GWN Race Report

Wow.

All spring I have been secretly hoping I would get a flat on my bike. Out on a training ride, somewhere in the middle of nowhere and I would have to deal with it. I have been secretly praying this would happen before the race. But it didn't. We got to the lake on Saturday afternoon to drop my bike off in the transition and I took it for a short ride to make sure the gears were working and the brakes etc. No problems. I was WALKING it to the transition to rack it up and....POP!! My tube blew on my front tire. We got it changed and fixed and all was well. I was actually relieved. Really relieved

Slept like hell Saturday night.

Thank-you to Jenn, Allan and Dwayne for taking me to the first transition. Got there in good time and wandered around for a bit. Could hardly look at my bike as I was just anxious about the ride and the tire etc etc. To be honest, I was scared shitless before this race. Scared. Shitless. I just had no idea what to expect and I did not want to embarass myself. Stood in line for the porta potties, chatted with a few people I knew, got my wetsuit on and I was mid-sentence with someone in the water when the gun went off for the start!! DUH!! Maybe I will focus more at one of these races.

The swim was hell. Was not prepared for how freaking aggressive these people would be!! OMG! Someone had told me to start at the front...at the front was super competitive men and their testosterone...I was actually very scared for a few minutes as they were bigger and stronger than me and smashed over me. Fine. Take the space. You obviously need it more than I do!! Was a little unhappy with my swim time but it was a serious struggle just to stay above water so I was happy I survived.

Out of the water and there were many wetsuit strippers to help us out. I was wearing my itsy bitsy tri shorts and was a little worried they would be coming off WITH the wetsuit if I let them help me! So I stopped and said to the one guy "I have these shorts on and they may come off!!" He looks at me and says "Well, lay down in the grass and it's best you hang on to them then!!" I couldn't stop giggling!! Can't say I have ever done that before.

Got to my bike and said a small prayer to the triathlon gods. I actually wanted to stop and watch everyone as it was chaos. Literally chaos!! Put my gear on, took a quick second to just make sure I had everything with me and grabbed my bike and off I went. Holy hell. I am pretty sure everyone was coming out of transition at the same time! Got on my bike and my pedals just spun. Got off my bike and my chain was off. RATS! C'mon Tri Gods...I need a serious hand here!! Got the chain on, got back on the bike. Still nothing. Got off my bike. This sweet soul was across the road and all of the bikes were whizzing by and he is yelling at me "LIFT THE BACK TIRE AND SPIN THE PEDALS...!!!!!" I didn't hear why... I just did it. Voila. "NOW RUN IT UP THE HILL AND GET ON IT!!!" Yes SIR!! Got on that yellow cervelo and took a quick look at my heart rate and it was at about 170!!! Gotta love adrenaline. But I also said a quick thank-you to the tri gods.....

The bike ride was really fun. Yes, you read that correctly, it was FUN!! Okay, the rain was not fun and getting passed by everyone was not fun but I felt really good and Jenn had told me it was a hilly course but I did not find it that bad. My first Powerbar slipped out of my hand in the rain onto the road. Drat. That large hill near the middle was seriously fun going down. I just tucked right down and let er rip! I passed about 5 people!! And then thought "If one of these tires blows, I am dead..." but it was still fun!! And the climb back out was not that bad. Had to take a pee break at the half way mark. At about the 75km mark my guts went a bit sideways. A huge cramp and I could not wait to get off that bike. The last 15km took FOREVER!! Got to T2 and the cramps were just getting worse. I wasn't sure what to do so put my running gear on and figured I would just start running and see what happened. There were aid stations at every mile so I made a deal with myself to run one mile and see how I was feeling. Got to that first mile and I still was not feeling all that great. So let's run another mile and see what happens. And this is basically how I ran the half marathon!! Mile by mile. The cramps never went away and I just ignored them. I felt like I could have ran way faster but every time I tried to pick up the pace, my guts would say "No thanks." And honestly, I did not know what to expect. I remembered how hard those last few kms were in the half marathon in May and I did not want to blow up.

Sometime after the 10km mark, I saw Jenn coming the other way and I can't remember what she said but it was along the lines of "Looking strong!" or something like that.

I started to bawl.

Yup. Right there in the middle of my run, I was sobbing. I got to the next aid station and this older gentleman grabs my arm and says "Are you all right?" I nod my head, but he did not believe me and he motioned for who I am guessing was his wife, to come over. Because older men and a crying woman is usually not a great combination.

She comes over and says "What's wrong, dear?"

And all I could get out was "I am just so happy to be doing this!" So she gives me a big hug, and says "Well, get running then girl! You only have about 7km left!!" So that's what I did.

All in all, I was thrilled with this day! I felt pretty good the entire way. The gut cramps were annoying but manageable. I kept smiling at everyone and felt that really helped to just put them mentally aside. I was super duper conservative the entire way as I did not know what to expect. I cannot believe how great I feel today. I am not stiff one bit.

Bring on 2009!!