at the beginning I suppose and this picture is the beginning of the day (if you skip the getting up at 4:15 and driving from Paso Robles to the lake part). Here I am in my transition area as the sun is thinking about getting up. I become quite fond of this spot as I spent a lot of time there between venues (gotta work on that transition speed).
The swim started promptly at 7am. As we all trudged down to the water and duly forced ourselves to get in, submerge, and actually swim a little to acclimate to the water. Since I was one of 3 people in a sleeveless wetsuit I think I get to whine just a little more than the others about the cold.
When I say the swim started promptly at 7am I mean that for the participants it started promptly at 7am since we got in the water at 7am and then waited and waited and waited. Apparently the person that was supposed to give our staff of volunteers the canoes did not get to work on time but came screeching into the parking lot at about 7:15. Of course we did not know this because they were over at the dock and we were in the water shivering. I think we actually started around 7:25 and I figure I shivered away all the early morning breakfast calories I had consumed.
On to the swim... I love my new Blue Seventy Helix sleeveless wetsuit. It was SO much easier to swim in than the orca long sleeve. So I got into a rhythm and only saw about 4 people ahead of me at the turn around point. Coming back to shore the sun was directly in our eyes for sighting, but that was ok because I swim pretty straight (verified by Skip in a canoe) and I could see the shore so I only sighted about every 20 strokes. This was all great until I SLAMMED head first (not hand, arm, or shoulder) but HEAD first into someone who had stopped swimming and was vertical in the water. It was such a total shock because I was cruising along pretty quickly and I really thought I had run into a pylon or something. I have know idea how hurt the other person was because I just started swimming again but it sure rang my bell. I ended up occasionally having a little blurry vision in my right eye while on the bike which I now think had something to do with the collision, but it has been ok since them. So, out of the water in 43 minutes (1.2 mile swim), run up to the transition area and proceed to take about 15 minutes to get on the bike because my hands and feet were too cold to function properly. I also put on all the spare clothing I had for the bike, leg warmers, arm warmers, and jscket, only to take them off again by mile 20.
On to the bike... It's a hard course - yes it is. We drove the course on Friday and it did not look all that bad. Ha! There is a lot of steady incline, hills, and about 4 miles of serious climbing from mile 41-45. They call that stretch "nasty grade" and well deserved. Especially when you get to the top and it turns to the left, then you get to the top, and it turns to the right and goes UP again, then it turns to the right and goes UP AGAIN. Thank you Thank you Thank you Coach Tom for riding up the top portion with me and keeping me going, because I made it. I actually passed 2 people on the lower portion so that was a boost for me.
Next comes the screaming downhill where by the time I got to the bottom I thought my hands were permanently stuck in the drops on the brakes (yes I feathered them but my hands were still stuck). The rough patch of road during that downhill was a little scary, not to mention all the cars that passed us on that stretch. So when that was over it was a relief except there are "rollers" to follow. Rollers,,,,, what a dumb name. They are hills, that is all there is too it. Finally we come to another steep downhill into the transition area...... 4 hours and 15 minutes, and 56 miles, later.
On to the run.... as Alex would say, "my happy place". It was not all that happy on Saturday. I have not mentioned nutrition so far but I'll tell you it was not working for me. I had decided to try Hammer Products Sustained Energy mixed with gels, and in retrospect I guess I mixed it too strong. At about mile 40 on the bike I stopped drinking the mixture I had and started drinking just water. I felt like I had a brick in my stomach and Coach Alex suggested that I try to dilute it with water. So going into the run I had been drinking only water for over an hour. I choked down 1 hammer gel, and decided to take Gatorade Endurance for my drink rather than continue with the hammer product. They will be serving Gatorade Endurance at Lake Placid so it makes sense to make sure I can tolerate it towards the end. Really all I wanted was water so I drank water at all the aid stations and continued to dilute my drink as well. I did take some endurolytes because I knew that I was not getting enough electrolytes drinking mostly water. I also took tums which thankfully one of my teammates told me to carry in case my stomach was not happy. THANKS JEN!
The run course is hilly and was hot, but under normal nutritional circumstances would probably be one I would enjoy. It included lots of dirt trails, which I like, and had a lot of variety. There is one section called the pit which goes downhill on the road for about 1 mile and the entire time we were just thinking about the fact that at the bottom we had to turn around and run back up it. YUK. I was kind of running out of steam by this point because I had not taken in much in the calorie department for the last 3 hours. My stomach was still not happy and I knew that I only had a couple of miles left so I decided not to worry about the lack of calories; I just knew that I was running on empty. The last mile was the same steep downhill that we had done on the bike and I ran an 8:29 mile there (it was too steep to really let go). I won't say what my other miles were... I'll just say I took A LOT of walk breaks during the 13.1 mile run.... it was training right???
All in all the three events took me about 7 1/2 hours (to cover 70.3 miles) but with my less than stellar transitions I finished over 8 hours after I started. It was tough but I made it.
Highlights:
The Swim: I'm happy with my time, I felt good (except for the crash part), and I love my new wetsuit - thanks Jen Elson for all your advice
