Whew!

This past weekend, I competed in St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Petersburg, FL. This is known as a 51.5 race (1.5Km swim, 40Km bike, 10Km run), or for those of us not on the metric system, roughly a mile swim, 25 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. This is the same distance triathlon run in the summer olympics.  And, the same distance I competed in last year at The Nation's Triathlon.  However, I was totally freaking out about the race in the week leading up to it.  Seriously, we're talking nightmares, nausea, inability to focus on ANYTHING... you name it - I was a wreck!  I'm not sure why I was so freaked out about it.  I've done the distance before (lots of times), I was well-supported, I am clearly in better shape now than I was last time I did this distance. I really have no idea why I tortured myself.  Or, why I continue to torture myself by signing up for these events. 

My good friend and teammate, Andi, sums it up best on her blog... we do it, because we CAN! 

I guess I have officially drank the TNT Kool-Aid (you think?).
I did not officially participate with Team in Training for this event, but I drove over with a friend who was on the Team, I stayed with folks on the Team, and, of course, I had to wear my Team colors (gotta represent).  There is something so cool about putting on the purple and teal tri suit in the morning, and knowing you will be wearing the same colors as hundreds of other folks out there.  Plus, wearing your TNT tri suit guarantees lots of cheering and cowbells, and shouts of "Go Team!" to keep you inspired as you race.

As usual, most of my butterflies went away on the morning of the event, and I was pretty focused.  While shivering in the pre-dawn darkness, I chatted with other TNT folks from around the country.  I met teammates from New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Atlanta, Washington DC... all over the place! They all had one thing in common (and it's not what you think) - they had NEVER trained in open water before. 
Never. 
All their swim training was in a pool.  Which kind of makes sense - I mean, where are you going to find a body of water in Ohio in February to swim in?  Another thing... most of their bike training was in a gym, on a spin bike.  Once I realized this, that very last butterfly flew away.  I am so happy to live in Florida - now more than ever.

So... how was the race?
It  Was  Fun!

Did I set any course records? Not even close. I didn't even place in the top ten of my age group (more like the top 100 of my age group).

What was cool about this race is that because it is very early in the triathlon season, a lot of big name professional triathletes come to get their feet wet here. These are folks I read about in Triathlete magazine, the ones who do this full-time, the ones who actually get paid to compete.  I didn't get to meet any of them, but still.  The race start was at 6:50 AM, but because they have to space out the 3000 or so competitors, I got to watch the pros do the swim portion of the race while waiting around for my scheduled start time (7:55 AM).

They were so fast!

Seriously, they were leaving actual wakes in the water behind them as they swam, like small sleek motorboats. Then, when they got out of the water to run to their bikes in the transition area, they didn't even look winded and were literally SPRINTING past us, barefoot, on cement, to get to their bikes. Once arriving at their bikes, they slapped on bike helmets and sprinted (barefoot, again) out of the transition area, made these graceful flying leaps onto their bikes and started pedaling like mad, while putting their bare feet into the bike shoes which were already attached to their bikes.

It was awesome! These folks are like superheros. Of course, they ARE profesional triathletes, meaning this is their job. They are paid well to perform at superhero levels by companies that make bikes, and shoes, and helmets, and performance wear to make other people (like me) want to buy their stuff so we can pretend we are just as fast - ha ha!

My portion of the race started an hour later.

I did not leave a wake behind me in the water, I jogged to my bike, I put on my bike shoes (one at a time), and had to stop to get my feet clipped in before pedaling off. No graceful flying leaps for me!

I guess I should mention that on the morning of the race, the race officials moved and shortened the swim course.  The wind was blowing 15-20 mph and the original swim course was deemed too choppy to be safe.  So they moved us about 1/2 mile away into more of a secluded cove, and shortened the course by about a third of the length (1000 meters instead of 1500).

I'm all for a safer (and shorter) swim, but the only problem was now once we got out of the water, we had to run barefoot on cement for nearly 1/2 a mile to get to our bikes.  My poor little piggies were going whee-whee-whee all the way to my bike (actually it was more like ow-ow-ow!).

While on the bike course I noticed a camera crew was following a competitor on his bike. They had a fancy motorcycle rigged up to support a cameraman and another crew member and were focused very closely on someone who seemed to be having a tough time on the bike (it was very windy). I saw them later on the run course as well. I figured that it was a local celebrity running the race; maybe a weatherman or something.

I heard a rumor later that it was a camera crew from TV's The Biggest Loser following one of the competitors on the show. I biked past them at one point, so I'll have to watch the episode whenever it comes on - maybe I'll be in the shot! I don't watch the show, so I'll have to do some poking around on the web to see if it was really true.

In any case, I finished strong and happy and that's all I can ask of my body. A good friend of mine wished me well on my Facebook page the night before the race.

She told me, "I know you will do well. Remember to have fun, smile, enjoy God's beauty, the sunshine, the wind in your face, the way your body works, your friends cheering you on, everything in creation."

I did.

Click here to see official photos of me in last month's race at the FAU Wellness Triathlon. 
And here to see photos of me at St. Anthony's Triathlon.  (I'm smiling in a few of them)  There are several which are clearly not me - I'm sure you will figure it out!