Success!

Yesterday I successfully completed my first triathlon sprint.  Probably my first and only, but that's beside the point.  In case you're wondering, "success" was defined by me for the purposes of this event as completing without injury, and a sunburn didn't count as an injury.  Neither did a jolt to my pride.  More on that later.

Matt and I took the kids to Conroe Saturday and dropped them off with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo for their weekend retreat.  (Sidenote: I'm sure fun was had by ALL during this retreat, which included a trip to a pumpkin patch and a birthday party at a skating rink).  He and I then made our way to the race packet pick-up and I proceeded to go through the check-in.  I looked over my packet and tried to verify that all numbers for all equipment pieces were in order and that I had everything else I needed for the race.  We headed out, left the mall, stopped at another store, and during this time I had been reading the packet material and realized I had a white swim cap, which designated me in the women 30-39 age group.  While that in and of itself is correct, I had signed up to race as a newbie, which meant that I was planning to swim the shorter distance, and not the full swim, which the age bracket I was designated in was supposed to be swimming.  I should have had a green swim cap.

Houston, we had a problem!

I quickly called one of the girls I had been training with, who had picked her packet up a couple hours earlier.  She had the correct color swim cap - green.

So we turned around and headed back to the mall, determined to correct the registration issue.  I felt comfortable that I could handle the newbie swim, but NOT the full swim.  Luckily, when I went back, they didn't give me any problems.  One gentleman asked if I wanted a green cap and I quickly corrected him, laughingly saying "Oh no, I NEED a green cap."  He thought that was pretty funny, too.  A chat with the laptop lady - AKA the registration lady - took care of officially correcting me as well.  A few minutes in there and I was fully corrected as a newbie for registration purposes. 

Whew!

Back on the road and Matt and I were enjoying each others company so much that we missed the turn to my friends house via the directions he provided, so we took the long route there.  I'm trying to remember the last time he and I had some quality and quantity time together and I'm coming up blank, so it was obviously much needed.  We finally got to the Murdock Manor much later than we had originally anticipated, and then there were some slight grill-lighting, propane issues that had to be addressed and resolved.  Once those issues were taken care of, dinner was finished and was fabulous!  Sam and Krissy went all out...bread with dipping sauce, cheese and pepperoni for appetizers, steak, and pasta with two kinds of homemade sauces.  Oh my goodness...it was delicious!  And then Sam topped it off with homemade canoli's, although I was so stuffed with everything else that I couldn't even finish it off!  We watched the triathlon episode of Scrubs while eating our dessert, feeling full as ticks, then went to bed.  I certainly carbo-loaded adequately!

We tried to leave their house by 5 AM the next morning, and had plans to meet the girls by 5:30...we didn't quite make it.  I'm not sure if we left later than we wanted to, or if it simply took longer than we thought to get from their house to the race, but we finally got there at about 6 AM.  We unloaded the bike, gear and got my body markings - race number on my forearms and my age on my calf, then headed to the transition area to set up.  We found the girls fairly easily, then just hung out until racetime.

Since we were the newbies, our wave was the last to go, so we made it in the water shortly after 8:15AM.  The water was cool, but not as cold as I was anticipating.  What I had been told about, but couldn't really plan for, were the people kicking me...so I treaded water and held out in the back of the pack.  In retrospect, since I'm not the greatest of swimmers anyway, that probably wasn't the best of plans.  I never did make that time back up.  I was one of the last people to get out of the water and pretty much brought up the rear for the rest of the race. 

Which leads me to that jolt to my pride statement....

So I'm out of the water, get to the transition area, and I pretty much have it all to myself.  I look up and see Matt filming and wonder to myself why on earth he's trying to film me in the horror that is me attempting to change clothes without the world seeing anything.  He must have read my mind, because I think at that precise moment he quit filming.  Me actually trying to change clothes was a rookie mistake...I should have just pulled the dry clothes on OVER my swimsuit and ridden my bike in that, but oh well.  I get my clothes on - WITHOUT anyone seeing anything, mind you, and head out of the transition area. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, that wasn't the jolt to the pride story)  Then on my bike I go...then I realize I didn't have my sunglasses, that they're still in my purse, in the car.

Great.

Anyway, on the bike, here I go, heading out for a 15 mile bike ride.  A little bit into it an older gentleman passes me, then a motorcycle comes up behind me, comes beside me, and then says to me, "You know you're the last one, right?"  Inside my head I'm thinking, 'Gee thanks, buddy...I needed THAT right now.'  I just looked at him.  He continues, "You aren't going to let that 72 year old guy beat you, are you?  You know, the one that just passed you?"  Did you feel that hit?  Because I certainly did.  Let me just note that it wasn't coming across as nice, these comments he was making.  If he was going for motivating, he was certainly missing his mark.

So I looked at him and said, "I'm not worried about BEATING anyone.  My goal is simply to finish."  And then I smiled at him and kept right on cycling.  I was determined to NOT let that comment persuade me to quit.  And you know what, a few more miles into the cycle I wasn't the last one anymore...and he rode by me and told me so.  And he also made a point of telling me every so often how good I was doing, too.

As I was finishing the bike portion, it was ever-so-obvious that the "non-newbies", oh heck, who am I kidding, and many of the "newbies" had been done for quite some time, as the race and surrounding area was clearing out, but folks were very gracious to the steady gal on the bike, number 444, and certainly cheered her on!  It was quite nice.  There were a few of us hitting the run at the same time ('cause remember, I said I wasn't last anymore), and we wound around the lake that really tempted me to jump back in it and around the neighborhood for a "quick 3 miles".  HA! I think the exact words out of my mouth were 'smooth like butter' as I started that run and I don't exactly know where those came from...

All-in-all, I finished the race in about 2 hours 15 minutes.  Whoop!