Packing for a triathlon is worse to me than packing for a two-week road trip. I get that "can't forget anything" feeling and go through the race in my head about 4 times to make sure everything is laid out. I had already planned to drive over with T2 partner, Cindy, and while I was getting ready I received a message from her to meet 15 minutes later because of some repairs to her car. No prob. Got everything together in my big back pack (easier to carry while pushing a bike) and packed the car to go meet. When we arrived, she told us that earlier in the day when she was leaving the grocery store, she found a hole in her back passenger window, nothing was stolen so she is wondering if it was a rock from a mower or something. She got the window out and used plastic and tape to cover it - couldn't find anyone in Naples to fix it immediately, but someone would meet her at the hotel in Miami to fix it. So we packed up her car and were on our way.
Pretty quickly into the ride, we found out that the plastic was just way too loud and would probably come loose anyway flapping in the wind, so we stopped and took it out. The ride was much more quiet and we happily chatted along the way across the Alley. Everything was great until we got off the alley and the sky opened up. Torrential, like tropical storm, downpour for the last 45 minutes of the trip. The back of the car was soaked, but the worst part was every time we stopped in traffic, the wind would blow the rain all around inside of the car soaking both of us. We laughed our way through it, since there was nothing you could do and we knew it was quite the memory in the making!
She dropped me at the Hilton, where they half-way kept us under umbrella while we unpacked my bag and bike. I checked in and got to my room just in time for the rain to slow down. Luckily it appears my back pack is water resistant-proof, so almost everything was completely dry. Cindy headed next door to the Marriott to meet her window repair guy and to check in. We decided to try to still make packet pick-up since we both like to lay our stuff out the night before so she brought 2 Marriott umbrellas and we walked down. They stayed long because of the rain, so we got our numbers and packets, headed back to the hotels, and made reservations for dinner. We met fellow T2 Chris and his wife Michelle at the Italian restaurant and had a great dinner together. Then headed back and tucked in for the night.
I was probably asleep by 10, which to wake up at 5 would get a decent night sleep. Those plans were ruined about 3:45 when a group of really loud people on my floor must have been coming back from a bar where one of them was so upset, she felt she needed to let the whole area of the floor know about it. Yelling and crying and slamming doors... security came up and decided to deal with it right outside of my door despite me asking them if they could deal with it somewhere else. The marble floors only echoed everything even louder. I called the front desk twice and no one answered. I was PISSED! This whole thing went on for about an hour, so there was no going back to sleep.
I got up and prepped for the race. Got everything together and headed down to the venue. Got the bike racked and everything laid out. Found Cindy & Chris and we all wished each other a good race. Cindy and I were in the same purple wave (#6 of 6) so we walked down to the swim start and waited for it to go. Horn went off at 6:50 for the first group and we were appx 10 minutes later when we were sent off.
The swim starts by running in and then swimming out, making a right, and then after the 6th buoy making another right to head to shore. I felt great for my swim. I was passing a lot of people from the earlier waves (cap colors) and just felt strong. I did feel a little side stitch which never happened to me swimming before but it went away pretty quickly. The water was perfect, maybe with a little current pushing to the shore (I would look up to spot and be at a 45 degree angle). Swimming one buoy to the next to the next... I came out of the water in about 44 minutes, which isn't GREAT, but I was happy with it.
Heading to T1, for some reason people come out of the water and walk to their bike. So I again was passing more people, which always feels good. Got to the bike, helmet, shoes, swig of water, sunglasses, and we're off to bike.
Bike started out well. Legs felt a little tired, maybe I was kicking more in the swim? Not sure. But I was feeling OK. Then, maybe 2 miles in, I heard what sounded like someone popped a soda can. My first race flat! On the back tire! I had taken the flat class, so I got the wheel off, had the tire and tube out and was just starting to replace it when bike support showed up and finished it for me. I got a drink while they finished and headed back out. There was so much glass on the side of the roads, I'm sure that must have been what happened but couldn't find anything specific on the tire. The whole thing probably cost me about 10 minutes. Of course TONS of people passed me while all this was going on, which is so deflating. From that point, I just felt wiped out. I don't know if it was the mental break that did it, or the physical break and losing the momentum, but I just hated the whole rest of it and just wanted it to be over. I kept going back and forth in my head of just stopping vs. just finishing, since I knew my time was compromised at this point and I was hurting. I knew I would be mad at myself if I quit, so I just kept going...
Was SO happy to head into T2 and get off that bike. Ran the bike in, racked it, took some water, switched shoes and headed back out working on a Gu.
Going into the run always hurts. The legs by that point are trying to shake off the bike portion and get into the running motion. Probably about a half mile in I saw Shawn and the girls. He brought them over that morning so they could see me do a tri. It was really nice of him and always motivating to see the girls. Puts me in a happy mindset. That mindset didn't last long, though, when my stomach cramped and felt exactly like a big bloated water balloon. I have no idea what happened. Unless I drank too much water? I still have yet to figure it out. Maybe I didn't have enough salt in my system? Regardless, it was so painful trying to run with the stomach pain, I had to stop and walk (GRRRRRR!!!!!) I tried to restart a few times, and just couldn't. It was really painful. Finally, I could feel some burps coming up and felt good enough to start trying to jog again. It was off and on like that until about mile 3, when it finally felt like it was letting up. I tried to push the run as much as I could at that point. Around mile 5, I had some pain come back but by 5.25, I was running again. Saw Shawn & the girls again just before the final turn to to the finish line on the beach. Once you can hear them announcing names, you know you are close. So I just did what I could and finished.
I am proud of myself - even with the flat and the stomach pain I PR'd that distance by 5 minutes. I gutted it out and did finish, which was hard in-and-of itself. I was pretty disappointed, too, though, since I felt like I trained SO HARD all winter for this and was not able to show a great result from it. I look forward to discussing it with my coaches and seeing what else we can do. I know I need more work on the bike. That is probably where I failed the most. The causeways/hills just killed me AGAIN!
I'm not signed up for another Tri until the Naples Fitness Challenge sprint in June, which is just a fun flat home-town event. So I have time to collect my thoughts and get back on track. Just think I need a few days to get past the feelings of the race so I can look at it objectively and dissect it.
That and a few days of sleep...
Here is the link to my results... yay... http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=124626304&rsID=123920
And a little video that Shawn shot... I look pretty miserable... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg62Kbk7RbM
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