At first, I thought: "Are you kidding me?" It just seemed flat-out dangerous. I couldn't believe that the race organizers had not cancelled (or at least shortened) the race for liability reasons. In fact, several friends, co-workers and family members warned/begged me avidly to sit this one out. I oscillated back and forth all day, including when I went to Masters' swim practice on Friday night, but in the end my tri friends convinced me to race. After all, I had been training in the DC heat this whole time, so my body should be used to it by now, right? I reserved the right (to myself) to listen to my body and stop at any point in the race if I started to feel sick. As someone who is used to pushing myself though all kinds of physical discomfort and pain- like most triathletes- I would have to exercise a bit of restraint, and try to curb my competitiveness. As my roommate cautioned, "DNF is better than dead"-- a mantra I would repeat to myself over and over during the race.
The morning of the race, I got up at 4:30 am in order to be ready for my 5 am pickup. When I walked outside, the air already felt thick with humid, dripping heat, like soup. I was worried about whether I would be able to even finish the tri, but by this point I was determined to stick it out. We drove the forty minutes south and arrived at Indian Head, Maryland as the sun was coming up.
The air down there felt slightly cooler (or maybe it was just wishful thinking). I set up my transition area and went over to the docks to dip my toes in the water- it felt like a tepid bathtub. As someone who overheats during workouts in a cold pool (people have actually asked me if I was sunburned because I get so pink), I wasn't sure how my body would react to racing in those conditions. I decided my strategy was to try and get ahead of my wave in the swim but then take it down a notch, cruise through the bike and survive the run. I was in the second to last wave because I entered in the Athena division, so one by one the other waves started out as I waited off the dock. I checked out the competition in my wave- those who were in my division have an "A" on their calf instead of their age- and I saw some pretty strong-looking women lining up. I had won the Athena division in my first Olympic tri, so I was at least hoping to be on the podium, but I reminded myself that it was more important that I finish.
Finally it was our turn to jump off the dock and into the water. I was one of the first ones in, because I like to get a good starting position and not get kicked by thrashing swimmers. When the horn went off to start, I sprang out with the first swimmers to get ahead of the pack. The water was very warm and murky, and I felt sluggish for the first two turns. As I rounded the third buoy, I thought I had to be very close to finishing, but the last stretch seemed to go on forever. There were also a ton of seaweeds which got caught on my arms and face as I was swimming. I found out later from someone who had a waterproof Garmin that the swim was 1900 meters, a good 400 over the 1500 Olympic distance. My time for the swim was 32 minutes, well over my best of 25, which lends credence to the theory that the swim was too long. Finally I got out of the water, and ran up the long causeway to transition.
(Running into T1)
T1 was not horrible, but I wasn't in a huge rush either. I took the time to put on gloves because I didn't want my hands to slip from the sweat and made sure to get enough nutrition. Otherwise, T1 was not very notable.
As I started the bike, I felt a bit tired. The first part was a tiny bit hilly, but not too bad- and I was a little alarmed by how fatigued I already felt that early in the race. I kept telling myself that I could always pull out before the run, but I had to just get through this leg. I was averaging pretty low on mph for me, too (16-17), and I saw one woman with an "A" on her calf pass me (I almost always check to see what her division is when a woman passes me). I decided to take my first shot blocks- and somehow, I dropped them. I was pretty mad at myself, since electrolytes could make or break your race on a day like this. Luckily, I had also stuck a stinger waffle (if you you haven't tried these, they ROCK) in my pocket, so I rationed it out for the rest of the bike. I made sure to drink every fifteen minutes or so, too. Eventually the road evened out and we were in the shade of the trees, so I started to feel stronger, and soon I was passing some of the women who had passed me earlier. One of my DC tri training buddies also told me as she was passing by to put my bike in a lower gear and keep a higher cadence, which helped me a lot- after that I was staying over 20 for most of the last part. I didn't have enough water for the last few miles (there should have been some handoffs on the course) but I knew I had a water bottle back at transition, and that there should be plenty of water stations on the run.
As I was about to turn into the transition area, I saw the only Athena who had passed me on the bike starting her run. She didn't look like she was going too fast (no one did- in fact, everyone I saw starting their run looked pretty miserable), and I thought to myself, maybe I can catch her. I got through T2 as quickly as possible, but unfortunately I hadn't gotten speed laces on my new Newton running shoes yet. Still, I got out there pretty quickly, with my other shot blocks and handheld water bottle. I didn't have my Garmin so I wasn't sure what pace I was going, but I was pretty sure it was slow. Just like when I had started the bike, the beginning of the run felt pretty awful. By this time the sun was really starting to beat down, and running is always way hotter than biking. Once we turned out onto the main road, too, there was no tree cover, so it was like baking in an oven. It was pretty brutal. I tried not to think about it too much, and just get to the next water station. It was pretty hard psychologically with people stopping and walking all around me (a couple of times as I plodded by someone who was walking, they said, "good job! keep it up!"). I made sure to keep running as much as possible but to hydrate a lot at the stations. Some of the stations even had sponges with icewater to dump on the racers, which was heavenly.
Since I was one of the last waves, I saw many of my fellow DC tri clubbers running back towards the finish as I was still heading out. I kept my eye out for the Athena, but I didn't see her for most of the run, and for a while I thought I had just missed her. Only a couple hundred meters from the turnaround point, though, I saw her going by! I knew that I could catch up to her then. I wasn't certain, but I was pretty sure I was the first Athena out of the swim, so if I could pass her I could win the category. That was the only impetus I needed to get through that second half- in fact, it didn't feel that bad at all and went by rather quickly. I must have looked like I was doing ok because a triathlete I didn't know who was still on his way out said, "just a nice Saturday morning jog, eh?" I passed the other Athena a couple of miles from the finish, and after that I just tried to keep up my current pace. By the time I turned into the woods (the last mile was downhill through the shaded trees- HEAVEN) I was actually feeling great.
When I finally came out of the trees, crossed over the bridge, and came up the hill past the DC tri tent (everyone was watching and cheering us on to the finish), I kicked it up to a full sprint and ran into the finish with everything I had. I was pretty disappointed with my time- I came in when the clock said 3:19, and I left about 15 minutes after the first wave, so I must have gotten about 3:04- but I didn't really care, I was just happy that I finished respectably.
As it turned out, I did finish first in the Athenas (here's my podium photo!), and DC tri won the Club Championships for the seventh time. Huzzah!
