Saturday, May 13, 2006
WildFlower!!!
We drove down to Wildflower on Saturday. After stopping for some pre-race nutrition at In and Out Burger (well okay, it just tastes good) we continued down to Lake San Antonio. Upon arriving it was buzzing with nervous energy and excitment, packed with triathletes and their bikes. We watched and cheered as the half ironman race was drawing to a close.
The evening went by in a blur. We setup camp and did some eating, socializing and sleeping. Morning was upon us in an instant, and I don't think anyone slept particularly well. Thanks to coach Rand making us practice every part of getting ready for the event, I packed up my gear on auto-pilot. We all grabbed our stuff and make the 2-mile trek from the campground to the starting area.
The transition area was packed with thousands of people and bikes. Coach Rand suggested that we learn the route to and from our particular spot, and he seemed not to be the only one dispensing this advice. As I walked to and from my 18-inch wide transition spot, I battled through thousands of others doing the same thing. I couldn't help but think that to outsiders we must look like a colony of bees, doing a dance that no one outside could understand.
We lined up at the starting line. There was a start every 5 minutes, and mine wasn't until 10:05AM (which means that we subtract 1:05 from the race clocks to get our time). My group, a sea of purple swim caps, lined up behind those in yellow. We were all nervous and shuffling our feet, only minutes away from the inevitable. The air horn blared, and the yellow caps dashed into the water. A race official told us that we could get used to the water, and then line up. The air horn blared again, and the chaos... err race began.
The Swim:
My swim started out better than I expected. Other than swimming headlong into a lifeguard-type on a surfboard (I wondered why that muffled yelling had been getting louder), I was able to swim in a fairly straight line. Towards the end of the swim, I was getting tired, a bit disoriented and frustrated. I kept thinking that the swim should be over by now, and I couldn't help but stop and look at my position every few strokes. After eons of inching closer to the boat ramp, I was finally able to stand and stagger out of the water. I stumbled up the boat ramp into the transition area and shed my wetsuit.
The Bike:
I quickly changed into my bike gear and headed out on the bike. It was especially hot out, upper 80's and we had been training in the 50's and 60's. As a result, I wanted to take it easy on the bike, and leave myself enough energy to finish strong on the run. I rode at a good steady pace, took in all my food and fluids and glided along. In what seemed like no time, I was flying down Lynch Hill back into the transition area.
The Run:
The run was brutally hot, with no shade, and almost all uphill. The roads were lined with people cheering and occasionally spraying water on those of us crazy enough to be running up these hills in the blistering heat after swimming and biking. While the water was refreshing, it seemed to evaporate as fast as it landed on me and it was hard not to focus on the heat. As I was running up one hill, a guy on the side reminded me to enjoy the nice cool breeze blowing off the ocean. I suspect we was trying to help, but he only succeeded in reminding me that we were nowhere near the ocean and that the air was so still that not even a blade of grass was moving. Eventually I made it to the highest part of the course (about 5 miles in), excitedly, I began my all out run down Lynch Hill, this time, heading for the finish line. I felt energized and proud as I dashed across the finish line, the announcer calling my name and saying that I looked like I would be doing the half ironman next year. A cold wet towel was thrown over my head, and I grabbed some food and drink and hopped into the lake to cool off.
The breakdown of my times:
I wanted to thank all of you for your generous donations, for coming to my fundraiser, for your emails and phonecalls and wishes of support. I really appreciate your help through all of this and I'm proud to have met my fundraising goal, as well as completing the triathlon (you won't see it on my fundraising page as the money was mailed in instead of charged, but the fundraiser brought in an additional $350 plus some additonal checks that brought me well over my $3000 goal!).
The evening went by in a blur. We setup camp and did some eating, socializing and sleeping. Morning was upon us in an instant, and I don't think anyone slept particularly well. Thanks to coach Rand making us practice every part of getting ready for the event, I packed up my gear on auto-pilot. We all grabbed our stuff and make the 2-mile trek from the campground to the starting area.
The transition area was packed with thousands of people and bikes. Coach Rand suggested that we learn the route to and from our particular spot, and he seemed not to be the only one dispensing this advice. As I walked to and from my 18-inch wide transition spot, I battled through thousands of others doing the same thing. I couldn't help but think that to outsiders we must look like a colony of bees, doing a dance that no one outside could understand.
We lined up at the starting line. There was a start every 5 minutes, and mine wasn't until 10:05AM (which means that we subtract 1:05 from the race clocks to get our time). My group, a sea of purple swim caps, lined up behind those in yellow. We were all nervous and shuffling our feet, only minutes away from the inevitable. The air horn blared, and the yellow caps dashed into the water. A race official told us that we could get used to the water, and then line up. The air horn blared again, and the chaos... err race began.
The Swim:
My swim started out better than I expected. Other than swimming headlong into a lifeguard-type on a surfboard (I wondered why that muffled yelling had been getting louder), I was able to swim in a fairly straight line. Towards the end of the swim, I was getting tired, a bit disoriented and frustrated. I kept thinking that the swim should be over by now, and I couldn't help but stop and look at my position every few strokes. After eons of inching closer to the boat ramp, I was finally able to stand and stagger out of the water. I stumbled up the boat ramp into the transition area and shed my wetsuit.
The Bike:
I quickly changed into my bike gear and headed out on the bike. It was especially hot out, upper 80's and we had been training in the 50's and 60's. As a result, I wanted to take it easy on the bike, and leave myself enough energy to finish strong on the run. I rode at a good steady pace, took in all my food and fluids and glided along. In what seemed like no time, I was flying down Lynch Hill back into the transition area.
The Run:
The run was brutally hot, with no shade, and almost all uphill. The roads were lined with people cheering and occasionally spraying water on those of us crazy enough to be running up these hills in the blistering heat after swimming and biking. While the water was refreshing, it seemed to evaporate as fast as it landed on me and it was hard not to focus on the heat. As I was running up one hill, a guy on the side reminded me to enjoy the nice cool breeze blowing off the ocean. I suspect we was trying to help, but he only succeeded in reminding me that we were nowhere near the ocean and that the air was so still that not even a blade of grass was moving. Eventually I made it to the highest part of the course (about 5 miles in), excitedly, I began my all out run down Lynch Hill, this time, heading for the finish line. I felt energized and proud as I dashed across the finish line, the announcer calling my name and saying that I looked like I would be doing the half ironman next year. A cold wet towel was thrown over my head, and I grabbed some food and drink and hopped into the lake to cool off.
The breakdown of my times:
| OVERALL | BIB | FINTIME | AGE | SEX |
| 1290 | 7031 | 3:17:55 | 30 | M |
| SWIM | TRANS1 | BIKE | TRANS2 | RUN | CLASSRANK | SEXRANK | SWIMRANK | SWIMMPK | BIKERANK | BIKEMPH | RUNRANK | RUNMPM |
| 0:35:19 | 0:03:40 | 1:38:04 | 0:03:37 | 0:57:15 | 210 | 1026 | 1925 | 0:23:32 | 1460 | 15.1 | 1180 | 0:09:14 |
I wanted to thank all of you for your generous donations, for coming to my fundraiser, for your emails and phonecalls and wishes of support. I really appreciate your help through all of this and I'm proud to have met my fundraising goal, as well as completing the triathlon (you won't see it on my fundraising page as the money was mailed in instead of charged, but the fundraiser brought in an additional $350 plus some additonal checks that brought me well over my $3000 goal!).
// posted by Zack @ 10:53 AM 
