At about 4am Jen wakes up with some major nausea. It took about half an hour, but we got her stomach back to normal and back to sleep…
5:30 time to wake up so that Gray and I could leave at 6am to rack our bikes at 6:30 for the 8am start. The night before, I had packed my bags and laid everything out ahead of time, much like I do for a marathon. If you don't have a helmet, you are disqualified, so there are certain things that you have to make sure that you have. A cup of coffee and half a bagel with peanut butter was the breakfast menu before Gray and I left at 6am.
One nice thing was that the weather was still very cold but not as cold as predicted. Maybe 2-3 degrees warmer. We made it to the Aquatic Center in plenty of time and found a nice spot for our bikes. we laid out all of the equipment we would need for the transitions, a place in the locker room for our stuff and then waited… for about an hour. At 8:00 they announced that we would be starting late and that the run would be started in waves. Runners with numbers 1-100 would run first, then 3 minutes later 101-200 would run, then everyone else. Gray's number was 148 and I had 145, so we'd be in the second wave.
As we made it out to the start line from the warmness of the aquatic center, we saw Jen, Lauri and Eric who were coming to cheer us on.
The Run: The run went fairly well on a less than flat course. I noticed that my first mile was in 7:45 which was almost a minute faster than what I could suffer through on Thursday. I knew that I needed to slow down a bit to conserve energy for the bike. My friend Gray has beat me every time in the Trideltathon (5 attempts) and I knew that him being a much better biker that any advantage I would get would be on the run, so that was motivational. I would accelerate up the hills and then use the downhill to get my breathing back on track. I felt good coming into T1 after the run and figured that I might have gained a minute or so on my friend and that I needed to get out on the bike ASAP. I crossed the mat for the run at 22:56 a 7:39 pace.
Transition 1: As I made it into T1, I slowed to a jog as I reached my bike. Right as I got to my bike, my friend Gray was right there. Oh well, so much for competing against him. It was now me against the clock. I put on my helmet and glasses and took off. Time in T1: 1:50
The bike: I had problems mounting my bike. I do every year. You would think that I would practice this before hand. I might it out on the course and tried to find a gear that was comfortable speed without too much pain. The bike is least efficient discipline and so I tried to keep a good cadence with little fatigue as possible. I knew that I wouldn't really need to use my legs in the swim, but I needed some energy for the later part of the bike course. The hills were never a problem for me as I made it to T2 in 19:36.
Transition 2: You had to dismount outside the transition area and then run your bike to your rack, then get ready for the swim. For the run and the bike, I had on my “almost tights”, clothe undershorts, swimsuit, two shirts, a jacket, a hat and gloves. I disrobed as fast I could grabbed my swim cap and goggles and took off for the pool. Time in T2: 2:02
The Swim: I got into the pool and started swimming. About 20 meters into the pool, I realize that I still have my clothe undershorts on. Oh well, extra weight, but not bad. I probably only stopped for about 3-8 seconds at the ends of lanes, mostly to stretch my triceps. I could tell that I was getting tired, but I kept my arms moving the entire time. As I started my 7th lap, I could see Gray standing on the pool deck. “Wow,” I thought “he did well.” I used my legs to kick as much as I could and finished the swim in 9:58.
Overall time: 56:22
Age Group Place 16/22
Overall Place 144/301
So I ended up beating my goal time of one hour. YAY
PLANET3RRY 