Final Race Report - Patriot's Tri, Bath, PA

Blessed are those lucky enough to have friends that double as training/quilting/hobby partners. Having two of my girls with me in last Sunday's race helped all over. We giggled as we stretched and shouted each other along throughout the race. LM and Kim decided last minute to do the tri – LM did swim, Kim the bike and run. Here, in their words (edited for space) is how it went down for them.

By the way, if you haven’t already, check out Stephanie’s blog (linked to on the right). She did her first marathon Saturday. Her race report is a tale of one girl’s dramatic journey as she pushed her body to its limits and never, never gave up no matter what went wrong (and much did, from injury to dumb runner shop employee). Inspiring.

THE SWIM
I find it odd that they feel the need to write all over your body (Ed note: took me a week to take off the 12 markings they put on. either that's too many markings or i don't scrub properly). I was mostly nervous about getting kicked in the face or swam on top of but as soon as I found out that they were starting us in waves I was immediately relieved. I couldn't see a thing so whenever I would swim to see where I was in relevance to the buoy I had to redirect myself b/c I was aiming way off! When I reached the halfway point my arms felt like lead weights but I knew that would happen which is why I took it out slow and sped up throughout the thing. I was very happy that I
1)survived
2)didn't get kicked in the face
3) did well considering I haven't swam more than 5 laps worth of swimming in about 6 years except for one day at LA fitness when I felt really motivated to do 50 laps for some odd reason.

I kept swimming at the end to try and get a fast time and I swam right into the dirt!... I could barely run b/c my arms were just dead weights and didn't want to move but somehow I did and passed 6 or 7 people on the grassy hill up to the bike area where I passed my chip around my ankle to Kim and she tore off on the bike! I definitely have been bitten by the tri bug though and want to do the whole one next time all by myself!

Swim .4 mile 11:45 (zoinks!)

T1: 52 seconds (blaa-zing. That’s 14/157)

THE BIKE
So at 34, and after barely doing anything that required more physical exertion than feeding twenties into a slot machine, I decide to start running. Sounded cool, and the idea of doing a tri as my first EVER event, much less two months after i started running, sounded challenging. I'll try anything once.

Thank God no one told me about the bitch-ass hills beforehand. I was pumped when I first started the ride. After hearing "Left", "On your left" for like the 100th time my brain said "You stupid ass idiot-what made you think you could do this? These people do this all the time, have cool outfits, and actual road bikes. (Ihad mountain bike) DUH!!" Then I thought, "I'm not out here for them-I'm out here for ME."

My spoken goals were to 1) Just finish, and 2) not finish last. No way I could just stop riding-I had to get to the finish, as no one would find my lifeless body lying on the side of a rural road somewhere in Bath, Pa. As I pulled in and saw LM and PR's boy standing there rooting me on, I uttered "F*** This" quite loudly.

Bike 15 miles: 1:08:32. try to top that in two months lifetime training!

T2: 46 seconds. (Wowsers. That’s 30/157!)

THE RUN
I was in no way prepared for the way my legs felt on dismount-as if someone tied them to the ground. I shook my head and I meandered VERY SLOWLY through the check point, seriously doubting I could continue. Remembering that I was there for me, I went on.

After mile 1 the circulation finally started coming back and I found a steady, albeit slow, stride. "Never again" was going through my head when I passed a cow I'll call Bessie-those moos came at such an ironic time-and i changed my attitude right then and there. I chugged along and 1.5 miles later, when I crossed that finish line (goal 1 complete!) and saw I wasn't last (goal 2 complete!) that was my vindication.

I was met at the end of the finish line by PR, who greeted me with a big hug and show of support and knew I made the right choice by competing. (The flashy finisher's key chain was pretty cool, too!) Ten minutes later I was actually talking about how I want to perform next year. I have been so motivated by this experience to really step up my training and run as many days a week as possible, even if it's only a mile run a day, and modify my eating even more. I truly know what a "runner's high" is now.

Bessie-I owe you a big bale of hay! And next year I'm even going to do the icky lake water. (Now-where the F*** is my victory martini...)

Run 3.1 miles: 33:45 (what a finish!)

Total: 1:58:39

Check back for 2006 Patriot’s Triathlon results next September. Three full race reports. One spot. Don’t miss it.