My First Relay

Saturday was my first triathlon relay, that is. The memories of 4x400s on the track and IM relays (ok, relay, singular-- I did it once) in the pool are still taking up a few micrograms of brain space. But Dragonfly Triathlon was my big debut in the tri relay world. My plan for the day was to get a total of 75 minutes of running in, so I was going to do 30 before, close to 30 during the 4.2 mi race, and 15 afterward. It was so much fun watching the race, which really resembled a Memphis interteam race, that I got a late start on my warmup.

Here we have Forrest, who was warming up for his relay, while Robby was out riding and Bill had already swum. Mary Cay (which of these things is not like the other?) had swum with her stepson Alex and was going to also run after Terrence finished the bike. My team consisted of Michelle (the photographer) who has injured her poor knees so badly that she's taking a little time off from cycling and running, along with speedster Cheryl, the cyclist, whose time to completion I grossly overestimated. Sorry Cheryl! I didn't really calculate how long one would take on the bike and just gave you a general 45-60 minutes! Cheryl, individually a grandmaster, biked the 5th fastest female time of the day (and was 15 seconds from the two ahead of her).

I decided to shorten my 30 minute warm up to 20, just in case Cheryl was faster than I guessed, and thankfully, I reached transition about 15 seconds before she did. I hollered out that I was almost ready as she approached. Luckily I'd brought my elastic-laced racing flats that I slipped into before strapping on the chip and taking off like a sprinter off the blocks.

So I might have been a little too enthusiastic in the first mile of the run. I was passing people like they had just ridden 18 miles and I hadn't... oh yeah. So I had NO excuse to have a bad run. All was good until the second mile, which consisted of fresh piles of mulch laid the day before on an uphill trail through the woods. Scenic and fresh-scented, yes; fast, no. I kept telling myself that this was just a 4 mile race, and I COULD NOT walk the water stops like usual (hi my name is Joy and I walk water stops), but by the time I got to the second one, I was practically walking up the hill anyway. I dumped a cup of water over my head, drank another one, realized that it was actually HEED, and picked up the pace again. Short uphills followed by quick downhills kept me on my toes (literally) the next bit, and with about a mile and a half to go, I found relief in the form of a downhill.

It was fun passing people, and I heard several remarks of relief when they saw the R on the back of my calf. The last mile is down a long stretch of road, and I could see Deb, a Los Locos teammate, in the distance. I heard several "go get her"s to which I tried to respond, "I'm a relay," which came out more like a long sigh. I did manage to creep up on her enough that by the last 200m she was within reach. She heard me coming and started to sprint (and she was a sprinter in high school, I know, because she was my teammate then too!), I pushed it, caught up, and we crossed the finish line together. I was thankful that I wasn't actually racing her head-to-head, since she got the official victory, and she's in my age group.

My team won 1st place in the Female Relay division, in a time that placed us tied for 4th overall (ok, 5th; like I said, Deb officially beat me). I was so proud of my Los Locos; the men had 8 of the 10 top spots, and the women had 6 of the top 10. It was a fun Memphis triathlete party afterward with the Terrapins, Thunder, and lots of new or unattached people. My first relay experience was a complete success, except for my slow run time. Next time, maybe I'll bring my bike for a good little warm up before the run..

Me, Michelle and Deb post race.