Whew! One race weekend after another! I found myself heading down to Valparaiso on Saturday morning to participate in a sprint triathlon. I’ve always wanted to do this race because it’s so close to home, but then again, with a measley 400 yard swim, I’ve never pulled the trigger. This year, I did it.
I picked up PS at the designated meeting time – 5am. It was dark, rainy and stormy but the race was several hours away so I had hopes of it clearing up. Besides, I already PAID for this race. Once we were on the road, we noticed we were driving into lighter skies. Excellent, it was like we were driving our way out of the storm. But the rain was coming down hard and I got a phone call from the Saint saying, “You guys are nuts, there’s no way you’re going to race today.” We pressed on.
Once at the race site (we arrived very early), we put on our rain coats in anticipation. By the time we walked all the way to registration, we decided it was too hot for the rain coats – besides, it wasn’t raining. A stop in transition to drop off the bike, a trip back to the car where we dropped off the rain coats and got the rest of our gear, and we were headed back to transition. Now it seemed the skies were getting darker in every direction, but we proceeded to set up transition. We met up with BP, his girlfriend and KK and it started drizzling. I ran back into transition to place both pairs of shoes in plastic bags (lesson learned from the Naperville race that soggy socks are NOT fun to run in!). Now it started POURING. I grabbed a light jacket I had in my bag and cursed myself for leaving the raincoat in the car. Within minutes, we were drenched. Not many places for shelter at this small race, but we were standing under a tree to try and keep from getting even more wet. (I’ve always found this ridiculous…where should you NOT stand when there is a storm that includes lightening? UNDER A TREE!) The 5 of us stood there, shivering, just waiting for an announcement. Someone did get on the speaker and said, “THIS RACE WILL GO ON!” We were shocked. None of us wanted to race in this monsoon. We stood there, looking around, each trying to talk each other into packing up and going home…one of those, “If you go, I’ll go” back and forth.
About 10 minutes before the race start, there was a flash of lightening. 30 minute delay. Shivering, I silently hoped the race was called off. Teeth chattering, goose bumps covering my arms and legs, I wondered when it was going to stop raining. There was no way this race was going to happen…
Next thing we hear is that the first wave needs to line up. WHAT?? You mean we’re going to race? I was in shock. And then I was scared. Lots of rain means lots of wet pavement means dangerous conditions on the bike. I stared at the athletes lining up in disbelief…is this really happening? Yes, it was. A few more times our little group talked about packing up and going home. But no, I drove all the way out here to race. So let’s just do it!
Once my wave was finally called into the water, it was like a relief to have warmth on my feet and hands. It only lasted instantly, but I hoped once I started moving, I’d warm up. Ready, set go and our wave was off and thrashing about. Very quickly, superstar amateur athlete Chris Wickard shot out to the front. I couldn’t even get a draft, she was just too fast. I watched as the rain drops hit the water of the lake as we went along…they finally stopped about half way into the swim. I could still see Chris’ light blue cap up ahead of me, but couldn’t catch her in such a small distance.
As I came out to head to transition, I was disappointed that I wasn’t warm. I was pretty chilly as I ran to my bike. Once there, it was a fiasco trying to get my things from out of all the plastic bags! My fingers were waterlogged and pruny and pretty much refused to work for me. I put my sunglasses on but wondered if this was going to work…once they get so much water on them, you really can’t see! The pavement out of T1 was very slippery and I almost fell 3 times as I headed to the bike course. I hopped on and promised myself to be safe.
Safe meant excruciatingly slow turns. In fact, I felt like I was practically stopping as I took each corner! However, it was better than the alternative, so I just hammered on all the straightaways. It wasn’t raining any more, but there was some standing water on some of the roads and every now and then, a blast of wind would come and blow all the water from the leaves down on me. BRRRR! The wind was feisty and it tossed the disc wheel around a bit (I had forgotten my other rear wheel, so it was the disc or nothing!)
Once safely into T2, again fussing around with another plastic bag that contained my running shoes. Now I can’t decide to take my sunglasses with or not. I picked them up, put them down, picked them up and put them down again. Then I had to move them just in case the guy next to me came in and might run them over, breaking them. WHAT AM I DOING, I’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE! I grabbed my hat and number and headed out. It was a bit confusing in transition and I ran into 2 guys going the wrong way (everyone was to go counter clockwise in transition to make it equal distance for all participants). It was interesting to say the least.
I started out feeling OK, but it was now getting sunny and humid. I was glad I left the sunglasses anyway because I had changed the lenses to clear, so they wouldn’t have helped with the sun, anyway! Just about to the half mile mark, I could see the bikers coming in on their second to last turn of the race. Just as I looked over, a girl who was turning too fast skidded, flew off the bike and the sound of metal scraping the pavement gave me chills. Spectators all turned to look, but I didn’t want to see it! I hoped she was OK.
Mile 1 and it felt like an eternity. I felt like I was slowing, but at mile 2, I see that I got just a little faster (that is, if the course was marked correctly). There were some little hills that got my heart rate up and right around mile 2 was when the hamstring started talking to me. Oh come on, I’m almost done here, though! I tried to keep the pace and as I neared the finish, I saw PS and heard him yell, “Hurry, don’t let the girl behind you get you!” So I tried to push harder…not really sure if I went any faster, but when I turned around, there was no “girl” there. Was he just toying with me??
I was able to capture first in my age group, but not by much. I was surprised that my struggling run was able to hold off the second place finisher. And to think we almost turned around and did not race…
