Sunday, August 12th, I raced my first post-baby triathlon: the Boston Triathlon (a sprint.) I’ve got the fire in my belly for triathlon again…damn that was FUN!
Pre-race:
It’s totally cheesy, but there’s this youtube video about IRONMAN inspiration (with an Eminem song as the music. Me? Eminem? shut up) that gets me all riled up. Basically it’s racers having a horrible day…crashing, falling, puking, etc, but still TRYING. The night before the race I put that song on my iPOD. You best believe I played it on repeat—listened to it the whole way to the race and during transition. It helped give me something to focus on, instead of FREAKING OUT about doing my first triathlon in over a year.
I set up my gear in no time and started chatting with the ladies around me. Turns out one of them had found some glass shards near her area, so we started to look around more carefully, and there were busted bottles all over the place. Not so great for barefooted triathletes and their bike tires! I went over to the race official tent, found an official, and told him the problem. He just looked at me with a blank stare, and then made some excuse along the lines of ‘well we looked through transition very carefully…’ LOOK DUDE. I don’t care. I’m telling you there is glass NOW. Please help? He gave me attitude about not ‘having enough volunteers to spare’ and threw a box at me so I could clean up myself. I’m not above cleaning up. I was PO’d because of his attitude. Like I was supposed to bring glass-removing equipment with me to the race?
Anyways. We got the glass picked up, and I helped my buddy Erica set up her transition spot. She was doing her first tri, so I tried to give her a few pointers without totally overloading her with info and/or freaking her out more. I remember how overwhelming it can feel! Once she was set up, we grabbed our wetsuits and headed to the race start.
Swim:
These last few months I have really been working on my swim fitness and form. So when it came to start time, I put myself more near the front of the pack than usual.
There’s another reason I wanted to be near the front…SHARKS. No, not in honor of Discovery’s Shark Week. Because freaking GREAT WHITE SHARKS have been spotted around/attacking people in New England this summer: here and here. I mean, Holy Crap. For those of you that aren’t obsessed with sharks—great whites like to eat seals. Guess what really really looks like a seal? A TRIATHLETE IN A WETSUIT. Super. So I figured I best be one of the faster swimmers and let the sharks take the stragglers off the back. Sorry noobs!
After the gun went off, there were the normal hi jinks for the first few minutes—jostling, leg-pulling, and kicking (I took a swift breast-stroke kick to the lip, which gave me that tough busted-lip look). I never really felt like I was in my groove, though, which was frustrating. I just kept netti-potting salt water and struggled to sight. I was certain I was well off my goal pace of 2:15 splits (I’m usually a 2:35’er). But once I finally clambered up onto the beach and checked my watch—17:25—holy crap! I creamed my goal time! And even better— I didn’t get eaten by a shark!
I ran up the beach, started taking my wetsuit off (no wetsuit strippers in a race where they highly recommended wetsuits = lame), and found Morgan and E almost immediately. One sloppy (baby) kiss later, I was on my way to transition.
Bike:
The bike course was a perfectly short, flat, and traffic-free 9 miles. My only complaints about it have to do with: the distance from transition to the mount/dismount line (almost a 1/4 mi!); and the long, winding, hair-pin turny turnaround. My on-course speed was 22mph, but my average speed per race results was 18.5mph, due to the aforementioned issues. I say, if the BT can fix those kinks, the bike portion would be perfect!
I loved zooming past men and women alike on my new bike (see previous posts.) That thing is wicked fast!
Run:
The run course follows along the side of the bike course, so it too was flat. It was a little longer than I’m used to for sprints (4mi) and had a beach finish, so I tried not to push myself too hard in the first 2mi like I usually would. In the end, I wish I had. I finished the race with energy left to burn, even with my 8:35 splits. Next time, I’ll go all out!
Afterwards I couldn’t find Morgan or my tri buddies, so I went to the race party and drank my weight in Muscle Milk, coconut milk, and free beer. I also stood in line to get an autographed picture for E-man of astronaut Michael Foreman. Can’t wait to put it up in his room!
I eventually wandered back to the finish line, just in time to see Erica finish (she started WAY later in the novice swim wave.) I am so crazy proud of her!! Then we found our husbands and made our way back to the beer tent. I may or may not have had too much free beer…
We also met an awesome couple, Kate and Jeff, who have a 1yr old boy. Kate ran the race as well. I am super excited to stalk/adopt them as friends :)
All in all, it was an awesome day. I am so incredibly grateful for my amazing, supportive husband. I could not have done this without him!
Next up: Lobsterman in Maine!
