The one with the race report (Arcadia Tri)

The good news is I’m officially a triathlete again. And actually, I claimed my title back a month earlier than I’d planned.  I knew after I had Decker, that I wanted to do RedMan this year because they’re hosting the national championships for 2012, which only happens every 3 years – and- the exiting part about that is they expand the race to a two day event and include all four distances.  So it gives me a chance to do a sprint distance triathlon in September and there are all kinds of good things about that.  Later in the year means more time to prepare, cooler weather, etc.  Well, due to some complicated circumstances regarding Josie abandoning me- I offered to step into her Olympic distance slot because she’d already registered and I hadn't yet.  Here’s the thing, I've never done an Olympic distance triathlon. I’ve only ever done half that distance, not only that, but it’s been 3 full years and two babies ago. 

So a couple of weeks ago I decided I needed to toss Arcadia sprint distance triathlon onto my calendar because its early-to-mid-August date would help me gauge my ability level.  What I learned was that I have a lot of work to do! It was a reality check, hard core reality check. 

There were days when I really thought I was getting enough training. Enough to finish, not enough to be competitive really, but enough to say, hey I did it.  That fantastical thought went poof 8 minutes into the race. 
I love race morning.  I love the nervousness in the pit of my stomach that says, today is the day! You're going to do it! Checking over everything to make sure I have what I need to race.  Taking that first deep breath after setting up transition. The breath that says- this is the oxygen that's going to fill my lungs and fuel my blood. The warm up jog that questions the legs- what do you have today? Did you bring it?  And, that last stretch before wading out into the water that awakens the arms and releases the tension sleeping between the muscles.

Here’s the tricky thing. In black and white- on paper, it seemed everything was going according to plan.  My goal to finish at Arcadia was 1:40 and my finish time was 1:36.  I was allowing 15 minutes for my swim time, and I was in transition at 13:+.  What these numbers don’t relay is how hard I had to try to get myself to the finish line!

Lets talk about the swim.  I swim in a pool and there are obviously differences that you have to account for.  In a pool, you don’t have to sight because you can see a line at the bottom but in a lake you can’t follow any lines even if they were there because the water is so dark.  In a pool people don’t climb all over you and kick you in the face or throw water into your mouth when you turn your head to take a breath.  The water in a lake full of swimmers is quite turbulent and your body bobs around unpredictably, not the smooth, quietness of a pool where you’re pretty much the only one slicing through the water.  There are no walls to push off in a lake, which give you a burst of speed and a rest for your arms.  I know these things because I’ve done open water swims, but knowing them doesn’t change the fact that they’re still different from the pool and they still suck.  8 minutes in, I’d been kicked, climbed on and swam off course, I swallowed a disturbing amount of lake Arcadia and ended up on my back after the first buoy.  This is when I had my first mental argument with myself about what I can and can’t do. 

The pessimist in me, for lack of a better name, said your arms are too fatigued. You can’t go on.

While the realist in me said- you’ve swam longer than 8 minutes! You can swim longer than 30! What are you doing on your back? Turn over now!

The latter was a much louder voice with much more passion, so I turned over.  Two strokes and I was on my back again. Nope. Can’t.

Connie. Get your ass back in the air and swim, dammit!
Ok.

I made it to shore after the third time, but it was a very long and heated inner-debate! And it seemed like I wasn’t going anywhere. 

Out of the water, up the beach through the sand and up the hill to transition.  Mike and the boys watched as I was trying to get beach sand off my feet because I could just imagine all the blisters I would get by basically “sanding” the skin off my feet between every toe if I didn’t get them clean before I ran!

I spent about a minute and a half in transition- about 60 seconds too long.  But once I got on my bike I felt the tension ease and my body sighed with relief.  “This I can do.” It said to me. My legs took over and we climbed and descended for six miles out and six miles back.  I did my best to burn up everything I had on the bike.  I didn’t care to “save anything for the run” there is no, “maybe my run would have been faster if” because my run is slow and there’s no way around it. I might as well put some distance under my wheels and make at least one leg of the triathlon worth something.  It wasn’t my best time and it wasn’t my fastest, but I think I gave those hills what I had.

My running legs were hiding somewhere and didn’t return until halfway through the run.  I couldn’t smooth it out, my arms and legs couldn’t synch up and my stomach was twisting as I bounced around and pounded my feet into the ground.  I smiled because knew this was it though. I knew I was almost done and I just had to finish this last thing before I could call it a wrap.  I got to see my three boys cheering for me every time I came back near the transition/finish area.  Reed’s big eyes searching for mommy as Mike tried to point him in the right direction, until finally he found me – but then I was running off again!

I knew as I ran that I was going to take him through the finish line with me.  That had to be my favorite part of the whole race.  I came up the hill towards the finish line and reached my arms out, I said “I want Reed!” so Mike set him down and Reed and I went running, hand in hand, through the big blue arch.  The lucky little guy even received a medal for his participation!

I’m happy to be able to say I’m a triathlete once again, I’m also happy that I got that reality check for the Olympic distance race coming up.  I’ve only got a few weeks to prepare, but I think this is going to go down as one of my greater accomplishments –athletically speaking.