6 months for 1 day

as many of you readers may be aware, this past wknd was the danskin triathlon that barbarines and i had been preparing since the cold, dark days of winter this year. it was unbelievable, i half-assed through most of our carefully planned, prescribed workouts from the coach; 5 months of psuedo training and last 1 month of im-freaking-out-must-train-now training all came down to ONE day. and now that this one day has come and gone, it feels weird.

anywho, the tri itself went well. couple of to-do things before the tri, however, were not so smooth. for example, on saturday, after i loaded up wendy's candy apple red and my orange crush bikeys on the rack on trunk, i timidly drove to boofoo to pick up barbie to go to pleasant prairie to get our race packets. trouble #1, barbie's odometer stopped working. i say, hmmm, why didnt you fix it this morning... bah, i guess she was doing kind prairie community work pulling weeds. trouble #2, barbie's greeni the hulk bikey has a hard time fitting correctly on the rack. hmmm, we managed to strap it down, but i seriously felt that i could have a heart attack any time as our bikeys shook and vibrated like madeness on the rack on our way to wisconsin.

trouble #3, i was supposed to pick up wendy's race packet and info. since she wasnt able to go in person, she talked to some supervisor from danskin and was instructed to write a letter and provide needed paperwork for me to pick up stuff for her. WHAT, they tell me, THAT POLICY IS NO LONGER IN PLACE?? what do you mean she has to come in person early before the race and there's nothing i can do!??? what the mother... eh, we managed to rack her bike and invented some make-shift stickers for her bikey. it was alright...

after the packet pickup, we stopped by the nike outlet for barbsbie to get some blue socks and asian sunglasses. HA! then we ran into anuzzles and bananalantha in her hot cherry shirt baring her hot midriff. WTF!? oh, and the mom and pop yonners. what craziness.

anywho, all of a sudden it's day of race!! AHHH!!! we left around 5:15am, thinking that it should be enough time; unfortunately we got stuck in crazy ass traffic trying to get to the remote parking lot for the event. it was sooo slow, and wendy had already gotten her packet and called us on the phone to inform us that the transition area is to close in minutes! WTF?? we were still far away and there's at least another hr of traffic behind us!! leaving photos pete behind to gather stuff, barbsbie and i ran and managed to board the bus from parking lot to the race site. luckily, we found wendy right away and was able to drop off our helmets, shoes, goo, and other things necessary for running/biking at the transition area before they closed it.

SWIM!! i got really nervous before the swim start. and sadly, somehow i just never found my groove during the swim portion of the race. sigh... i just could NOT pull my strokes correctly, so i ended up doing breast stroke for more than half of the distance, which was extremely inefficient and tiring!! :( my goggles fogged up but i was too stressed out to fix them, so i really didnt know where i was headed. barbsbie, wendy, and i were in the same heat with other participants in yellow swim caps. i knew that i was still with the yellow caps, but several purples behind us started to catch up and pass me, and i even saw blues after the purples. GAHHHH! the swim portion was sucky for me, cuz it felt like it was never gonna end and i just didnt feel good about it.

BIKE!! of course, upon reaching the shore, i scraped my knee getting out of water. it'd be great if the camera man got a pic of me with my knee bleeding. HA! i ran to transition 1, squeezing some GU in my mouth and getting my shoes on for the bike ride. my bike time was okay, as it was average with most road bikes. but i need to improve it!!! some of the faster road bikes were running at 19mph and some even 21mph!!! sheesh. i think the problem is that i have trouble keeping my cadence during the flatter parts of the course or a mild steady climb. i can do the steep climbs well, but i think i probably lose more time at the milder part of the course. gotta keep up!!! ahhh!!

RUN!! the run was the easiest part for me, although i wimped out and walked for many parts of the first mile. that first mile after getting off the bike is always hard-- having to manipulate your jelly legs. ugh! it had become so hot it was harder to run too. i ran/walked/ran walked for about the first 1/2 mile before finally picking up. when i saw the "MILE 1" sign i nearly flipped out as i thought i had already been running forever. my sunscreen had already been washed and rubbed off, and my forearms were burning! as i ran by the water station, i would grab literally 10 cups of water-- 2 to drink and 8 to shower my head and my back.

i picked up my pace at end of mile 2 cuz i know i could. still, it was hard. when i finally crossed the finish line, it was a good feeling but i thought i was gonna pass out too. of course, i was fine after grabbing the gatorade out of photos pete's hand and chugged half of it.

i think i should be happy with my time, 1hr 40min, for my first tri. unfortunately, now looking back, i feel like i could do so much better and that i didnt push myself hard enough. i am wondering, what *IF* i had found my groove during the dreadful swim? what *IF* i improve my biking skills and kept up my cadence? what *IF* i did not walk and ran faster, at the leisure pace that i established from the past months of training? hmmm... all these what-if's!!!! i should just be happy.

oooh, and trouble #5, we couldn't find my car at the remote parking lot after the race. AHHHH. luckily, petey showed up (he had to take the shuttble bus cuz we had to ride our bikes back) and navigated us. trouble #6, chrissie does not like traffic and hunger. grumble grumble. HA!

it was a great experience, really. now i have even MORE uneven, ugly tan lines all over my body, but i feel good about myself and i have even more things to brag about now. tee hee.