I
think we all know the Beatles’ song “I get by with a little help from my
friends.” This past year, that lyric
couldn’t be more true for me. My friends
have been supportive and helpful. And, I
think it’s a two way street; I’ve had several friends tell me that my blogs
have either inspired them, given them a strategy for improving their own
health, or sometimes made them laugh. “I
get by with a little help from my friends.”
This
past weekend I participated in the Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Triathlon in Franklin
Lakes, NJ. This race was a ½ mile swim,
a 17 mile bike ride, and a 5 mile run. I
did it last year, and would have to say it was my best race of the season. Last
year I had a fantastic run portion, and the volunteers and organizers were so
amazing that the race was nothing short of fantastic. So, this year, I got to the venue nice and
early – and I couldn’t have dreaded anything more.
Races
tend to sell out very early, so I signed up for a whole bunch of them over the
winter before I injured my Achilles tendon.
Though it’s basically healed, my back has become my new beast of burden,
and frankly my Achilles has gotten rather cranky during this stint of 8 races
in 9 weeks that I’m in the midst of (Wyckoff is race number 3, following an
Olympic distance triathlon and a 10K).
And though I’m training and racing, my times are horrendous, my rhythm
is off, my heart is just not into it.
All
that said, I showed up on Saturday determined to try. I set up my transition, and ended up near a
woman who was more nervous than one of Henry VIII’s wives after he’d asked for
her neck size. I caught her eye and
said, “First time doing Wyckoff?” Her
reply: “This is my first triathlon ever.
I’m terrified.” I smiled, and
told her how much fun this race is. I also
told her that I bet she had trained her ass off and was probably going to kill it,
and what a great feeling it was to be done and have completed such a huge
accomplishment. She smiled and thanked
me, and I smiled back and marveled at how I can help someone else, just before
I faced my own debacle.
I
met up with my friend Jeff, we wiggled into our wetsuits and walked to the
beach. Per usual, Jeff’s wave was about
15 minutes before mine, so I watched my dear friend swim off into his race and
saw him for the last time that day, then stood around nervously waiting for my
own. Finally it was time for my own wave
to get ready. At that moment, I made a
split second decision. I had told that
woman she’d trained hard and was going to own this triathlon. Why not take my own advice? Just when I made that decision, the horn blew
for my wave, and I ran into the water. I swam hard, sighted well, only stopped
to make some quick course corrections.
The swim course is an upside down U shaped one, and after that second
turn the swimmer is going directly into the sun. So, I just kept swimming, figured my time was
amazing, and I would eventually hit land if I just kept going. Finally, my hand touched mud and I stood up
and walked the rest of the way out. I
ran up to transition, looked at my watch, and was gob-smacked (sorry, been
watching a bit too much “Downton Abbey”): my ½ mile swim and run up to
transition took 25 minutes, a full 3 or so minutes slower than I usually swim a
½ mile. Damn it.
I’ll
admit, I momentarily thought of stopping.
Here I was again, racing my heart out, and going slow enough to
practically stop time. But, like I’d
said to that woman, I trained too hard.
So, I ate a Gu, drank some water, clipped on my helmet and ran out of
transition with my bike.
The
bike portion is my absolute worst, which really sucks given that it’s the
longest portion of any triathlon. I’m
slow, and at most have only ever passed one person during a race. To try to make myself faster, I bought a
speedometer for my bike, and for this race I told myself that except for really
evil hills, I was to go at least 16 mph.
This was quite a grandiose dream, given that my usual pace on a bike is
about 12 mph (I told you, worst biker ever).
So, I started going and just took off.
The
bike course is 17 miles long, of relatively gentle rolling hills. There is one evil portion that heads up, and
though it’s not steep, it’s long.
Although I’m not a fast biker, I’m pretty strong, so when I got to that
part, I put my head down and pushed it.
Hard. I tried to maintain at
least 15 mph on flats, go about 22 – 25 on downhills, and just work as hard as
I could on the uphills. And, I passed
people! Plural! Well, OK, there was one woman who took me on
every flat portion, but who I passed like she was dead on the uphills. We played cat and mouse for most of the 17
miles, and I finally won out in the end, along with passing maybe 7 or 8
others. The course ends with a big
[expletive, starts with “f”, ends with “ucking”] hill that I pushed up with my
legs coming up with their own expletives along the way. I finally got up, finished the last ½ mile or
so of the ride and looked at my watch.
My bike portion took about 1 hour, 10 minutes. I was too tired to do the math at this point,
but I was pretty sure I’d missed my 15 mph (I did; that’s about 14.4 miles per
hour. Another damn it).
At
this point I was pretty frustrated, but just felt like there was no turning
back. Besides, everyone knows, that I
LOVE to run. So, I took another Gu,
drank some water, and went off to try to enjoy my favorite part of every triathlon.
Last
year when I did this race, I passed a lot of people on the run, and each time I
just gained more energy from it. This time,
that wasn’t really happening. I had a
bad case of dead leg, and they just wouldn’t wake up. The run was miserable, and mentally, I was
done.
About
two miles into the run, I came to a downhill.
There was a woman ahead of me and I thought I might be able to pass
her. So, I found some more gas in the
tank and made my move. In this
triathlon, they write our ages on the back of our right calf. And, as I passed this woman, I noticed her
look at me, and just as I finished passing her, she yelled out, “Hey! 43 (my
age. Yes, really)!” I turned to this complete stranger and
watched her give me a big grin just before she said, “Hey! You’re the Former Fat Girl! I read your blog! It’s great!”
This time I grinned to the complete stranger who I suddenly decided was
my new best friend, shouted “Thanks!”, and then took off with the new found
energy I gained from someone I had never met.
The
run continued, but now I felt much better. A woman recognized me from my
blog? And gave me props for it in the
middle of a race, while I was passing her?
How cool was that? At one point
in the race we had to run into a dead end, touch a mat on the ground and run
out. On my way out, this woman was
running in. I made mental note of her
race bib, #744. This time I yelled to
her: “Hey, 774! I’m putting you in my
next blog!” She smiled and replied, “Cool,
I’ll read it!” Later when I saw the
results, I looked her up. She did great
(and completely kicked my ass in the swim :-), and her name is Katrina. Katrina, if you are reading this, you have no
idea what that shout out meant during the race.
Thanks!
Finally,
I could hear the people at the finish line.
I started to slow down until this really cute guy (and if he’s reading
this, I’m totally embarrassed right now) yelled out, “Hey, don’t fade now! Pick it up!”
Then he flashed this amazing smile (sigh), and I shifted into overdrive
as I ran over the finish line. I stopped
my watch and looked down: 2:32:06, about a minute slower than last year’s
race. And, I was elated. No, I haven’t given in to my slower
times. I remembered why I do
triathlons. I do them to push myself, to
remind myself that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I do it to help
out my friends, and to inspire people whenever I can. “I get by with a little help from my friends,”
and maybe friends and strangers get by with a little help from me. Cool.
Ms. Alison - this is #788 :) I'm so glad I could encourage you this past Saturday! It was a treat to see you on the course and thank you in person for your detailed account of the race. To a first-timer, the info in your blog is really valuable! I hope we cross paths again. In the meantime, keep pressing on and remember to just have fun! :)
ReplyDeletei'm sorry...I meant #744. doh!
ReplyDeleteGreat race report! Congrats on a great race!
ReplyDelete