I survived the triathlon! But just. Rather than sharing the results up front here so you can be spared of the tedium of my story, I thought I would share the tedium of my story…
Upon arriving in California by the skin of my teeth,* I learned that Auburn was having record high temperatures. Rather than the usual 70 degree weather typical of May, they were having a heat wave in the upper nineties, the peak of which kept inching closer to race day.
And then I met the hills. As we reviewed the bike route, I noticed that the general up hill was broken up only by several steep climbs. I tried to keep a positive attitude by reminding everyone that what goes up must come down. “Ahh” said the race director, “that’s generally true, except for a few hairy hills on the way back as well.” DOH!
I did not see the run route, as most of it was on trails. I had just completed a ½ marathon a couple weeks previous, so I was feeling confident. I knew there were going to be hills, but I was actually not bad at running hills. I got this.
Race day. Up at 5:15am, race begins at 7:30am.** The swim was good. I had a wetsuit on that sucked the life from soul, I couldn’t see more than about 6 inches in front of me, and only had a vague idea of where I was going. Nevertheless, the water did not feel as freezing as I thought, and I finished in 31 minutes. I came in 73 out of 167 racers. Well done.
Feeling rather impressed with myself, but realizing that the tough biking was next, I got focused and took off on the bike.*** The first 6 miles were going to be the toughest. All in all, though, the bike was not nearly as bad as I had expected. The hills were hard, but not killers. But my ego had a reality check as nearly 90% of the athletes passed me by. And by passed, I mean in a streak of speed. I came in 153 out of 167. Ouch.
Then came the run. Only a little over an hour left to go…I got this. Or maybe not. At 10:30 am it was hot…HOT! Only the first mile was in the shade. After mile 1.5 I hit a hill…or rather the hill hit me. Half way up it I realized that the hills from biking had turned my knees into some sort of gelatinous substances no longer resembling a skeletal structure. I gave myself permission to walk. “Only up the hills,” I said. And I had to power walk.**** The first hill was fairly short, so I thought this was a great idea. At mile 3 I hit a down hill, which was great, until I noticed that runners were coming back up it, and they weren’t running. That can’t be good. At mile 4 I was still going down hill. That was going to be a long walk up. My anticipated 11min/mile pace turned out to be a 12 minute 43 second mile pace. The run sucked.*****
So, after all this detail, how did I do? Other than pulling a hamstring, I completed the Auburn International Triathlon in 4 hours and 3 minutes.****** I came in 138 out of 167 men and women.
I just wanted to thank all of you for your support, both in your donations but also wishing me well in my first triathlon. It was a lot of fun and the added pressure of knowing that all of you were keeping tabs to a certain extent really helped to keep me motivated. Thank you!
Cheers,
Heidi
* I don’t really understand that saying, teeth lacking skin and all…but they had to open the airplane door on my connecting flight so I could make it. So all I’m saying is that it was really close. Skin-of-my-teeth close.
** Did I need to be up that early? Not really. I spent about 45 minutes wandering around at the race wondering why I had gotten there so early. I guess I could have warmed up a bit.
*** Well, it wasn’t quite that smooth. First I had to struggle out of the soul crusher, then put my shoes on, then get my bike off the rack that proceed to fall over, almost hitting another racer. I did not exude confident professional to say the least.
**** Ok, so to me it seemed like I was power walking. To others it may have looked like crawling.
***** Or should I say the 60% that I ran sucked. The walk was fairly pleasant, really, with lovely scenery.
****** Technically 4 hours, 2 minutes, 59 seconds, and 8 tenths of a second….thought I’d just round up.
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