A lot of things were still up in the air in regards to the venue, race logistics, etc. The one thing that I think floored everyone during the course talk on Friday evening was that we were not able to have our bags in transition. Bags were to be checked into gear check in a clear plastic bag due to security issues. Hold up! Gear check is only in road races. Whatever! I was ok with this since we had a tent. I felt ok at the time about the swim, bike (4 laps) and run (3.5 laps). I like to count. They also indicated that there would be a special needs table at swim exit for glasses, inhalers and insulin pumps. This will only be a training day.
One of the things before racing is that I realized that a lot of my athletes have never seen me race. I'm always on the sidelines coaching. But even while racing, I find myself coaching or giving words of encouragement.
RACE DAY
I woke up at buttcrackassofdawn 2am to get on the train by 3:15am to get to transition by 4:15am'ish. Transition was open from 4-5:45am for Olympic Distance athletes. There is never a dull moment when I ride the CTA Red Line, especially that early in the morning. The car I stepped in was full of folks going to work. So I popped open my Kindle and read. We got to the Addison station and a group of loud, drunk ass girls boarded. Within 10 minutes, one threw up. At the next stop (Belmont), a woman got on, looked in her purse and pulled out a roll of toilet paper. Who does that? Only in Chicago.
Well, anyhoo, I get off the train at Harrison and make the walk (long ass walk) to transition. It's funny when you are walking in downtown Chicago at odarkthirty and there are people STILL in the bars. Really people? I get to transition to get body marked where I run into my favorite hippie, Jacob. He has coffee, I have a gallon of water, the universe is in order. While setting up my transition, it starts to rain....AGAIN!!!! So what do I do along with my teammate Sally? We start singing Prince's "1999". What? You don't sing in transition. Oh, you poor souls, I digress...
We leave transition and we head to Buckingham Fountain where our tent is...or was suppose to be. Our tent kind of had a slight accident. Apparently it was partying too hard with the other tents in the rain and it broke in 2 pieces. My thought was, "Duct tape. It solves everything!" WRONG!!!!!! My partner in crime in all things endurance had to pick up our boss who was also racing, go to our Corporate office and get another tent. So, we created FRANKENTENT! Since we did not have to go off until 10am (the race started at 6am), I just sat around and ate and drank and stretched and chilled as best as possible.
GROUP PICTURE TIME
So we all got together to do our prerequisite class, I mean team photo. OK. I'm ready. After pictures, I was on sunscreen duty...basically spraying everyone assembly style, including my girl Emily hair part and all my bald fellas. I did good deed #1: I gave a girl my spare pair of goggles for her very first Sprint Distance triathlon. Good Karma comes back!
SWIM START
By this time, it is hot as F$%&! I had my wetsuit partly on, walking over to see the other competitors. I ended up getting called by a friend of mine to see if I could help her with her wetsuit: I did the best that I could but her wetsuit had seen its last days. But, I did another good deed. The wave before me, I helped a guy with his wetsuit. Did I mention he was a hot cutie young thing? I digress again...
Now at this same time, my vision is getting worse. I lost vision (temporarily) in my right eye. I was having an occular migraine and this has NEVER happened. It was freaking me out. On top of that, I put my phone in my sports bra because I needed them after the swim. It was time for us to jump in the water and I sat until it was almost time. I have to get in my calm place before race day, but that was not the case. Once I jumped in, I could only see with my left eye only and I couldn't see the buoys. Panic set in! Holy F$%&!!!! The air gun went off and I couldn't calm down. I couldn't fucking see! I had to breathe to my left-I can but it is not pretty. I got on my back to get my breathing under control but then settled down when I heard my friends Fred, Becky and KD encouraging me on. Quitting was never an option. One of the things that I will say is that there was not enough buoys (large ones) AT ALL!!! I kept swimming one stroke at a time singing in my head, "Girls & Boys" by Prince and the Revolution over and over again. Finally, I was out of that damn lake! I really love swimming though, so this sucked monkey balls! Finally got out of the water, stripped my wetsuit halfway down and took my glasses out of my boobs. Hey, they were secured!
Time: 52:46 seconds
Feeling: Defeated and NOT HAPPY!
TRANSITION TO BIKE
That was the longest ass transition EVER!!!!!! Can they improve that? I finally got to Beeker, my bike. Took off my wetsuit and quickly got to my helmet, sunglasses and cycling shoes and took off. This bike course was a 4 loop course up Columbus drive, down lower Wacker Drive and back again and again and again. Did I tell you how much I hate to bike? Yeah, I do. It was hot and I took the first loop conservatively! I had so many people cheering me on which gave me some confidence. As soon as we hit lower Wacker Drive, it was game on! OH.MY.GOD! That course was FAST I tell you. It was FUN! I will never say that again. But every time you came back onto Columbus, it was hot ass Hell! But I was hydrating with water, eFuel (cranksports.com) mixed with base amino (baseperformance.com). The second loop, I started to get confident. I picked up a little speed. The third loop, more speed. The final loop, 30 km/hour. What the hell>?????? I don't go that fast. Hot damn! But unfortunately somewhere between lap 2 and 4, I lost feeling in my hands. I think it was due to gripping my handlebars too hard.
Time: Loop 1: 22min 22secs; Loop2: 21min 13secs; Loop 3: 21 min 10secs; Loop 4: 21min 12secs: TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 25 minutes 58 seconds
Transition 1: 8 min 15 secs
Transition 2: 6 min 45 secs
TRANSITION TO RUN
So I dismounted my bike (without falling y'all) and ran, well actually a slow jog, no..it was more like a slow pathetic trot with my bike back to transition. Have you ever tried to run in cycling shoes? Oh, it sucks. By this time, it was gradually getting hotter. I finally made it back to my spot on the rack and changed to my running shoes (Hello Newton Gravity's in...PINK newtonrunning.com), hydration belt and Visor. My whole thinking on the run was to NOT WALK! Even though it was hot, I was not going to walk. One of the things that I noticed on this 3 1/2 lap run was that it was not shady. Sun, sun and sun. Oh boy! So, I'm running and I'm singing in my head "Controversy. Oh yeah, I had to dig deep. I was seeing so many people that I knew on the run and in the crowds. It made me so happy even though I was in the pain cave and I know some of them were too. Deep in the pain cave and running with a blister on my foot. Never, ever happened in my life but it was due to having water doused on me. It was that damn hot. Did I say how hot it was. On my last lap, I went straight game face. Some of y'all have seen this look on me. Fierce determination, no expression or as my best friend have told me, "You look like you're gonna take someone out." I started to pick up the pace and just went for it. I crossed the finish line in 3:49:55. Not bad. I'll take it.
Run time: 1:16:13
THE AFTERSHOW
I really wanted to pass out at the finish line. My friends Shelley and Cristina were at the finish line taking pictures. I walked through the finish line but was not really feeling great but convinced myself that I was ok. I somehow made it to the tent and felt like SH&*. Thank you to my hippie Jacob, my girl Jenn S. (a lot of my friends are named Jennifer of some sort) and Perla for looking out for me, because I am stubborn and hard headed. Instead of going home, I stayed at the race to see the Men's pro race but also to sit in more sun (read: Joy is a dumbass when racing) and helped to break down our tent (read: I'm too responsible and I should have taken my ass home). I finally left to make it to the Harrison "L" stop. Bikes were not to ride on the trains due to Pride parade. I'm sorry, Pride parade ended at 3pm. It was 6:45pm at this point (do the math on how long I was up). I was going to put my bike on the train. Yep, I made it by lifting my bike up and over the turnstyle (oh, sooooo classy). I made it to FFC Lincoln Park to drop off my bike and shower/change in a span of 12 minutes flat.. Since I was hungry, I went to That Little Mexican Cafe down the street from my place and ate. I was eating a recovery meal (black bean and goat cheese empanadas, chips and salsa, chicken tacos, water, water, water and a margarita-it has salt in it!). After that, I finally went home. This is now 9:30pm. I fed my cat, dumped my bag and crashed.
Around 1ish, I called my friend (AKA ex whose dad is an emergency room doctor) and went to the emergency room. Well friends, I was SEVERELY DEHYDRATED. 3 IV bags later, I was feeling somewhat normal. No, not really. I had to get the speech on dehydration and racing in the heat. Oh yeah, I got reamed but it was good. I have an appointment next week with an opthamologist (boo!) since My ex's father was concerned about my vision. He did ask about Ironman, which I told him all about and asked about what happened with me and his son (sorry, none of your business). I finally went home at around 4ish and ended up going into work a few hours later. Yes, I was a hot mess wreck, but hey I did it.
TAKEAWAYS
- Hydrate
- Try to take it easy leading up to a race. Don't work an expo for 3 days
- Still have tons of fun
- Listen to your body
- Stop being stubborn
