sick of, for sure.
And then the bridge showed up again.
I tried to pedal faster to get up some momentum but as I hit that bridge it was like I was hitting a wall. I swear it goes straight up. I mean, the westbound side has got to definitely be steeper than the eastbound side in the beginning of the race. I put my bike in 1st gear, stood up on the pedals, and crawled up the hill.
And then I thought to myself... This? This is bullshit. And a waste of energy I'm going to need in a few minutes.
So I got off my bike and ran it up the rest of the hill!
Cars were coming over the bridge but I didn't care. There were people on bikes at the base of the bridge behind me-let them get wore out, I'm not going to play that game. I was faster on foot so who cares? At the top, I hopped back on and coasted down, under the bridge and back into the transition area. My parents were there waiting for me. I racked my bike, took some water and PowerAde again, stretched out my legs, and then headed out on the run. 4 miles to go!
The jelly legs weren't so bad this time- I actually got off to a pretty good start. My first mile was under 9 minutes. I did my 4 min run/30 second walk intervals and got to mile 1 as I turned down Halifax Drive. The timer was at 1 hour 17 minutes at this point because I saw it as I ran past the finish line toward mile 2. I could see a few freaks of nature zipping along into the finish area, and I told myself 3 more miles and I'll be there!
The run was hot. My clothes were still wet and felt heavy. They don't breathe as well as my regular running gear. I still hadn't gotten my earbuds to work so I had my phone turned up louder in my pocket so I could have some sort of music to listen to.
Too bad it was shit music.
The thing with Pandora is that you can have a station that's really good and then it'll play a string of songs that you're sick of and you can't do anything about it because you're out of skips.
This is how i wound up listening to goddamn Blues Traveler. I was hoping no one else could hear it as I passed people on the road. For the love of all things holy, why isn't Gin Blossoms Radio playing any effing Gin Blossoms?
So I was kind of irritated on the run.
Counting Crows? Really, is there a worse song to try to get a good beat and run to than Long December?
Argh.
So I pushed through the run with the goal of finishing quicker so I could turn that shit off.
It was hot, the sun was starting to beat down and I was pretty sure I was steaming.
I kicked it into higher gear as I approached the finish line. Oh! Let me tell you my uh, strategy, that I invented...sort of: So we got our race numbers marked on our arms and our ages marked in Sharpie on the back of our calves. Why? Beats me. But I used it to check out the ages of women I came up behind in the run. If she wasn't in my age group, I wasn't going to waste my energy trying to pass her. Heh.
I saw my parents at the finish line and I crossed in under 2 hours, which was my unspoken goal (the goal I gave to people who asked was to just finish alive). I got my medal and a bottle of water and met my folks as they walked into the finish area. This was the same finish line and post race area from the 10K back in June so I was familiar with it (and the parking area and all that). The reason I chose this particular race was that they advertised breakfast would be served afterwards so as soon as I got my breath and cooled off a minute, I helped myself to grits and sausage and apple cobbler. Yum.
Selfie with mom
The race results were posted- I'd come in 4th in my age group! Awesome! Then I found out they were doing awards for the top 3 in each age group and that bummed me out hard. So close! Then I looked again at the time and I was like 6 minutes behind the girl in 3rd place so I didn't feel too bad after that. I guess I wasn't close after all. Anyway, I loved it all and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!
Here's my stats:
4th place in age group
61st overall
Swim 500m: 9:23
T1: 3:32 (need to work on this part!)
Bike 12 mi: 50:57
T2: 2:12
Run 4 mi: 37:02
Finish: 1:43:08
