Picture this: You are sitting outside on a picturesque day without a care in the world. The sun is high overhead, warming your back and beckoning the brightest blues and greens forth from the sky and trees. Birds are tweeting and chirping all around you and the breeze rustles your hair and cools your skin as the perfect counterbalance to the sun's heat. Your tired feet dangle in a cool swimming pool, happy to be useless for awhile. You lean back and lie down on the warm concrete, close your eyes, and smile. Then you relax, letting your thoughts drift away into the beauty surrounding you. The world, for a moment, is good, and you are grateful for your life.
Good! Now that you are nice and relaxed, I will tell you about my triathlon today.
Today was my third triathlon. That, in and of itself, amazes me. What's even more amazing is that I've successfully finished all of them. I learn something new each time I do an event, whether about myself, my equipment, my limitations, or just life in general. With that said, today was interesting...
I woke up around 4:45 am. I wasn't yet rearing to go, but I also wasn't feeling overly grumpy and sleepy. The first item on my agenda for the day was to eat breakfast because the more time I put between my first meal and the start of the race, the better. I ate my usual event breakfast - a cinnamon-raisin bagel smothered with peanut butter and washed down with some strong coffee. Then I showered (mostly just to wake myself up), brushed my teeth, and got the rest of my stuff together. I loaded the truck with my bike, kissed my sleepy husband goodbye, and headed out the door around 5:45. I cranked up my iPod on the way there, jamming to some upbeat songs, trying to get psyched.
I got to the Y at 6:05. The sun was just beginning to make its grand entrance over the horizon and there were people milling about everywhere. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly once I parked the car. Then I got my bike out and tried to find a decent spot on a rack to hang it. Once the bike was secured, I walked over to the Y entrance and found someone to write all over my arms and legs with black permanent marker. And that someone happened to be Mrs. Roach, the mother of one of my ACA percussion students. She was very kind and encouraging and I was grateful for someone I recognized. Once I was thoroughly tattooed, I returned to my car to get the rest of my stuff. I set it up beside my bike, then went and got my timing chip from inside. I walked back to my vehicle one more time to drop off my bag and extra clothes and put on sunscreen. While on my way, I came across my sister and brother-in-law who had come to take some pictures of me for me before they left for the beach. I spoke to them for a moment and let Ashley take a couple pictures of me before I continued on to my car. Once there I put on sunscreen, unshod my feet, and left all my burdens behind me. My mom pulled up as I was finishing at my truck, but I didn't have time to talk to her because it was 6:45 and all the athletes were lining up by the pool.
Someone important said something important, then someone else prayed, and finally the race began. They let the duathlon athletes go first (there were only about five of them), and then it was our turn. Collectively, that is. It wasn't my personal turn yet. Being number 79, I still had 20 minutes to go before it was actually my turn. While standing in line, I chatted with number 78, a 59 year old woman named Mary. This was her fourth triathlon and she told me that her best event is the run. She seemed nervously excited and talked a lot; but I didn't mind. Her chatter made the time pass by quickly and easily. I was glad to meet her and was able to recognize and talk to her throughout the race.
I'll skip all the boring details of waiting in line and go straight to where I jumped in the pool. So, at about 7:20 I crossed the timing mat and jumped in the pool...
That was when everything suddenly went wrong.
First of all, after being in the warm, humid pool room, I was not expecting, nor was I prepared for, the icy shock I received upon jumping in the pool. If I had had time to think about it, I probably would have been convulsively shivering. But I didn't have time to think about it, so I just started swimming, trying to find my stride. Then the strangest feeling came over me. The best words I can think of to describe the experience are as follows: claustrophobia and panic. I've randomly felt this way before when swimming, but it only lasts for a moment and I've always been able to calm myself down and shrug it off. I couldn't do it today.
I could not believe the battle that was going on in my mind! I was thinking, for no logical reason, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to drown! I can't breathe! I can't do this, I have to get out! I can't finish this race!!!"
The logical me was trying to reason with the hyperventilating me - "No, no, Heather, you're okay! Just calm down and count your strokes."
"NO!!! Get me out of here!!! I'm going to drown!!!"
"Heather! You've trained for this, you've done it before. Just keep swimming, count your strokes and breathe."
"I CAN'T BREATHE!!!"
No joke. It was like a panic attack underwater and I could not compose myself. This went on for about four of the eight laps. In my delirium, I seriously considered just quitting. Fortunately, though, the reasonable recognized that I had worked too long for this to just give up. So, I made a desperate compromise and just stopped mid-lane to float for a few seconds. I couldn't help it. My lungs felt paralyzed with a fear I could not explain and I HAD to gulp some air. After those few seconds that felt like an eternity, I got going again and slowly started to calm down. For the last 150 yards I felt more like myself again and finished the swim in a normal frame of mind. I have no idea what snapped in my psyche at the beginning, but I'm glad God helped me overcome it.
After the swim, I felt great! Well, sort of. Upon completing the swim, I was pretty dizzy running to get my bike. I blame this on a general lack of adequate oxygen during the swim. Just imagine trying to put shoes on while being buzzed and soaking wet and you'll understand a little of how I felt. I even tried putting my helmet on backwards at first. Eventually, though, I got my act together and headed off on my bike. It took me about 50 minutes to complete the bike section, averaging around 15.5 mph. After my swim mishap (and a bad training ride earlier in the week on the same course), I kept anticipating a problem arising. But none did. The air felt cool (actually, downright cold at times), and my legs felt strong.
Once I completed the bike, my legs still felt pretty good; but, after experiencing troubles on the run in the past, I wasn't going to overdo it. So, I started off by walking and kept at a 5 minute run/1 minute walk pace. It was a bit tedious, but it worked. Even my mom was surprised at how quickly I finished the run. At some point during the swim I had passed Mary in front of me. She caught up and passed me in the run. (Go Mary!) She ended up beating me by about a minute and half overall.
I finished the run in approximately 35 minutes, which is my best triathlon run time thus far. Sadly, I came in last in my age group (those darn 27 year olds!) and 78th overall. However, I had a mentally tough swim and still came out with a new personal record finish of 1:41:53, so I can't really complain.
And, it gave me a thirst for more. There's another tri at Furman University on July 14th. That gives me six weeks to train...
(*If you read this, give it a thumbs up on Facebook because sometimes I wonder if I'm just writing to a wall...*)
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