Danskin Cont...

Okay :) So on Sunday Morning I got up around 4:00 AM, changed into my tri outfit for the day, and tried not to wake the others up around me in the room, I like to have a a little me time before the big day! I am such a person who needs their own time by themselves to be sane.

So then around 4:20 or so Amber got up and started getting ready, and then after I packed all my stuff, and started making oatmeal I woke my mom up around 4:40 I wanted to let my parents sleep in as late as possible. As I sat and ate my oatmeal I thought of all my I am statements and visulized the rest of the day, I wasn't to nervous just excited to get started!

We were all packed up and ready to go around 5:00 as we headed to the tri site, traffic was slow but most of the roads for the triathlon had already been closed. My dad thankfully dropped us off as close as possible, which was a great location! Thanks Dad! We walked in to the transition area with our gear in preperation for setting up our stuff and getting ready for teh race..

The transition area was a DISASTER!!! Okay. so in a transition area, you have racks and on every rack there is a two posts or rather legs every so often, you are only supposed to put 7-8 bikes per rack. But on our racks, because we got some premo bike parking earlier on Saturday everyone else tried to do so as well, my rack had 13 bikes or more!! Craziness! becuase in order to run a tri you need to set your gear down, and what you do is you lay down a small towel, like a hand towel and set all your gear on it, so that means there should be that much space in between each bike.. HAH!! Not even close, I was wondering how any bikes were even going to get out of the transition area let alone set up gear, there were bikes hitting chains, handle bars running into spokes.. oooh it looked YUCKY!!

But on the plus side, since we got there early.. no one was tehre form our waves yet, so we set up our gear, and found out a girl who had parked her bike on the wrong rack moved it, so Amber took her spot and moved her bike to a much much better location, at least she would be able to get out!

We set up gear, and then took turns taking our bikes out for a spin to make sure everything was working right, everything looked good, everything was functioning including ourselves :) and all was a go! We came back and chilled in the transition area for some time, thinking thru our game plans and getting ready :) Some people came and had the same view of the transition area as I did.. YUCK! some people moved their bikes, some people set up transition on the grass.. it was crazzzy! but I was happy because i knew that we had good transition areas set up, and were set :)

One of the things that I really wanted to do for this tri was to honor a friend who I asked earlier in the year to do a triathlon, and she really wanted to and it turned out stuff came up and she couldn't train for it. So as we were sitting in transition several people were marking their bodys up with in honor of or in memory of, I wanted to do this to honor her as well, so I asked Amber if she would be in, we borrowed a marker, and Wrote, on our shoulder for all to see, IN Honor of Britt! I wanted to do this not just for me, but for someone who coudln't but i know she would be here if she could. Even if she couldn't run it for her self, she would be with us throught the race :) which I thought was soo cool!

At 6:50 or so they kicked us out of transition area and started to close it down and we made our way to the swim area. Which was about a 1/2 mile away. There were thousand of women and some fans walking the path to the beach. we watched the first waves go off and found a great spot under a shaded tree.. it was HOT HOT HOT...

When we stepped out of the car at 5:15 or so, it was already 79 degrees.. yuck!!! It was only getting hotter. I was alittel worried about the heat but was trying not to think about it. Our waves were scheduled to start around 8:30 or so, so we hung around and talked, and chatted with a few other triathletes, some veterans, some first timers.

Around 8:00 or so I got into the water... OOOOOOH it was cooooold... but it felt goood to be out of the heat, I took a short swim, still a ltitel worried about my breathing, I still have this cough, and it doesn't work so well with breathing under water with my normal breathing, it was probably going to be an issue, but i still felt i would be okay just taking more breathing breaks.

Shortly after that we lined up! oooh now this is when I start to get a ltitle nervous! Amber was a wave behind me, but we chatted for a bit before we got seperated, and off to the water I went! oooh it still felt good since it was HOT out, I was ready, they were giving final instructions, encouragement, and the all important word for the day!! Our word for the day was SIZZZLING!!! I had to laugh, becuase I would definitly be sizzling by the end of the day, what a great word for a hot day.

Shortly after the prep, they sent us on our way, okay I waited a few seconds, letting a few go, and then I went, I don't like to get kicked, even though I am a strong swimmer, it's just kind of nicer to let a few get out of your way before you go. I remember the girl who i lined up with mentioning she was a strong swimmer so all was well :) As we began swimming, I tried to stay with my normal 5 - 6 strokes, but breathing was not the best, so I had to go down to 3-4, and some times 2, which I am sure added to my time, but it's okay I knew that it was going to be an issue. I kept swimming, all was well I was swimming just slightly to the left of the right bouy, which was perfect, and it meant I wasn't swimming more than the distance I needed to swim.

At some point I came close to a dock and there were lifegards flailing fun noodles, like their octopus wings or something :) They were hadning them out over half way thru the swim to anyone who wanted them and of course they were also cheering us on. I continuted to swim, checking my watch occasionally to see the time, I was doing okay. and soon enough I came to the person who I started the race with, I was like sweet! I was passing other color caps which is always good, as long as your not getting passed by other color caps. I could see the shore in my sights, it was not far off.

My arms sort of started to hurt a ltitle bit, but i kept thinking I don't need them for any other part of the triathlon they will be fine, keep going!!! I finally made it to the sand and ran up it to transition :) - Once again, do not count my parents for pictures :)

Then in transition I quickly washed off my feet from the sand, thru on my shoes, and off I went, transition time one was pretty fast all was well, and then.... the heat oooh it started to hit me, I was drying off to quickly, I was getting hot hot hot, but I was still biking. I made it up the first small hill down the next turned the coner off I went, the goal to stay above 15 at all times, which didn't seem to be to big of a problem, except on hills, most of the time I was cruising around 26 or so... it was great, a few pwople were passing me but I was passing more, on Mile 2 they had a mile marker, and it said mile 2, For those who can't, the only other mile marker I remember reading was mile 10 and it said Mile 2, bye bye monkeys.

I was just oging by the others to fast to read them, or rmemeber them I guess, I was passing people all was well. Until... I hit mile 6 or 7.. and the WIND!! The wind was around 16 -20 mph that day and now we were facing a dead on head wind.. and going up a hill EEEEK!!! thankfully I was able to keep my speed above 10 and most of the tmie above 12 but the wind defintily slowed me down. Around mile 8 there was a cop speed thingy, you know one of those things that shows you your speed they still had it up, and at that time I happened to be going 15 MPH according to that sign :) quite accurate with my cyclometer :)

I don't remember much of the other miles except pouring lots and lots of water over my head and it was water that wasn't even that cold, I froze it the night before but it had unthaughed and heated up since I got to the race, it was sometimes cold sometimes warm, but kept me cooler, i had to get cooled down.. I don't do good in heat. i think it's in my genes, my mom never did very well with heat, nor did my grandma.

When we hit the entry way to the park I had less than a mile left, but was cruzing good, smiled at the crowed, enjoyed my race, listened for my mom to yell GO LeSLIE! :) as she always does :) when i stopped my bike, and started walking I almost fell my legs wern't working quite right but I knew I would get them back soon! :)

I went into transition and changed shoes, put on socks, grabbed my visor, and off I went.. Last year there was a water station before you hit mile 1, I was expecting it, I thought I could run until then, I started running, and I was soo hot, I wanted to vomit! But I kept going, running and then some walking, passing a few, while being passed by a lot but kept going. When we got to where I thought there would be water.. there was no watter :(!!!! WHERE IS THE WATER?!?!?

Then a volunteer came by and said the water is just up ahead, oh brother! Off to running and walking again I went, mostly walking by this time, I was just to hot, and I wanted to finish, When we hit the water... ooooh heaven!!! the firefighters had sprung to open the fire hydrants and sprayed ice cold water on us, hte jelly belly people handed out sport beans, and the spraying continuted!!! oooh thank you!!

I ran pretty much the entire rest of the way, I was cooled off enough now that my body was like okay.. cool you can run now, no problem! and off I went. It was great, and now I only had a mile left. As I came up to the finish line there were so many people who gave me high fives and said you go girl.

As I crossed the finish line I had a huge smile and a sense of accomplishment, I even heard them announce my name and then awarded my medal, and then... I kind of felt like I was going to pass out, so I got kind of dizzy so the firefighters had me sit down in their little medical tent, and take my pulse, as they slapped a cold towel on my back, ohhhh it felt so great! I slowly regained my mental status, of ohh yeah.. I was just way to overheated, and probably pushed alittle more the last mile than I should have, but I wanted to finish in a certain time and new it was coming close.

My mom came in to check on me but soon enough I was good to go, and I waited for Amber to cross. The day was a success.. my swim time was 15:24 with a ranking of 674 out of 3939 which is awesome, I am totally okay with that! :) the swim was also really wavy because of the wind, so I'll take it!

My bike time was 45:10 with a bike rank of 1144 and i'll take that too! :) I was cruising on my bike, I really like biking, and I am offically started a new bike fund, yes my 5 dollar garage sale bike has done me well, but to get much faster, I am gonna have to get a newer bike and I am oaky with that, but I'll be saving for a while :)

My run time was 46:50 with a ranking of 3361 yuck! Ehh okay so it could have been better, but I guess considering my health, and that I don't do well in heat, and I am very lucky that I can run at all.. I'll take that :) I am happy to finish, but I also know that running is something that I will be working on a LOOOOOT! in the next months to come, maybe I will come to like it more, currently, I am not such a fan, but I know that I used to really like it :) I think that was before i hurt my knee, so we'll see what happens.

so overall I finished 2060/3939 I am totally cool with that!!! :) I finished in 1:53:20 I am okay wtih that too!! :) I had a lot of fun, and can't wait to do another, I only wished that I had more planned, but I am pretty sure I am looking for one to do in late august or september, so we'll see where that goes. :)