I cobble together a sorry assortment of gear that I had left in Seattle - bike trekking shoes, Brooks Revel training flats, an old road bike purchased in the early 1990.. plus some lemon-flavored cookies and a flowery beige bath towel,
As I setup before the race the guy racking his bike on one side of me told me it was his first triathlete and that I looked like a veteran “Really? Do I just look old? I'm setting up my trekking gear and cookies on a bath towel?" On the other side of me is a relay team made up of 50+ females who seem even less serious and competitive than me -- I take numerous photos for them and we all banter about our poor preparation and lame equipment before heading to the lake.
I do feel strong on the swim and bike legs.
But in fact I am hopelessly slow. Over two hours have elapsed when I get to the bike-run transition and my slow time combined with my starting in the final wave means I am still near last place.
As I arrive in transition, the swimmer from the enthusiastic 50+ relay team I took photos of earlier greets me - and she is now really hyped up — she exhorts me to go faster through each step of transition: “go go - helmet off! get your run shoes on! lace them up! hurry, hurry!!"
I finally do start running and as all my friendly, enthusiastic fellow back-of-the-pack participants cheer me on as I run past them, I realize I should at least try to make an effort to break 3 hours.
The last half of the 10k course includes some long, winding uphills and these nasty stairs:
Thanks to a frenetic pace over the last few kilometers, I manage to just barely break 3 hours.
Hardly a fast time, but I am happy to be able to consider myself a triathlete again now after over three years of not racing.
Good job, Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteHaving stairs like that at the end of a triathlon is extremely cruel.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a good effort.