A question people often ask me is why I love doing this so much. There’s no one reason, but a big one is from the second I hit the water to about 20 minutes after I finish, my mind is crystal clear. I can’t think of anything, I can’t hear myself talking to me, there’s nothing. Pure silence. If you had any idea how much nonstop chatter goes on inside my noggin, you’d understand exactly why that few hours of silence is so incredibly alluring.
I hadn’t had that silence in a while. I had it a few times in the pool and once or twice while running or biking, but nothing this intensely calming since probably 3Sports.
I remember telling my dad that I’d never been this calm the day of a race. Since my swim start time wasn’t until almost noon, I hung around inside while wearing sweats — I didn’t put my racing clothes on until 11am. I didn’t even know the race started. I was caught up in deep conversation with a good tri friend and I was just enjoying being in the atmosphere with so many positive people — so many positive people I’ve met over the last year. There were so many warm greetings and hugs and ‘how was your winter’ comments. I may not know people’s stories or much about who they are, but I know their faces and their bikes. While we all come from different backgrounds, lives, dreams and desires, we all share a deep love for this sport.
That said, the best thing about having numb feet and legs is you can’t feel them hurt. That is, until they sort of thaw out – then they REALLY hurt. Forecasts earlier in the week called for sunny and upper 60s – just like last year. Except by Thursday, the update was for upper 40s and brutal winds. We got mid 40s, brutal, damp winds and clouds. At least the rain/sleet/snow held off until Sunday morning.
I have no idea how it’s possible, but there was a stiff 15mph+ headwind on at least 75 percent of the course. I was riding a small ring, my HR was pushing above 160 and I was STILL only going 11mph on flats. I should have been in a big ring and pushing 18mph with my HR about 145.
The swim was fantastic. I was gasping a bit because I was going so hard without having warmed up, but I kept my stroke and form the entire time. The only reason the time was more than 7 minutes was because the mats were a bit away from the end of the pool. I had to be careful to watch where I was walking because I couldn’t see (no glasses) and I just walked to my spot in T1. When I left, I had on a soaking wet suit that stopped at the knee, a pair of socks, a long-sleeve jersey and my helmet. A lot of others put on jackets, tights, gloves, sweats, etc., but I figured I wouldn’t feel the cold and I was right.
I looked down shortly after clipping into my pedals and noticed my skin was BRIGHT RED. That was about the time I dropped my gel flask, said a few choice words and just pushed off. This was not a race I was stopping to pick anything up – the ride was only 10 miles and I knew the weather wasn’t in my favor. Thankfully I remembered to put two gel packets in my back pocket in case I needed anything extra out on the run. The only real problem the entire race was fuel, as in I was close to empty for much of the week before and weekend, including the race.
Pre-riding the course the night before helped a lot with figuring out how much energy I should put into certain ‘hills.’ As I told Greg (the race director) just before I got in the water, I didn’t remember there being hills on this course – but that’s likely only because I didn’t remember the course because I was so in the zone. I also call them ‘hills’ because they were nothing like what I ride on a regular basis around here – they were just nice small rolls that were easy to manage.
I always take my feet out of my shoes before dismounting – it saves time and helps me run faster in the transition area. I suspected my feet were numb when I had trouble putting my feet on top of my shoes and that was confirmed when I hit the ground. However, I managed to get off pretty gracefully AND run all the way through T2 — something I’ve never done before.
Not long into the run my dad passed me and not long after that, I saw Liz and her sister. I saw so many people I knew coming in and that made it all the more fun. My HR wasn’t maxing out like it had during the bike, but I was having a hard time working through the hurt. I’d been at or above anaerobic threshold for an hour and I still had another 2 miles to run – so I brought it down a notch and just walked fast and occasionally did some spurts of running on the slight declines.
On the way back, I finally had a few moments of consciousness and realized how lucky I was to be out there. Yeah it was cold, yeah the wind was kicking our ass, yeah there was no sun, but holy crap it was a beautiful day. There was just this amazing sense of joy and oneness that hit me just about 2.1 miles into the run. I decided to time the last mile – to go as fast as my body would let me. It ended up being 15:38 according to my watch.
Crossing the finish line is always bittersweet. Yes it means you’re done for the day, but it also means you’re done for the day. I love being out there so much that I’m actually quite sad when it ends.
This time there were probably 15 people waiting for me at the finish line – most of which I knew. Everyone wanted to talk or say things, but I couldn’t hear them. I was still in my wonderful happy place and didn’t want to leave. It’s amazing how much I can just retreat into that place and how it gets me through so much. I can’t wait to see how much further it will take me. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to push through the hurt more and go faster on the run. My HR wasn’t maxing out so I know there’s more in there. It’s just after 1.5 hours of going at AT, my quads were just absolutely burning. It was awesome, but I still need to learn to push more.
Angels Race is in two weeks. This week, as soon as the weather and my lungs clear up, I’ll be out riding. It’s time to start stepping up and this race has finally given me the focus I need.
Thanks to all who said hello and introduced themselves. I’m constantly amazed at how many people read this blog. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.
Full splits:
Swim: 00:07:08
T1: 00:03:02
Bike: 00:45:00
T2: 00:01:33
Run: 00:51:05
Total: 01:47:48
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