Witty Wood: Music City Triathlon

Well, hello there -

I know you were concerned of my whereabouts; I did not drown in the Cumberland River!

I have just been a busy bear at work, which is a very good thing.

So, about the Music City Triathlon!

It. Was. Awesome.

Those are really the only words - though not very crafty - that I can use to describe it.

My very first Sprint Tri ended far better than I could have ever anticipated,

especially with training on my own and not having any guidance as to how a Tri even worked. Ha!
If you don't want to read bunch of race day mumbo jumbo - tune in to the next post where I'm sure I'll be talking about something else, but today - I have to hash this out for my own little journal :)

I went to the packet pick up in the blazing heat on Saturday and walked by the finish line and thought,
"please oh please just let me see this line tomorrow...."

I walked around like a fish out of water - I hate being the new kid - trying to find my packet and where to sit to listen to the "beginners session" - aka - for those folks who don't know what the heck they're doing.... me.

I got really nervous, because let me just say -
there is a list rules longer than the actual race that you have to follow.
don't do this, don't do that....
I don't like rules.

I had already resigned to the fact that I could quite possibly be DQ'd during the bike segment.

I took my packet home and let Meg help me get my tattoos on and my numbers placed on every moving and stationary portion of me, my head, my arms, my bike, my helmet....

If I didn't know my race number, I failed number class in pre-school.

They had the race number thing covered.

Meg and I woke up supa dupa early on Sunday to make our way down to the start area.

Meg is a gem - I don't know what I would do without her.
She has been to nearly every race/run/stupidthingihavesignedupfor these past few years and I love her for it.

She got some great pictures that I'm forever grateful to have.

We made our way to the Transition Area where I set up my bike

(precisely like they told me in the session on Saturday - another DQ item....) and tried to calm my nerves.

There was a LOT of money hanging out in that lot.

Please note the awesome arm tat....

I was most concerned about the swim in the Cumberland River.

Open water swim and lap swimming at the YMCA are two totally different animals.

Throw in some current, murky water, fish, dead bodies, who knows... you got yourself a little challenge.

Meg made her way to the pedestrian bridge where she captured the picture above.
All of those crazies were lined up to dive off into that water!

I couldn't believe it - as I was standing there on the deck waiting my turn to get in, I heard my name and looked up at the pedestrian bridge and there was Meg! How she found me in that sea of people, I'll never know. It did calm my nerves a bit that she had spotted me and could keep an eye on me during the swim.

I got in the water - they called my number - I said a little prayer - and I told myself.....just breathe.

The swim went perfectly.

I found myself passing other swimmers, rounding the boueys

without getting swept 100 yards away by the current, and NOT DROWNING.

I finished the swim in 8:36 seconds. Personal Record (PR) 400 meter swim.

One of the aspects of this Tri business that I had not mentally prepared for was getting out of the water and having to run barefoot to my bike - a good 1/2 mile. I didn't sign up for barefoot running - that's for those crazy people. Not this girl. I don't walk around barefoot ANYwhere - not even in my own bedroom. I had to suck it up and hit the pavement. (I still have a splinter in my foot, BTW.)

I got to the transition area and somehow managed to get all of my pieces of equipment together and in the right order. You cannot touch or unrack your bike until your helmet is on and securely fastened - Check. Dry off feet and get socks and shoes on - Check. Garmin - Check. Shades - Check. Gu - check. Boom.
Ready to hit the road.

I was making a deal with those tires right about here....

Where I was thinking - JUST BREATHE on the swim. I was thinking - TIRES, DO NOT GO FLAT on the ride. I could just see me on mile 10 and end up on the side of the road with a stinkin' flat. Thankfully, that did not happen. I would say that the bike was the hardest portion for me, and I am not sure why.

I took my Gu at mile 7 on the bike and got a stitch in my side. Ouch.

Those folks that I picked off in the swim made up for their time on the bike.....zooming past me. D'oh.

Either way, I was pleased with my bike finish.

I completed the 15 mile bike leg in 44:27 - PR 15 mile bike time.

Off to run!

After racking my bike and strapping on yet another race number, I just had the last and final leg to tackle, the run. All I had to do was hammer out 3.1 measly miles. Now, that might sound easy. When you get off of the bike, your legs feel like they weigh 1,000 pounds a piece - "bricks" is what they call it. I definitely had a case of the bricks legs because I kept looking down at my Garmin thinking that it was picking up someone else's pace. I was going faster than I have ever run before and I knew I needed to slow down, but I couldn't really send that message from my brain to my legs. Strange - I tell ya. I just went with it and hoped that I could sustain my - what was fast to me - pace for the whole 3 miles. When I rounded that last 300 yards or so, I was beaming. I had a smile on my face bigger than a kid on Christmas morning. I was almost there - I had done it! I did not drown. I did not crash my bike into the crazy people on the motorcycles checking to try to DQ me. I was running and I couldn't feel my legs - Life was good. I could hear Meg yelling my name at the finish line and was one proud little lady. I only wish JWood had been standing there with her :(

I finished and PR'd my 5k time at 25:20.