UPDATED TIMES AT END OF PAGE 7.20.05
From here on out, you must call us as Triathlete Tiffany and Triathlete Rebekah!!!
My First Triathlon - July 16, 2005 - Lake Chelan, WA
The load up in Bremerton, 9 a.m. Friday morning....
Bring it ON!
Rebekah locking up our bikes at Northgate before fueling up on pasta at California Pizza....
The last big meal the night before the race at the hotel.... by this point I was forcing carbs down my throat. I never thought I'd say this but I was so sick of potatoes and pasta at that point... ugh....
We set out our gear the night before in the hotel room. OK, so it was really me that was being particularly precise about where everything was and how it was packed for the swim-bike transition. Apparently, I drove Rebekah and Mom nuts. But then my packing job didn't make any difference anyway because I was throwing stuff everywhere so I could get on my bike ASAP. Then we almost forgot to go back to the transition zone to pick it up before leaving Lake Chelan.
YIKES! RACE MORNING!!!! The view to the left was from our hotel room. You can't beat racing in an environment like this!
Waiting in line to set up our bikes in the swim-bike transition zone. I was wishing I had food with me.
Oh my gawd, it's almost time! Those event-provided stylin' swim caps were all the rage - even on the hunky guy to the left. Unfortunately, the cap went with my swim suit.
Whoo-hoo, here we go! (Crimony, will we get out of this alive!?)
Quickly getting lost in the masses... (i'm in the center, behind the bar, reba is to the left). We were wearing timing chips around our ankles, which were set off when we passed the American flag.
....and we are lost within the water and those stylin' green swimming caps.
After I got in the water, I realized that my goggles were still on my head, not on my eyes - this, after a week-long crisis of finding a new pair of goggles to replace my old ones that had started leaking, oh, three days before the race.
While I had trained mostly in a pool and then swam at Wildcat Lake a couple times, I was not ready for the bodies and the rough waters that came with a lake race. I was a floundering fool. My rhythm was off and I kept choking on water, but in the last 100 feet, I finally just busted ahead and tore through the bodies that were still in my way. Time: 11:46.
Shew.... we made it out alive.....and it's off to bike the "pancake flat" course, which really wasn't. Thankfully, during the past three years, I had been taught how to ride my bike efficiently up hills, which helped in riding steep inclines during training. But then compared to training, this 12-mile course was a piece of cake. Rebekah, on the other hand, didn't have such luck but she still made it through.....
So while I thought running would be my strongest sport, my legs were dead when it came time to jump off the bike and run three miles. Not my greatest race. Slow. Sluggish. Didn't event sprint at the end. That smile is false. It is only for show. I had side cramps, a sore knee, a sore shoulder and a blah feeling. Running on a hot street, freshly paved, sometimes is just not fun. But always smile for the camera.
So after spending seven months of dreaming about crossing that finish line with great exhilaration, I, uh, didn't feel it so much when I actually did it. Sort of an underwhelming, sort of, "eh, OK, so I finished feeling". Like, "that's it?" It sort of sucked. But I was tired too.
UPDATE: 7/20/05 - OFFICIAL RESULTS: I'm EXTREMELY HAPPY with my time: 1 hour 25 minutes and 20 seconds - placed 171 out of 516 people. NOW I feel satisfied about the race.
We weren't sure what happened to Rebekah.... I passed her once on the bike ride but didn't see her again after that, so mom and I were a bit concerned. But she rocked the end, reaching her goal of completing the race within two hours. After not training for this thing, she finished with excellent form - just like we knew she would.
This group finish epitomized the event's atmosphere, esp. during the race. Most of the course was designed so you biked/ran one way, turned around and biked/ran back, so everyone was passing each other. So many people yelled positive things during the race as they passed their co-athletes. We noticed there were far more women than men doing the race, with their husbands and kids on the sidelines yelling, "Go MOM!"
The coveted "My First Triathlon" gold medal. We also received free t-shirts. But the best part was the free orange slices at the end of race.
Getting our bikes at the end of the race from the bike/run transition area....... just barely remembering to get our stuff from the swim/bike transition zone and giving Lake Chelan one last look....
"This is the first time and last time!" "Sign me up for the next one!"
While we were quite exhausted at the end of the race, as depicted here by one sleeping Reba, our bodies, surprisingly, weren't sore the next day. In fact, I've felt worse after a day of hiking. Of course, we replenished the lost calories from the race with fat (veg) burgers, onion rings, cokes and shakes from Red Mill Burgers in Seattle that evening.
OFFICIAL RESULTS FROM TRI101.COM WEBSITE AS OF 7.20.05:
Tiffany
swim: 11:46
bike: 46.16
run: 22:37 (that's FIVE SECONDS away from my personal best in friggin' HIGH SCHOOL)
Rebekah (unfortunately, her timing chip didn't catch all of her results)
swim: 11:55
total race time: 1:52.16.
Thanks to:
Rebekah - for suggesting this insane idea in December. I called her crazy. She convinced me it would be okay. (So, next year, we're doing My Next Tri, right?)
Mom - for being our support crew (you always need a "mom" on a tri-support crew!), official photographer, cheerleader and putting up with our, OK, my, nervousness
Dad - For making sure my knees didn't get burned out on bad shoes
Don - who taught me how to properly ride my bike and how to be the most efficient with it, esp. on hills.
David - for pushing me to do 12-20-mile bike rides with the cows and buffalos while shedding my fear of the road and hills
The Kitsap Tri-babes - They are training for the Danskin in August and I trained with them a few times. They are a wonderfully inspiring group of women to train with, I wish I was doing the Danskin with them! Rock on Tri-babes!
Silverdale Cyclery - who calmed my basket case pre-race jitters with some schooling in flat tires and making my mountain bike be the best road bike it could be