After work on the Friday I went down to pick up my race kit. I took a look around the transition area, and spoke to a few people. As it turns out I was more prepared then the people I spoke with, however I was still quite anxious for the race. Picked up my kit and headed home. We had some of our good friends come down for dinner on the Friday and spend the night to cheer me on during the race. We had a large spaghetti dinner, with garlic bread, cheese and some apples with caramel for desert. In retrospect that was probably too much food and I could have done without the red pepper flakes on the spaghetti. We took a pretty easy night and went to bed early.
I can honestly say I didn't sleep well, nervous and what not. I got up about 2.5 hours before the race start, had a quick shower to warm up, some bread with peanut butter than took the dog for a walk. Once I got back I had a small bowl of cereal (raisin bran, again - maybe not a good idea). I triple checked my bag, put my bike on the rack and headed to the race with about 1.5 hours to the start time. I got to the race, got my bike down, double checked the tires brakes and other mechanical pieces then moved to the transition area. WOW, was this process ever overwhelming for a newbie. Everybody around seemed to know exactly where to go, and what to do. I asked which rows the Sprint Triathlons had for the transition area, and was told the wrong row. So I setup in the wrong row and just as everything was setup just right, I realized I was in the wrong place. So I moved to a new row, and set everything back up. Unfortunately, I was not in a great area, in the middle of the middle rows, hard to find in a race situation.
The weather wasn't terrible, overcast and cool. I took a walk over to the mount/dismount line and took a light jog to get warm. Once I was warm I met up with Marie and my friends, I had my half banana and yogurt for a snack and continued to hydrate. We then proceeded to the pool. I setup my shoes outside if the pool area, it was a very long distance between the pool and transition area, so bare feet just wasn't an option. I made my way into the change room and had my pre-race washroom trip. This is where I realized that I probably had too much of the wrong food the night before. But after the business was taken care off I felt much better and was ready to rock. I made my way to the deck and the race before us was just finishing. I made my way to the warm up pool and took few lengths to get the back and shoulders warm and heart rate up. Once satisfied and nearly getting ran over by some very impressive swimmers, I got back on the deck and seeded myself by grabbing the 2:00min/100m stick and finding a place to stand. Soon the race was starting Given that the racers were starting every 15 seconds, I had a 5-10 minute wait before it was my turn to start.
I had my goggles on nice and tight and then took my start position. I hadn't quite figured out how I was going to start. I had two options, a dive, which i could lose my goggles because of inexperience, or just slip in and go. Ultimately the starter said GO, and I dove, not well, but my goggles remained on my head and not full of water. Success! I came out flying, got into a very fast rhythm... too fast, but I felt great. Before I new it I had caught up with the person in front of me, and good thing too because lost my rhythm... came out too fast.
I gathered myself while drafting off the person in front of me and started looking for a good time to pass. Coming into the next wall I gave the tap on the foot, and passed without a problem. I then didn't want to slow that person down, so I picked up my rhythm, but stayed in control Before I knew it I passed two more people and in around 9 minutes I was climbing out of the pool and walking out the door. I crossed the timing mat (9:37 after starting) put my shoes one and started a 500m jog to the transition area. I felt a little awkward on the transition run, didnt' have shirt on, or my proper shoes, but I made it and found my bike without a problem.
I got my shirt, helmet, glasses and shoes on and ran over to the mount dismount line. I got on my bike, got clipped in and was on my way. I took a pretty easy pace, but felt like I was doing well given all the people I was passing (but all from the race before ours). I probably let this go to my head and didn't give as much effort as I could have. After the first turn around I was cruising along and passed a fellow who then decided he was going to draft off of me. This made me a little uncomfortable as I wasn't (and still not) comfortable with people around me on the bike. After a km or so, some guy on a bike that cost more than my car went flying by and yelled at the guy for cheating. He peeled off after that and that was the end of it. Coming into the second turn around there seemed to be a bit of co-motion going on about 50m up the road. I received a moral boost from Marie and my friends and continued on with my race. The second lap went well and as I was coming to the end of the bike portion, I noticed where the co-motion was, there was now an ambulance. Very scary, as it turns out there was pretty bad accident and one guy was in pretty bad shape. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but ultimately he ended up t-boning another bike and doing a face plant in the road. From the people who saw it, it sounded like he was riding a little unsafe through turn area (this was the optional turn, turn if you have another lap, or straight through if you are done), and the other competitor didn't do a shoulder check before trying to turn around after missing the actual turn around area. I took my time going through that area, and came into the mount/dismount area. Got of my bike and tried to find my area. Turns out I initially picked the wrong row, and then almost forgot to take my helmet off. What a NOOB. But eventually I sorted everything out and was on my way for the run.
Although I had done a few brick workouts, I clearly hadn't done enough. I came out and didn't feel very good, and as it turns out didn't look very strong (thanks Marie). After the first 500m I felt much better was in a good stride and just continued on my way. There weren't many people on the run course, and before I new it I was at the turn around. I was feeling pretty good and before I knew it I reached the finish line. The announcer poked fun at me and told me to smile, which made me laugh. But I finished strong, in a time of 1:18:25 and felt pretty good. The breakdown was: 500m swim: 9:37 T1+20.5km bike+T2: 45:34 5km run: 23:14 which I was very happy with. I finished 2nd in my age group which was a shock, but really I was just happy to finish and gain the experience.
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