Triathlon news

I'm finishing off the 2006 racing season this weekend in Ocean City, MD, at the Osprey Sprint triathlon--my 2nd annual! It will be me, Susan T., and Alezandra (from work). Anne is not going to make it this year due to a conflict with her college girlfriends weekend--but perhaps missed most of all will be Nita McMurry! She made last year's race the most memorable of all!!! ;) I'm a tad bit anxious about the race--mainly because I'm in terrible shape and completely unprepared. But also excited to have this year done with. I haven't reached my potential at all this year due to injury and general distraction, so I'm hoping to start the "off season" off well--and hop into next spring in good shape. Wish me luck!

As for the Mt. Airy Tri....here's the story. So I used Nancy's registration--when I tried to register myself, it was full. Nancy bailed, I got a free entry! Minus the technical tee (great schwag at this race!) which was in Nancy's size, thus, won't fit my left arm, much less my whole chest. Ahem. Anyway, pre-race, I spend the nite at Anne's and we actually go to bed at 8:30 pm! I honestly thought we'd be lucky to make it by 10! But we got to bed early in order to get up at 4 am. I loaded the bikes on the car in pitch darkness-but apparently did a great job because they stayed on! We did the drive (about an hour)--got to the general area of the race (the town of Mt. Airy)--and passed the race site (unbeknownst to us) and headed straight into the woods. While trying to figure out if we were lost, we run across 2 cows on the road, out of their pens. I tell Anne that we can't leave until we either alert the owners or chase the cows back in. The cows (baby bulls, actually) were skittish, of course, so I go to knock on the scary house where the cows live. The dude FINALLY comes to the door buttoning his pants and with no shirt on. I'm still not sure he knew what we were saying....but he didn't even thank us, that's for sure! Where I come from, you tell people when their cows are loose! Anne neglected to ask him for directions while we had his attention....but we eventually arrived at the race.

So we got to the race, got registered, etc... The swim start was weird...and it was going to make for a very long race because the way the waves were set up. I was in the very first wave of swimmers. Got out of the pool-got to the transition area-got on my bike and took off. It started raining immediately. Scary to ride my bike in the rain. It's just asking for big trouble, really. But I hung in there. Kindof. As it turns out, Mt. Airy is more hilly than Bath County!!! But I kept my attitude in check and decided it was going to be okay! And it was, for about 6 or 7 miles into it. Then I couldn't stop noticing a grating metallic sound, and the fact that my chain was coming off my bike everytime I got into the granny gears (the ones that let you pedal easily up steep hills). So I pulled off to the side finally when this lady rode by saying "honey, that doesn't look good!" and lo and behold, I had 2 broken spokes on my back wheel--which were hitting the chainring and throwing the chain off when it was in high gears. What that meant was that I had to pedal up hills in a low, hard gear. Well, more truthfully, what it meant was that I had to get as much speed going downhill as possible, so as to try to get enough momentum to get up the hills. There were a few big ones that I had to walk. They even sent the support truck for me! But I refused it and decided I wanted to finish. So I made it thru the bike!! Even with the rain! It's amazing how much attitude can affect things. When I got back to the transition area, there was Anne! Taking pics of me and not having even swam yet! So I hung out with her for about 30 min....watched her swim, took some pics, went to the bathroom--and just generally took about a 30 min break before starting my run and finishing the race! In case you've never been to a triathlon--the goal transition from bike to run is about 30 SECONDS--NOT 30 minutes...ha. Although it meant my coming in DEAD LAST in the race, it was actually quite refreshing! My ankle was killing me--and after I started the run (it was soooo freaking hilly!) I know that I would have really sufferred had I not taken a break. So it worked out great!

After the race, we stuck around for the awards ( I did not get one--shocker!!--although I was kind of shocked that my girl Anne didn't)--we took an illegal dip in the hottub before rushing back to civilization for Jeannie's tea at the Willard Hotel (very posh and elegant--I had to change before I met approval to go!) All in all, it was a great race. I'm only sad I have no t-shirt to prove I did it!