Iron Girl

Sorry this is so late. I know you all have been on pins and needles to find out how I did in the last triathlon. So, I will take you through the day. Since this is held at a fancy resort, the family stayed with me at the hotel. We spent 3 hours at the pool on Friday afternoon, and then ordered room service where I carbo loaded on pasta. Woke up at 4:30 am and ate my breakfast of yogurt and oatmeal.

I meet up with my friend, Tonya, at 5:30 in the transition area. We laid out all our stuff, and started to “slip” into our wetsuits. After spraying myself down with what looks like Pam cooking spray, comes the task of trying to fit my fat ass in a very tight wetsuit. We then walk about a half mile to the start of the swim. I make Tonya get into the water to do a practice swim since this was my problem last time. As we go into the water, I notice that it is BLACK. Only one thing I know makes water black and that is sewage. EEEEWWWWWW. I told you this race was gross and unorganized. Once we got away from shore, it was fine, but how sick is that? This race starts from land and we run as fast as we can, do a belly flop, and start to swim. Let me tell you this is where your heart rate goes up and you panic. I DIDN’T PANIC THIS TIME. Yippee. The biggest problem was that the bouys were too small, and some of the race issued swim caps that define your division were the same color as the buoy, so it was hard to sight where to go. Anyway, I did the ½ mile swim in 16 minutes, which was in the top 10%.  A note for my coaches:  I have one speed and that is on.  Need to work on that.

So, you get out of the sludge, and have to run .3 miles to the transition area. This is why everyone hates this race. There has got to be a better way then to make everyone run that far to transition. I felt like I ran the whole time, got into my bike stuff fairly quickly, but it somehow took me 6 minutes to transition. I don’t know. With that time, I could’ve stopped and had breakfast.  Maybe sucked down a Bloody Mary.

Off to the bike. I think I’ve told you this before, but they mark in black Sharpie your age that you will be at the end of the year on the back of your leg. I love it when I pass someone on the bike that is half my age. I did ok on the bike. Here is my issue. I get so caught up in watching everyone, enjoying the day, etc. that I forget to race hard. I’m just out for a Sunday ride. I had to remind myself a couple of times to step it up. The bike was 2 miles short of a standard Sprint triathlon. Why? There is no reason we couldn’t have gone one more mile out before turning around.  Another reason why people hate this race.  I finished the bike in 41min.  I did see a girl who was on the side of the road covered in blood.  I guess she went over her handlebars.  The ambulance was on its way as I passed her.  See?  There is good stuff to look at.

Transition time from bike to run was 2:42 min.  I knew what was coming, and would have liked to hang out and have a Bloody Mary at that point, but I had to run.  At least I thought I knew what was coming.  The run was out in the desert in an area cleared out for construction.  All dust and rocks.  Somehow, they made the entire course uphill, or so it felt.  If there was a downhill portion, it was so covered in rocks that you still needed to take it easy in order not to break an ankle.  Excuses, excuses.  I pretty much walked the entire way.  It took me 40 minutes to complete.  Ugh.  I know, I know.  Running is my priority now.  Thankfully, my coaches said to take it easy for a couple of weeks so I've been pretty lazy.

Overall, my time was 1:48:13.  It was 10 minutes faster than my previous race, but the bike was 2 miles shorter.  My husband is so cute.  He took all the times and analyzed them to make me look better.  Here are the highlights:

• I finished 196th of 526 participants - in the top third
• I beat the averages for all 526 participants in swimming, first transition, biking (everything but second transition and dreadful running)
• In my age group, I was the 9th best swimmer
• My favorite - I was the only person named Melissa in the race, making me #1

Just so you know, five of the overall Top 10 performers were from the 40-49 age group.  The first two finishers were 49, and 45.  Ladies, there is hope for us yet. 

The next one is the biggie in October.  Anyone interested?