The Big Day

Pre Race
Woke up @ 5am and got dressed in my suit and bike shorts. Didn’t sleep that well the night before. Packed all of my gear in the car and headed for Eunice. Got to my brother-in-law’s house about 6am. Put the bike rack on the car first, then went to get the bike. Looked in the first shed, No Bike, Looked in the second shed, No Bike, Looked around the house, No Bike. Called Brother-in-Law… Where is my bike? Answers Oh S..t! Left it in Paw’s truck. But where is Paw? He is at McDonald’s hanging out with his cronies. So I am off to McDonald’s to get my bike. Find Paw with his buddies… sure I gave them a thrill in my swim suit and bike shorts. Got my bike out of the back of the truck, strapped it on the back of the car. I am off to the race….FINALLY! Not the morning I had planned. Got to the race site aired up my tires, picked up my packet, laid out my gear, took a potty break and hung out with Max until the race started.

SWIM
Lined up according to bib #. I was #43. Each person started 10 seconds after the previous person. I entered a time of 3 min 30 sec for the swim. It was a snake through the lanes 6 lengths of a 25 meter pool. I passed the girl in front of me and finished in 2 minutes and 38 seconds. The girl behind me did pass by me on the pavement running barefoot to the bike and I didn’t want to run barefoot and slip.

TRANSITION 1
Got to my bike. Made sure to put on my socks and shoes, shirt, decided I would forego the running shorts till later, put on my 89 cent stocking cap to keep my hair under control and then put on my helmet. Grabbed my gloves and started to put them on while riding the bike. Forgot to grab my cool pack for my neck but luckily it was a pretty cool day.

BIKE
Affectionately I would like to call this part Tour De Road Kill. It was a nice scenic ride through the rice fields in South West Louisiana. Beautiful scenery but lots of sites and smells that I could have done without. I saw the following road kill: turtle, 6 snakes, rabbit, dog and a couple of unidentified animals. Back to the race….From the very beginning I noticed that I was putting lots of effort and not getting very far where others were barely peddling and just flying right past me. At this point I have decided that a new bike is in my future if I want to do another race. My butt was numb by the 5th mile. On the way back I just kept thinking “And now I have to run! My goal is to just finish!”

TRANSITION 2
Got off my bike and was in such a rush cause I wanted to get this finished. I forgot to put on my running shorts (no big deal) and I forgot my ipod which probably would have really helped.

RUN
The whole first mile of the run I just kept thinking one foot in front of the other. I had shin splints sooooo bad it hurt to walk. At the start of mile 2 they felt better so I started to jog/walk from telephone pole to telephone pole. Believe it or not I pretty much finished at the pace I had practiced even with the shin splints and not practicing outside. I finished the 2 miles in 32:41. My overall time was 1:31:34 to complete a 150meter Swim, 10 mile Bike, 2 mile Run.

After the race was over I realized that I need a new bike, I need to spend more time in the pool, I need to up my run so that I can finish a 5K with more running than walking. The next race on my list is the COMBAT triathlon May 24th. It is a lot longer so we shall see if I really am up for it by then. 300 meter Swim, 15 mile Bike, 3 mile Run. Maybe I can talk some people in to doing it as a relay with me. We shall see?