I made it through okay and the end of the swim
came quickly. Exiting was no big deal as the fabulous volunteers pulled me up and out of the
water and hung on to me all the way up the
steps.
Can I just say that wetsuit strippers are the
best invention EVER? FWAP! Wetsuit off. Nobody
but me is running to transition. We’re in a RACE
people, I feel like yelling, STEP IT UP!! At that
time I didn’t know that I was approximately
121st out of 125 eventual finishers in the swim.
I just knew I was DONE with my least favorite
part of the race. And my family was right there…
YAY!!! My bike bag was at
the front of a row, so it
was easy for me to pick
it up myself and go. Got
to the tent, dumped
everything out, tried to
go fast but my brain
was definitely on low
battery. My T1 time
ended up being about
nine minutes… it really felt like five. I wondered where Marc was;
easily well into his
bike by now, I was
hoping he had done
well on the swim. He
worked super-hard to
get faster with swim
being the most difficult part of his race too.
Another entry for the “I didn’t think of that”
file: the sunscreen people. Imagine that your
only job as a volunteer is to rub people down
with sunscreen. As I exited the tent, they’re
screaming “SUNSCREEN!!” with their gloved
hands in the air like they’re about to prep for
surgery. How cool. Now I don’t have to get my
hands all greasy. Dang, I feel special and pampered in an athlete-like way.
I run out of transition (NEVER walk into or out
of transition, it looks so hopeless) and I hop on
my bike (ok, more like: stop after the mount line,
tilt my bike, lift my leg, adjust my tri shorts,
adjust my pedals, push up my sunglasses, turn on
my Garmin, snot rocket), then GO! At this point,
because of the sudden swim choppiness I had
experienced, I knew the wind had kicked up, just
not sure how much and in which direction; turns
out, VERY MUCH and directly at me. The bike is a
three-loop course, so roughly 18.7 miles out
(slight uphill) and back. On the advice of my
coach, I broke the course up into those segments
and only concentrated on finishing my next 18.7
miles. Because the wind increased with every
loop, I knew I could easily burn out my legs in
112 miles. I finished the first loop at 17mph in
roughly just over two hours, which was exactly
my goal; however my “out” was only 14mph and
the “back” was 20mph (or something mathematical to average 17). I settled in knowing that I
would only get slower each successive loop…
the wind gusts were getting harder and comprising a larger portion of each loop. I heard Marc
yell my name at some
point on my
s e c o n d
loop…
he
was on his
third. That did
wonders for
my spirits. I
also saw my
family at the
turn-around
back in Tempe.
You really can’t
underestimated
the power of
having supporters
in
the
crowd…
it’s
instant energy.
My goal was to finish in under seven hours. It
ended up that I got as slow as 8.5mph for a sustained period. Very frustrating but, again on the
advice of my all-knowing coach, I didn’t fight the
wind, just rode on feel. It turned out I completed the bike I 6:52, which I knew because of my
Garmin and was happy with under those circumstances.
Entering transition, you just roll your bike to a
volunteer. So cool! He reminded me to remove
my Garmin from the bike and knew how to save
and turn it off. Doubly cool! Got handed my bike
bag… or did I get it myself? Anyway, I ended up
with another GREAT volunteer helper in the T2
tent who knew how to turn on and start my old
model Garmin watch, she happened to have the
same one. Got refreshed… I had put a face wipe
in my run bag, best thing all day. Got everything
continued on page 18
SPONSORS OF TCSD
www.nuun.com
Chris at [email protected]
Twitter: @NuunSoCal and
@nuunhydration
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Management Accounting Group
Contact: David McMahon, CMA, EA
Certified Management Accountant
Office: (619) 333-0719
Richard Duquette,
Bicycle Injury Lawyer
Contact: Richard L. Duquette
[email protected]
(760) 730-0500 or (800) 464-4123
www.911law.com
Discount: Refer to TCSD Member
Discount web page.
MHS Works
Contact: Matt Sparks
[email protected]
(619) 756-3756
www.mhs-works.com
Oak Hill Software
Contact: John Hill
www.oakhillsoftware.com
[email protected]
continued on page 18
WWW.TRICLUBSANDIEGO.ORG
17