Race report, part 2 (Sprint distance triathlon)

Here’s part 2. I’ll wrap it up with part 3 later. Read part 1 first.

I had gotten quite a bit of conflicting advice about where in the crowd to line up for the swim start – back, outside, near-back, near-front. So, being indecisive, I started sort of in the middle. The crazy-loud whistle (sounded like a basketball buzzer) went off for the ¼ mile swim and the group moved forward. I started swimming, slowly, in a little more than waist-deep water and immediately found myself swimming nearly on top of someone else. I stopped to let her get ahead, then tried again, did a few good strokes and was trapped in the crowd. I couldn’t get through to find some space, so I just tried to keep going forward when I started getting kicked by the ones ahead of me. I tried to breaststroke to safety but just gulped lake water. By this time I was having a very hard time staying calm. I had forgotten all about trying to swim fast; I just wanted to get out of this frothing minnow bucket alive.

When we got to the first giant yellow buoy, about 100 meters out, I resorted to the sidestroke, facing away from the crowd, to stay calm. A few times I tried to go back to freestyle but I was too panicky to get the breathing under control, so I just made my way very, very slowly at the outermost edge of the crowd to the next buoy. I decided, during the swim, that I was doing the most incredibly foolish and reckless thing of my life and that if I could just avoid drowning and make it out of the water that I’d forget the rest of the race and go home. I told myself: shore, then you go home, shore, then you go home. When I finally got to the second buoy and was about 100 meters out I realized there was no one blocking my way anymore – they were nearly all out of the water already. So with the coast clear I switched to fastest freestyle I could come up with and swam blindly until my hand touched the sand, and finally got my pathetic self out of the swim portion – alive.

Once out of the water, I completely forgot that I was planning to go home right then. I got partially out of the wetsuit on the move (pretty much the only thing I’d done correctly so far), and jogged to the transition area. In transition, I yanked the darn wetsuit off. Good. I put my helmet on. Good, I congratulated myself. But then I realized it was FREEZING cold and maybe I should put a shirt or jacket or something on over the wet trisuit for the windy, rainy ride. I hadn’t planned on an extra layer, but after standing stunned for nearly an entire minute wondering what to do, I found something in the backpack. I put it over my head, then remembered I had the helmet on. OK, helmet, off. Attempt to get tight long sleeved shirt on my wet arms. Look like a comedy routine for another whole minute. Helmet back on. Ooops, forgot the bike shoes. Get shoes on wet, sandy feet. By now, more than 3 minutes had passed. Lift the bike off the rack. Find the exit.

I was nearly the last one leaving the bike transition area, having been in the last wave, nearly last out of the water, and then taking a record-breaking long time in transition. However, at the sign that said “Mount Bike Here” I had a screaming fan club of five of my running buddies who were there to watch. I was beyond being embarrassed at this point and started to laugh, deliriously amused at how ridiculous it was to tell me – coming in at what I thought was LAST PLACE – how great I was doing. Laughing was a huge improvement over my mood just a couple of minutes back. I wasted another few seconds commenting on the obvious, and started the bike feeling like quite the athlete.

Sorry this is dragging on! I’ll be very concise with the bike and run. Hope you are all doing well!