Here is my race report for the Timex Olympic Distance Triathlon in Tempe!

Brigid and I drove up to Tempe on Saturday afternoon, and made it to check in with no problem. All the stuff that Red Rock (the race organizers) had sent out said that I had to rack my bike on Saturday, so that is what I did. It was terrible to put a sticker on my beautiful new bike – I am going to have to get that off tonight. After check in, we met up with another TriGirl and had dinner, then checked into the hotel and I turned off the light at 9pm, in hopes that I would actually sleep. I guess I am getting calmer about these races, since I actually did fall asleep, but I had terrible dreams. I woke up at midnight and listened to the song “Rockstar” by Nickelback play in my head over and over and over – it was a brainworm, and I couldn’t get rid of it. Worse, it was only the refrain that kept running through my head. I cannot stand Nickelback’s sound. I did fall back to sleep, but woke up for good at 4am. Brigid woke up too and we got ready to go.

We got a great street parking space and walked down to transition so I could get body marked and use one of the thousands of porta-potties that were available. It is a great thing to participate in a race sponsored by Waste Management. They spare no expense to make sure that every participant (all 1200 of them) has their own personal porta-potty – and I am so grateful. Once I was body marked and had my transition area set up, it was time for the “hanging around feeling sick to my stomach” section of morning. Talking to all the other TriGirls there was terrific – and distracted me from feeling either sick or like I wanted to burst into tears. I got through that, and finally it was time to head for the stairs into the water. I had to wear a violent pink swim cap for my wave – and you know how I feel about swim caps. Brigid helped me wrestle it onto my head and then I hopped into the water. The air horn went off and all the pink caps went! It was horrendous – so many limbs bashing into me and I couldn’t see a thing. My goggles clouded over immediately and it seemed like the orange buoys were disappearing the closer I got to them. Once I made the first turn, things kind of calmed down and I just kept on going. I made the second turn and was feeling pretty good about things, when suddenly, I was being passed by the white caps – men doing the Olympic distance. It was all about the limbs bashing into me again, and one guy wasn’t satisfied with knocking his arms into me, but actually grabbed my arm at the elbow and pinched me. What a jerk! I kept on going and finally finally finally got to the last turn. Then we had to be on the right side of the yellow buoy and swim into the steps. Once I got there, I made a spectacularly ungraceful exit from the water, helped by some guy whose job it was to pull anyone who needed help. I thought I could make it, but that didn’t happen and I ended up sprawled on the steps. He evidently didn’t have much faith that I was going to make it all the way up the steps, so he grabbed my elbow and frog marched me up the stairs to the top. I actually remembered to hit my watch and I did the swim in about 32 minutes or so, and then headed back to transition. You can see from these two pictures that people get really close to you when you are trying to get through these things.

Transition was good – I think I did it in good time, and I should have maybe taken 30 seconds or so to actually eat something while I was there. I didn’t do that though. I ran out to the exit and hopped on my bike and almost collided with the volunteer directing me to stay to the right. Once I got past him, things were ok. I rode along, feeling pretty good and thinking that I was happy to be out of the water, and then I found the hills. There were a couple of hills on the back section of the course that were not so easy, but not so bad – enough to slow you down, but not enough so that you are going 4mph, or anything like that. I made it around my first lap and kept on. By the third lap, I was dying for a few calories, but I didn’t have them with me, so I took the chance of taking some Gatorade from one of the volunteers (this was a victory for me of sorts, since I managed to grab the bottle, drink out of it, AND put it in my bottle cage all while still pedaling!). For this race, we had to do 4 laps of the bike course. In case anyone wants my opinion, four laps of any course is too many – it was like watching re-runs of a not so exciting TV show, and by the time I finished #4, I was desperate to get off the bike (my lower back was killing me by this point). I totally forgot to turn off my bike computer, but I think I did the bike section in about 1:25 or so. Brigid took this picture on one of the bike loops.

I had a really fast (I think) transition to the run, and remembered to bring something to eat with me. Brigid took this picture when I was leaving transition to start my run. This was a long, hot run. The Gatorade from the bike course was giving me cramps by the time I hit mile 2 and by the time I hit mile 4, I was convinced that someone was sticking an ice pick in my right hip. Brigid came along with me on the second loop of the run course and by the time we hit mile 5, was telling me how crazy I was for doing these things. I finished the run course and I looked at my watch to see 10:30am. Now, my swim started at 6:40am or so, and this means that I did the whole race in 3:50 or so!! I know Deuces Wild was a totally different course, but that time is 40 minutes faster than Deuces Wild – and I am thrilled!

It was a great race, but I have to say, I am very happy it is done. I get so nervous about these things, that the relief of it actually being over is sometimes more thrilling than how I did in the actual race.