I can't call myself a prompt person, but I've had too many nightmares about being late to races to let myself procrastinate on race mornings. Hunter, on the other hand, seems to have zero sense of urgency when it comes to my racing (although when it comes to eating it's quite a different story). So after a week of waking up before 5am, he decided to sleep in on Saturday morning. I only have one rule (HIMYM fans), and that is never wake a sleeping baby. So we left for our 45 minute drive around 6, when lazy-pants finally decided to roll out of bed. The race start was scheduled for 7:30, so I already knew there would be little chance for warm up.
Nobody in the desert thinks about things like weather forecasts, unless they just want to calm their fears about the wind (which is always worse than predicted). The sun is pretty predictable: it will be out. So it was somewhat of a surprise to me that it rained the whole drive over. And here's the short report: it kept raining. I realized a few months ago how accustomed I am to perpetual sunshine when I told my sister that it rained and rained and rained -- for like 30 minutes straight! Apparently that is not a lot. Well the race day rain was a lot, so much that the second half of the bike course was too flooded to ride on. It is either the fact that the soil doesn't absorb any water or the road builders don't fully understand the physics of road water drainage, I don't know, but flooding is a big issue out here. The result of this was the bike course being cut in half -- hooray! We also had a 20 minute delay, which I could've used to nurse, or even warm up, had I been forewarned. Instead, my warm up had consisted of running from the car to transition and back many times to get all the equipment I kept forgetting. What a total newbie. Hunter was too busy learning to drive the car to nurse; he was so obviously annoyed that I tried to take him away from the fun!
So I stood at the prerace meeting chatting with my friend Dave about how we are better runners after the bike, which is a much underutilized skill in the reverse races. I somehow managed to be at the starting line on time despite a couple more forgotten items. Starting out slow is my thing, especially when I don't warm up, but I wasn't expecting a woman to still be ahead of me half a mile in. And then she started pulling away. It was surprisingly easy to talk myself out of hanging with her, and next thing I knew she was 100 yards ahead. So I splashed through the ankle deep water all by my lonesome, thinking of things like how I need a dress for an upcoming wedding, my parents' visit and what mom would fix us for supper, you know, the usual race thoughts. Then I came upon the 2k mark, such a standard first marker, and of course I had to utilize all brain power to calculate what 8:45 would be in minutes per mile. It took me a while, since, although I love my numbers, the most basic equations escape me while running. Just as I was figuring out my pace, we turned a corner into the wind and driving rain, which pelted my face despite turning my visored head downward. Taking my eyes off her did little for my motivation, and she pulled further ahead. There was nobody near me to block the wind or chase, but I did manage to pick up a little speed and I do believe I negative split the 8k. I have no proof since I had to forgo the garmin. Rain and my finicky bezel don't mix.
The rain continued on the bike, and I admit I was a little scared of how slick the road was. My racing flats were light on the traction, and I kept picturing skidding out on the bike. I've gotten wimpy in rain! The first half was a nice downhill with a tailwind, so I was preparing myself for the return trip. As soon as I hit the turnaround my speed dropped by 10mph and my watts increased. I did decide to take the power tap along, and luckily it is waterproof. While I'm not as close to 4W/kg as I'd like, but it wasn't as bad as I half expected. I never caught the girl ahead of me, and being able to see miles up the road, I could tell there wasn't much chance. My speed kept dropping a little bit lower every few miles, and it took me 10 minutes longer to do the back half of the 14 mile course than the front. Ouch.
While the temperature wasn't super cold, the rain had a chill. I was a little stiff coming off the bike but the pool water was nice and warm. I immediately passed a man who jumped in just before me and get this, did flip turns on every other wall the whole way. Never before have I flipped in a race, probably due to panic. My arms literally got a warm feeling and not long after somebody attached that darn vice grip to them and I drug lead weights around for 400yds. The last few hundred, when breathing toward the end wall, I could see my sweet husband holding my precious sleeping baby near the finish. It was so cute; it made me really happy.
So I ended up 2nd female but of course was a bit disappointed in my effort. There are just so many new things to think about when planning for and racing now, that I forgot to pack my motivation. Adding to that was the rain-- I mean, rain? This was the wettest triathlon I've probably ever done, and it took place in the desert.
I'll give this racing thing one more shot this fall, but I'll try to leave complacency at home.
Solid grayness. Where's my blue sky?
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