Boring self-important race report to follow (sorry, still cracking up over this post, as I love all of your blogs and RR's).
The DinoTri is a sprint triathlon in Vernal, UT that I did with my husband - we drove out the night before, as it was 3 hours from home and we were required to drop off our bikes the night before. I started to get REALLY psyched out by the bike profile, as I haven't been training on my bike as much as I should. Major hills.
I barely slept - maybe 4 hours total, and all broken up with bad dreams and pee breaks. I awoke promptly at 5, only ate a 120 cal cereal bar (this is something I'm actively working on, as NO food ever appeals before 9am) and was packed and ready in the 15 min time slot we'd allotted to get ready. So I sat on the edge of the bed while Kyle took another 15 minutes to prep (I'm one of those awful morning people who bounds out of bed - he is the type to hide under a heap of pillows for an extra hour).
We drove to T2, per instructions, and began to set up our stuff... when Kyle was about 20 feet from T2, he realized he'd left his helmet in the car. He went back and I made my tidy spot. The shocker was how few people were there and how much space I had. I'm used to about 2 square inches! The race information claimed 250 participants - it felt like less than half that. We then took the bus to T1... after a stop to let a guy off who had ALSO forgotten his helmet and a 2nd loop back to T2 to pick up a guy who had (wow.. really, wow) put his stuff on the bus and walked away. Mhmm...
We finally got to the start/T1 and started setting up. I remembered my towel this time!!!!!!!! Kyle forgot his goggles. Thanks to the help I got from my thread about The Hephalump where my goggles cracked, I had an extra pair. I was feeling spoiled at getting to use a real bathroom before we headed to the water. Once I got in the water, I was ecstatic; it was FAR warmer and cleaner than any of my races last year.
My swim went great - 22 minutes for the 750m swim. I had trouble finding feet, but was swimming with confidence and just felt a million times better in open water. I then walked the SUPER LONG boat ramp up to T1 - apparently it was half the length last year due to water levels, but it was still steep - and found Kyle getting ready to bike out. HUGE CONFIDENCE BOOSTER!!!! (he does a lot of half IM's and IMAZ and is 6'4" to my 5'5", so being a few minutes from him made my morning).
Got on the bike and prepared for hell. It arrived promptly and with a vengeance. I threw my dignity under the bus and walked portions of the two hills of doom, but tucked and flew in the long downhill segments. Frustrating as all get-out, but I survived. I'm so used to being at the absolute back of the pack of swimmers that it was a tiny bit startling to be passed by quite so many folks on the bike :(
I switched my shoes and headed out on the run to find that I simply had no gas in the tank. I was slow jogging at best, walking for long portions, and filled with hate. It was starting to heat up, my lips were bleeding from being badly chapped, and my calf was tightening up in a most heinous way. I trudged. The odd layout of the run had us doing spokes around a traffic circle where a water station was located. The first two times I passed, despite my waving no thank you (I had a handheld tiny fuelbelt bottle - it was AWESOME) they would walk out across the full width of the road to come up to me - very off-putting. The third time, the volunteer group was busy taking a family photo (2 parents + 4 kids = typical Utah family).
I jogged on into the finish to a lovely surprise - adorable bitties taking care of finishers. One boy about 6 years old ran up to give me my medal, then two more arrived with water bottles, then a fourth removed my timing chip. SO KYOOT!
I then promptly collapsed to re-learn how to breath. Maybe I didn't train enough. Maybe I need more food and water during the race. Maybe I'm not fully acclimatized to the altitude yet.
But I am inspired to keep training and get stronger.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You. You make me stronger.
The DinoTri is a sprint triathlon in Vernal, UT that I did with my husband - we drove out the night before, as it was 3 hours from home and we were required to drop off our bikes the night before. I started to get REALLY psyched out by the bike profile, as I haven't been training on my bike as much as I should. Major hills.
I barely slept - maybe 4 hours total, and all broken up with bad dreams and pee breaks. I awoke promptly at 5, only ate a 120 cal cereal bar (this is something I'm actively working on, as NO food ever appeals before 9am) and was packed and ready in the 15 min time slot we'd allotted to get ready. So I sat on the edge of the bed while Kyle took another 15 minutes to prep (I'm one of those awful morning people who bounds out of bed - he is the type to hide under a heap of pillows for an extra hour).
We drove to T2, per instructions, and began to set up our stuff... when Kyle was about 20 feet from T2, he realized he'd left his helmet in the car. He went back and I made my tidy spot. The shocker was how few people were there and how much space I had. I'm used to about 2 square inches! The race information claimed 250 participants - it felt like less than half that. We then took the bus to T1... after a stop to let a guy off who had ALSO forgotten his helmet and a 2nd loop back to T2 to pick up a guy who had (wow.. really, wow) put his stuff on the bus and walked away. Mhmm...
We finally got to the start/T1 and started setting up. I remembered my towel this time!!!!!!!! Kyle forgot his goggles. Thanks to the help I got from my thread about The Hephalump where my goggles cracked, I had an extra pair. I was feeling spoiled at getting to use a real bathroom before we headed to the water. Once I got in the water, I was ecstatic; it was FAR warmer and cleaner than any of my races last year.
My swim went great - 22 minutes for the 750m swim. I had trouble finding feet, but was swimming with confidence and just felt a million times better in open water. I then walked the SUPER LONG boat ramp up to T1 - apparently it was half the length last year due to water levels, but it was still steep - and found Kyle getting ready to bike out. HUGE CONFIDENCE BOOSTER!!!! (he does a lot of half IM's and IMAZ and is 6'4" to my 5'5", so being a few minutes from him made my morning).
Got on the bike and prepared for hell. It arrived promptly and with a vengeance. I threw my dignity under the bus and walked portions of the two hills of doom, but tucked and flew in the long downhill segments. Frustrating as all get-out, but I survived. I'm so used to being at the absolute back of the pack of swimmers that it was a tiny bit startling to be passed by quite so many folks on the bike :(
I switched my shoes and headed out on the run to find that I simply had no gas in the tank. I was slow jogging at best, walking for long portions, and filled with hate. It was starting to heat up, my lips were bleeding from being badly chapped, and my calf was tightening up in a most heinous way. I trudged. The odd layout of the run had us doing spokes around a traffic circle where a water station was located. The first two times I passed, despite my waving no thank you (I had a handheld tiny fuelbelt bottle - it was AWESOME) they would walk out across the full width of the road to come up to me - very off-putting. The third time, the volunteer group was busy taking a family photo (2 parents + 4 kids = typical Utah family).
I jogged on into the finish to a lovely surprise - adorable bitties taking care of finishers. One boy about 6 years old ran up to give me my medal, then two more arrived with water bottles, then a fourth removed my timing chip. SO KYOOT!
I then promptly collapsed to re-learn how to breath. Maybe I didn't train enough. Maybe I need more food and water during the race. Maybe I'm not fully acclimatized to the altitude yet.
But I am inspired to keep training and get stronger.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You. You make me stronger.