Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Clemson Sprint Triathlon - 5.14.10

Clemson Triathlon: 3rd in my age group ... what a day! There were 5 of my Team In Training (TNT) athletes also racing this tri. I planned to get there at 6am (race started at 8am) to get all of my stuff done and then be able to help them when the finally arrived. Somehow there is never enough time for stuff. Probably should have gotten there at 5am. The TNTers start trickling in and Nicole & I go to work. It was so fun going out there with them & seeing them push their limits, overcome fears and become triathletes!!


Thankfully I was able to take my bike our for a quick check of the gears & computer. Stretching? ... nope. Warmup ... nope. Westsuit on ... barely. I had really wanted to get into the water and warm up, but that didn't happen. If I had I would have realized that the anti-fog that I put on my goggles last night DID NOT WORK!!! Oh well, I'm good at overcoming stuff, right?!

It's time for the race to start & Nicole & I are frantically trying to do a few stretches & throw our wetsuits on. There was a lot of tugging and pulling, but we finally got them zipped just in time to run off to the beach where all the other "white caps" were waiting to start swimming.

SWIM: I hang back on the beach and wait till there is about 60sec before I swim out to join the group treading water. BANG and we are off. My TNTers are off on the left edge and I was smack dab in the middle, one from the front. Surprisingly I didn't get clobbered much. Instantly my goggles were fogged up. What? Didn't I put anti fog on them last night? I keep swimming w/ only being able to see in a 2ft radius around me. Finally I look up & see splashes off to my right & I can't figure out if I'm supposed to be turning or not. I stop swimming & start treading water. Yep, you read that correctly. It didn't last long, but it did happen. I was going to try and spit in them & then I just said forget it & pulled those suckers down around my neck & swam the 600m w/o them. Open water swimming is my favorite ... right? Well today you would have never known it. That grove I usually get into never came. My hands hit the sand and I jump up and try and high-knee run my way the rest of the way out of the water, run past the sandy beach and stop at the grass to pull off my wetsuit. Trying to run up the rather long hill and around to TA would have surely not been fun while wearing the wetsuit, so I took it off first. At about half way up the hill Nicole passes me. What is she doing so close to me?! And, she just passed me. Oh no! I will not let her get a better swim time than me. I know this will be the only part of the race I can possibly beat her at, so it was on! We cross the time mat the same time and then it's a race out of T1. ... and I beat her! =)

On to the BIKE: Ok, I leave on a little high b/c I beat Nicole out of T1, but ... well then the throwing up starts. Yes, unfortunately it hasn't gotten any better. It sucks. What can I say. The bike has got a good number of hills, but nothing I shouldn't be able to handle. As the throwing up continues, I start to slow down. Susan passes me and says "SAY - rah!! Try to hang on" and try I did, but she was flying compared to me & I just couldn't keep it. Think I need to start hitting the hills she trains on!

Run time: Yay. The run was awesome! Best one eh-ver!! Haha, just kidding. Not good at all. I was slow. Didn't have anything in me. The run by far was the weakest link. Probably didn't help that I had thrown up the entire time I was on the bike. It's not an excuse, it's just the truth. But I did cross that finish line!

I accomplished what I went out there to do ... finish the race & I have fun in the process!! All the friends out there made it an awesome day. Hearing people yell & cheer me on, whether they were fellow competitors or spectators, always makes me smile. If I'm not smiling on the outside (because I am hurting to much!) I am always smiling on the inside. =) Probably the best part of the day was seeing the excitement on the faces of my TNTers as they crossed the finish line. They have worked so hard this season & are going to rock out at their official TNT events coming up soon. For many of them, this was their first triathlon. I was once in their shoes, & if not for the awesome coach I had then (& still have!) I would not be where I am now ... as an athlete and as a person. Thank you Nicole Ramsbey. I'm sure there will be many more fun days ahead!

Friday, May 13, 2011

4 Years Ago ...

Four years ago today I was scared, anxious & definitely not able to sleep. Why, you ask? The Clemson Sprint Triathlon was that next morning. This was a huge endeavor for me. In one day I would be overcoming what my family/friends thought I was incapable of doing. That previous fall, I had even had a guy laugh at me when I told him I wanted to do a triathlon & he told me I couldn’t do it. I was in my senior year of college, not doing anything athletic at the time, really didn’t seem to have time for anything & was definitely ‘slightly’ overweight ... I called myself “big boned!” (and still do!) That Saturday morning, I went out there and gave it my all. I swam, biked and ran ... and I crossed that finish line & became an official triathlete. It’s funny, I just read my old race report (posted as a note on my Facebook) from that first Clemson sprint, that was quite a fun day!

"Triathlon, from the outside looking in you can't understand it....From the inside looking out you can't explain it."

After that day at Clemson in 2008, I was hooked. Tomorrow will be my 23rd triathlon since I started and that quote is correct ...
- I can’t explain the pain I feel certain days from training,
- I can’t explain the mental battles that go through my head during training and racing,
- I can’t explain the elation I feel after pushing myself to my far extremes,
- I can’t explain the feeling I get when I cross the finish line,
- I can’t explain my addiction.

As I prepare for tomorrow’s race, I still have nervous jitters, but I am a much calmer than four years ago. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. Every race is tough it seems. The weather is hot and muggy and there are even possibilities of thunderstorms. I race better in cold weather, but I will survive! There might, well probably there will be throwing up, but I will survive! My muscles will be crying and my mind will tell me to stop, but I won’t stop and I will survive!

Not only will I survive, but I will push through my limits, I will finish & I will have FUN doing it!!