It was a chilly morning, so after setting up transition, I went back to the car to keep warm and fell asleep. Woke up about 15 minutes before my wave start and hustled down the beach. Yikes! Threw on the wetsuit, said good luck to all the Tri Smart peeps and maneuvered my way to the front of the pack.
The siren went off and all the W18-44 ran - yes, ran - out into the water. It was shallow for a pretty long time and that can be exhausting for a short girl! I took my time and tried to keep the HR low. Once swimming, I was way off course - the water was pushing from the left. This was good once we made the right hand turn, it was like having a tailwind in the water! One last turn, to the right, made the water hit hard on the right side of my head. I'm glad I'm a left-side breather. :)
Into transition, I fumbled a little and almost forgot to put my helmet on before running out. It was chilly, but I didn't take the time to put on gloves or armwarmers. About 30 seconds into the ride, I wish I had! It was COLD! I think it was mid-50s at that point and no sun. At least I had toe covers on my cycling shoes.
Road was rough for the first 15 miles, but we had an incredible tailwind pushing me to about 24-25mph with little effort. I knew this was going to be an issue coming back in, so I just focused on my effort vs. mph. Caught up to my man Dennis just before the point where the Half Ironman and Ironman bike courses split. It was a nice little boost. Had several guys pass, all pretty nice about it and 2 women. The headwind on that last little section back to the park was brutal. I was going what felt like 12 mph, but the effort was there! I wondered if I should even bother trying to run this thing.
Once in transition, it was nice to know most were still out on the bike. T2 felt quick and the sun was starting to come out!
But once out on the course, just about 30 steps, the toe let me know it is still unhappy with me and I considered the DNF. With just 2 words from him, I pushed on. I knew there were just a few women ahead of me at this point. It wouldn't be a PR race for me, but if I could hold it together, I might not do too badly...
First couple of miles were OK. I figured it would start to hurt around mile 6. Luckily for me, it got a little warmer, which made me happy, and the run course was pretty flat and I liked it. Where I disliked all the turns in the bike, in the run, it made it a little more fun. I did more passing than I got passed and I wondered if I was dreaming. When was the wall going to hit? AH - MILE 10! OOOOWWWW! Now the toe was screaming at me to stop. But it was just 3 more miles - less than 30 minutes. I can handle this, right? Got to give BB from Team Tri Smart a little encouragement on her way out on the run and it gave me a much needed boost. Last mile winding through the park felt like FOREVER, but was worth the wait!
Down the finish chute, the scene was much like that of Hy-Vee - banners lined across the sides, big jumbotron with scenes from the ongoing race and a charismatic announcer calling names at the finish! It ended right in the park with the roller coasters, so there were spectators lined up on both sides.
One thing that deserves special mention is all the goodies that come with this race. Blue shirt and visor come in the TYR re-usable goody bag - nice medal and long-sleeved tech t-shirt at the finish. This series has some great stuff going for it, so if you missed out on Rev3 this year, it deserves consideration for 2011.Costa Rica anyone?
