I have to admit, I’m a little stuck on this week’s blog
topic. Here’s the problem. Usually I like to write about some big
revelation or some feat of strength or endurance that I accomplished
recently. The problem here, though, is
that in the last 3 days I’ve done all of the above.
On Friday I completed a 17 mile long training run. I usually do my long runs on the weekend,
where I can take more time getting myself out the door, and then I can collapse
into a heap on the couch later when I’m exhausted and completely spent while my
kids either do crafts near me or once even decided to give me a makeover while
I was dead asleep. But, I couldn’t do my
long run this weekend – because I had a triathlon on Sunday.
Sunday I was going to compete in my last triathlon of the
season. It was only a Sprint distance
one: ½ mile swim, 14 mile bike ride, and a 5K run, but it was at West Point
military academy, where it was: a) EXTREMELY hilly, and b) full of young,
athletic cadets who were going to make mincemeat of me on the course.
OK, let’s start with Friday.
In order to get this run in and still put in a full day of work, I had
to work from home, so I could use commuting time for running. On top of that, I had to start my run at
5:00 in the morning in order to be done and at my “desk” (read: dining room
table in front of my work laptop) by 8:00 or close to it.
To do a long run like that, you really need to eat about 1.5 to 2
hours before hand, so your muscles are full and your stomach is empty. To do the math for you, I had to get up at
3AM so that I could eat, digest, and do my other normal “mommy works full time
and runs a house” stuff: feed the cats and the hermit crab, clean the litter
box (for the cats, the hermit crab doesn’t use one J),
get Olivia’s camp bag ready, make sure Ben’s stuff is packed up for day care.
At
5AM I set out in the pitch dark to start my run. I wore a vest so cars could see me at this
ridiculous hour, but I really didn’t need to.
It was so early that my entire town was still asleep. By 6 o’clock the sun was up, and I did the
rest of my run with the aid of natural light.
The
run went great. I’m at the point in my
training plan where I can tell I’ve been working hard, because the first 6
miles or so were so easy they were almost boring. The humidity has finally broken, and that
helped, too.
I
finished my run in 3 hours, 8 minutes, getting to my “desk” by about 8:15. Though I had to sit there and be sweaty and
smelly until lunch time when I could jump in the shower, it was a great run and
a great day.
Now
fast forward to Sunday. Again, I had to
get up before God himself does, this time at 3:30 in the morning, to leave my
house by 4:30 (again, making sure pets are fed and cleaned up after, but
leaving child duties to my still sleeping husband). I drove up to West Point, NY, again in the
pitch dark, half wondering why on Earth I was doing this.
I
was supposed to do this triathlon with my partner Jeff, but he had thrown his
back out (or so he said…just kidding, Jeff), so I was at this military campus
by myself – well, it was just me and the 500 or so other people in the race.
Now,
remember that military folks don’t take the easy way out of anything, and this
apparently includes their triathlons.
The first task was to walk our bikes and gear one mile to the main race
and transition area. After that nice
warm up, I picked up my packet, got body marked, and organized my gear in
transition.
I
was a bit nervous about this race. I was
in wave 3 of 10, which meant that about 70% of the people in this race were
going to swim right over me if I didn’t haul ass in the swim. So, that helped me to figure out my race plan
for the swim: haul ass. And that’s just
what I did. When my wave started, I dove
right into the water, put my head down, and just went. I kept my strokes long and straight, my
breathing even. I kept telling myself that if I did well, I could get to the
bike course faster, and for some reason, that seemed like a worthy prize, so I
kept going.
After
the first of two turn buoys, the men in the wave behind me started to catch up
to me. Now, for anyone who hasn’t done a
triathlon, let me explain an open water swim: you bump into people. And if you’re both women, you bump and then
completely swim off in opposite directions so that it doesn’t happen
again. If you’re a woman (which I have
been in every triathlon so far), and I guy bumps into you, he swims right over
you and doesn’t even stop to see if he just killed you. So, both times that a guy hit me in the swim,
I just held my breath, went under the water and waited for him to finish
drowning me (while silently hoping he got a flat tire on the bike, jerk). Other than that, though, my swim was
fantastic.
When
we reached land, I took off for transition, and got in and out as fast as I
could. I ran my bike out, got on, and
just flew. This course is a big loop
along a stretch of highway that would be ridiculously dangerous if it wasn’t
run by the military who just put two big Hummers in the road to block all of
the traffic. Every now and then I
realized how incredibly beautiful the scenery was, but then I’d yell at myself
to focus, put the bike in a harder gear, and keep moving.
Of
the 14 mile course, I’d say that roughly none of it was flat. At one point, we got to fly down an enormous
1 mile long downhill, where my bike speedometer clocked 28 miles per hour. And as exhilarating as it was, in the back of
my head I thought, “Hmm, this is a loop course.
That means I’m going to have to climb back up this hill at some
point. And sure enough I did. Now, for some weird reason, one mile down
feels like 3 miles back up. But, I did
it. I actually felt great and passed a few people, even learning a new swear
word in the process.
I
had looked at times of people who had completed the race last year, and guessed
that the bike portion would take me about an hour and ten minutes to maybe an
hour and 15. When the loop was complete,
I finished the course, jumped off my bike and looked at my watch. I admit, I broke my own momentum when I did a
double take on my watch and saw that I did the bike course in almost exactly
one hour, a full 10 – 15 minutes better than I expected.
I
jogged into transition, racked my bike, and headed out for my run. I was completely thrilled with my race and
couldn’t wait for my favorite part of it – until I realized the first ¾ of a
mile of the run course was straight up.
I only have one word to explain it: ouch (actually, I have others, but I
try to keep this blog family friendly).
I
decided I was going to be “Queen of the Hills”, so I picked up my pace a
little, ran on the balls of my feet, and ate that hill right up. I passed some folks, heard a swear word I
already knew this time, and then ran even faster when I got to the top. At one
point I amazed myself with how great my legs felt, and then I thought for a
second. This race was supposed to
suck. I had just done a 17 mile training
run, my buddy and triathlon partner wasn’t there, and my whole race season has
just been awful. But then I realized
that I’ve been working so hard, and it was time for it to pay off. All those training runs, bike rides, long
swims have paid off, and I could do a 17 mile bike ride 48 hours before a
sprint distance triathlon and not even feel it (well, OK, I could feel it, but
it was a lot less painful than I expected).
At
the 2 mile mark, I looked at my watch: I was at about 1 hour and 48
minutes. I had gone to West Point
expecting to finish in 2:25, and hoping I could finish in 2:15. But now I had a chance to break the two hour
mark if I wanted to go for it. I had a
quick talk with myself, and all my personalities collectively decided we wanted
to. So, I found just a little more push
in myself and went.
I
blew through that last 1.1 miles of the course, passed 3 people in the last 1/10th
of a mile, crossed the finish line and looked at my watch: 1:58:07. I did it.
My
celebrations didn’t last long. I had
some dear friends coming over for lunch and I had to get home. So, I ate, stretched and jumped in the
car. While driving home I thought about
my workouts for the week. I have to
travel on business Wednesday through Friday, meaning that I have to get a week’s
worth of workouts in just a couple of days.
This is leaving me with a 9 mile run to complete on Monday, just one day
after the triathlon and 3 days after my 17 mile run. And instead of looking at it with a sense of
dread, the only thought in my head is “I got this.”
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