Breakwater

This weekend was pretty much perfect. Friday we left for Bellaire MI and stayed the night at a friends house (Mike Fitzsimmons) who we swam biked and then ran with on Saturday morning before heading out to Petoskey around noon time. We stopped at a pretty awesome farm market and had sandwiches for lunch along with some fresh raspberries. Got in to Petoskey and drove the bike course with Jeremy, I sat in back while he and Kate discussed the whats' and hows' of the bike which was good to listen to while I sat back and lounged. It was certainly hilly, more than I expected. Additionally, it was as though they picked out all the hardest roads, not in terms of finding the most number of hills, but because they found roads where you'd go down a hill and have to turn at the bottom, requiring you to use your brakes, but then right after the turn there would be an uphill, so you wouldn't get to use all the speed you had just built up on the downhill. Later we all went out to dinner (Me, Kate, Jeremy, Ingrid, Mariah and Jeremys' parents) by which time I was absolutely starving and probably moody. We did some last minute shopping which included water, gatorade, some muscle milk which does not taste like chocolate milk or feel good in your stomach for breakfast before a Half-Iron triathlon, fake pearl earrings and some baby food for Mariah which was awkward to ask for since neither Katie nor I have kids... But we got to bed eventually at the hotel which was right up the hill from the start of the race.

We woke up at 5:30 and I started eating, two peanut butter sandwiches, two bananas, a muscle milk and maybe something else, it was early, I'm not sure now. We got down to the transition area and set up our things after getting body marked. The girl with the marker actually had a little trouble and had to line herself up with my arm and then hold it still to make sure she didn't miss...I guess my arms aren't wide at all when you look at them from the back...who knew? We made sure we all knew which way to go on the swim and before I knew it, the horn sounded and we were off.

The swim went well, I only got kicked in the face once and had to readjust my goggles. The sun was in our eyes on one side of the two lap course but it was manageable. I stayed comfortable and tried to not throw up in my mouth any more than absolutely necessary which turned out to be twice. But I'd rather eat a lot right before and then not be starving when I get on the bike. I jumped out of the water and stopped to take off my wetsuit before going into transition. I put on some socks, stuffed food in my pockets, put on my helmet and sunglasses and wheeled my bike out.

We had to run across the street and up three flights of stairs before we could get on the bike. I put my shoes on when I got there and found Jeremy right next to me. It was nice but also worried me, I know we're pretty even on the bike but have different styles of when and how we put in the effort so I didn't want to be going back and forth and killing myself the whole time and not be able to run. But it was also very comforting to have him there, someone I knew and someone who frankly makes me feel safe, I mean, who wouldn't feel safe around him? Unless he didn't like you but even then...After about ten miles he went away from me and I could only see him once in a while. There was no one around and I had to keep focused otherwise I felt as though I were just out for a ride in the country. But it was a race. At the turn around town I saw that he and I were actually in second and third whereas I thought we were out front. For a second I picked it up but then calmed down and kept doing what I had been, relaxed up the hills, steady rhythm. About ten miles from the end I clocked the distance to the leader since there was a three mile add on out and back and he had about six minutes on me. Without getting complacent I figured that unless he was a runner, I'd probably have a shot at him. About six miles from the end there was a huge climb of almost two miles. My average speed for the first 50 was 20.9 and after the climb...only 20.4. But I got through it and was back in town before long.

I hopped off the bike and jogged down the ramps to get back to transition, tore off my uniform top, put on shoes and a bandana, had a sip of water and was off. I needed to relieve myself but there were no port-a-potteys around...I found a tree about 100 yards from transition and used that instead. I hadn't seen Kate on the bike and was wondering what had happened to her but saw her as I was getting off the bike, she ran her bike down and changed in transition too before heading out on the run just behind me, passing me when I stopped for my tree-stop. I always seem to run fast right off the bike without trying to, so I tried to relax and take it slow. I wanted to build into the run rather than hammer and then die but when I hit the first mile in 5:55 even with the tree-stop I tried to slow down more, two miles in 12:00 and three in 18:10 despite my efforts to back off. My heartrate was low though, only about 171. I caught up to Jeremy around 2 miles and he egged me on to get after the leader who I caught around mile 4. At the turn around I started getting nervous knowing that on the way back in my first and only other triathlon, I had fallen apart towards the end. I wanted to finish strong so I took it easy and stopped to get water and gatorade at the rest stops. It was getting hot with the sun right over head and I didn't want to cramp. I was ahead of Kate at this point but she caught up to me around mile 7 or 8 though I don't really remember the specifics of it all. She pulled ahead and it was awesome knowing she was right nearby, especially because I was alone without anyone in front of me and she gave me someone to focus on, someone going faster to try to stay with. It was so perfect that I was sure it was against the rules. I wasn't sure exactly where the finish was but started to pick it up after the eleven mile mark, sprinting the last 200 yards.

I was surprised at how emotional I was after I finished. I had been training for this race all summer and wanting to use it as a test of my knee, wanting to know that my knee worked the way it used to before I had surgery. Crossing the line and having my body do exactly what I asked of it even though what I was asking was a tall order had me feeling elated. I welled up but was dehydrated and didn't end up leaking out any tears. The race certainly gave me the confidence I'd like to have going in to a year that I hope will be my fastest on the track. I don't have any misconceptions about the race though, any number of people could have shown up and run circles around me, so I have to be happy about how I did and I am. 4:47:24. The only other triathlon I've done was when I was 21 after not running my junior year, that was a pancake flat bike and I was 4:47:46, though the time certainly was not allocated in the same way.

Now it's time to rest and relax for a week and then get back into training which this time will be more focused on the running and less focused on anything else.