Victorious

(Sorry I didn't post much last week. I tried several times, but between travelling for work and Blogger having problems, I wasn't successful.)

Yesterday (Sunday) was the Austin Danskin Triathlon. Beginning with the end, I'm happy to report that I finished!

We got up at 5 a.m. to get over to the race site by 6 a.m. There were 3,000 women participating, plus spectators and volunteers, so the traffic was intense. We set up our equipment in the transition area, where we had left our bikes the day before. Then we headed over to the swim start to watch the elite athletes.

Jenn was in wave 14, and I was in wave 16, and even though they were launching every 4-5 minutes, we had time to wait. I was nervous, excited and anxious to begin!

Jenn had warned me that with your adrenalin up, you feel like swimming faster at the beginning and told me how important it is to pace yourself. I felt the adrenalin, but I was overwhelmed by the number of women beside and around me. The first few times I came up for air, the waves in the lake crashed into me, and I gulped in water. Sputtering, and still trying to navigate around everyone, I started to panic and couldn't catch my breath. The density of the lake was also distracting. I couldn't see underwater at all. Then my goggles started fogging up, so even when I came up for air and to look around, I couldn't see! (Still panicking at this point.) I finally just put the goggles up on my forehead and tried to calm down. It took me half the swim course before I sort of got my rhythm back. People from the wave behind me are passing me at this point, but I just focused on breathing (still too many waves hitting my face when I wanted to breathe) and kept moving, albeit slowly. I was disappointed in my swim portion, but I didn't have to ask for help and finally finished.

The bike portion was my favorite. Although there were some impressive hills, I had trained on hills and did fine. I wasn't prepared for the number of people passing me, which can be somewhat discouraging, but most of the women would cheer each other on as they passed you. I only had to stop once to open my Gatorade. (I learned I should have opened the seal before I started so it would have been easier.)

On the last hill of the bike course, you can see the run course to your right. I figured Jenn should be there about the same time, and I called out "JENN!" to one girl before realizing it wasn't her. Several of the runners were encouraging the cyclists, "Go, bikers! It's the last hill!" and then I heard "EM! You're doing it!" It was really great to see Jenn and gave me a boost of energy.

I felt good coming off the bike and started the run strong. I soon learned how wobbly my legs were and how different it is running on the uneven ground from the paved ground I had trained on. My ankles felt like cooked noodles. I jogged up to another girl who was walking and began walking with her. We stuck together through the rest of the run/walk, talking and encouraging each other on. It was her first Tri, too. We ran short spurts, but mostly walked. It was hot by this time, too, and it took a lot of effort just to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I saved a little bit of energy to run across the finish line, and I saw Steve, Jenn, Anthony, Anna and Colin off to the left cheering me on. What a relief! I was so glad to be done.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Steve took some great ones, but I forgot to download them to my computer last night. I crashed as soon as we got home, sleeping for at least 2 hours. I got up, cooked dinner and then crashed again, sleeping soundly until this morning. Otherwise, I feel pretty good. Not too sore (thanks to lots of stretching and ibuprofen) and happy that I did it.


Sisters, before the race