Race report

I left last Saturday morning around 7:30 I think. On the way to Philadelphia I messed up the directions at least once, maybe twice, but I got there. There’s an interstate through Philadelphia called I76 that I didn’t enjoy very much. Our hotel was right downtown.

I didn’t immediately realize that the hotel had valet parking. I tried to drive right through on my own. I got yelled at (in a friendly way). This was my first experience with valet parking, and I’ve decided that: valet parking is not good parking.

We had lunch, took a bus to the race site, visited the expo, walked through the transition area, and had a look at the river. It looked like a gentle, peaceful, clean river, and many of us were relieved. We had a pasta dinner with TNT teams from all over the country. One of my teammates, Lindsay, talked to us all about her experiences with cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, I think. Her story was very sad, but hopeful - one of her doctors told her that if she didn’t have a major recurrence within 5 years, there might be a cure by then.

After dinner I tried to get all my stuff ready for the morning. I didn’t sleep very much, maybe a couple hours, and had my alarm set for 3:30am. It was a relief when 3:30 came, because I was tired of lying in bed being nervous.

The plan was for us all to bike from the hotel to the race site, 3-4 miles. I didn’t really like that idea. I especially didn’t like the idea of biking back to the hotel in traffic after the race. Anyway, since my bike was still in my car, and since I would have to get the valet guys to retrieve my car so I could get it, it was suggested to me that I should just drive to the race site, and I thought that was a good idea. I had partial directions to the race site. After following the partial directions, it was supposed to be clear what to do next. I was supposed to see the park on my right, and hopefully see other people too. Well I missed it all and kept driving. I kept driving at least 2-3 miles through a neighborhood that I wasn’t all that happy about. I started to get a little panicky, but knew that although I couldn’t find where I was going, I sure could get back where I had come from, so I was only half lost. Eventually I decided to turn around, and I eventually found the park. Phew.

A note about the valet parking - when they brought my car to me, the driver’s side window was rolled all the way down. My windows are automatic, and my driver’s side window is broken, and if you try to roll it down even a little it protests very loudly with clanking and banging. But they rolled it all the way down anyway. Because it’s broken, it wouldn’t roll itself up again. Fortunately one of the valet guys was able to help me by pushing/pulling on the window pane from the outside.

So I got to the race site, found a parking spot, put my bike together, remembered to pump up the tires, and walked to the transition area. Everybody who biked was already there. The forecast was for showers, 70% probability, so I tried to cover everything up with plastic bags. Then got on a bus to the swim start. Most of us got to the swim start very early. We hung out for over an hour before the race started, drinking water and using the port-a-potties.

I was in the fourth wave to start. There was music playing - Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean! - when we got in the water. The water was a nice temperature. We floated around for a few minutes before starting. I positioned myself way in the back. I passed a few people who were back stroking near the start, but I sure didn’t pass many others. It was an ok swim, with no big problems.

Our coach told us that the best place to pee during a longish race is in the water, a few hundred yards before the end. I didn’t want to use the port-a-potties during the race, so I was determined to make this work. It was harder than I expected though. My body did not want to pee in this unconventional place, and certainly not while I was focused on swimming. So I dawdled the last bit, trying to pee. I was mostly successful. Something to practice, I guess.
My swim time was 42:21, 1789th out of 1900 people. I swam faster than over 100 people! Here I am coming out of the water:

Some of the coaches were cheering for us as we came out, which was awesome. I got distracted a bit and couldn’t find my bike. But there it was.

The bike was my favorite part of the race. It was a two loop course with some hills but not too many. I tried to push as hard as I could. I think I felt stronger the second loop than on the first. My goal was 1:30, but I finished in 1:24:23, my fastest ride yet this season. Here I am on the bike - think I’m going up a hill:

Second transition went ok. Need to figure out how to get my shoes on faster.

The run was hard. The thought of running 6.2 miles - about an hour of running - was discouraging. I didn’t know where I was on the course until I saw a marker for mile 5. I did 5 minutes run, half minute jog, and I walked through all the water stops because I was VERY thirsty and tired. It was a struggle to keep my mind from wondering how much further I had to go. I was very surprised to learn that I did the run in 59:24, 9:34 minute miles. That is super fast for me these days.

And then it was over:

Everybody on our team finished!

The race was lots of fun. Besides coaches cheering for us, lots of spectators were out supporting Team in Training. We were all very popular ( :

We had a nice dinner that evening, and some of us went out for drinks. I left early Monday morning because I had to get to work. It took the valet guys awhile to find my car. After 20 minutes or so one of them came up to me and asked what kind of car it was. A few minutes later another asked me what color it was. Then another asked me if it was an SUV (no, not an SUV). Eventually they found it. I had pretty much begged them not to roll the window down again, so they compromised by only rolling it down halfway. I think rolling the window down might be part of the mysterious valet parking process, so I’m glad they at least tried. It went up again without too much trouble, thankfully.

By Tuesday I was super excited about doing more races and signed up for one on July 13th. Now I wonder what I was thinking, because they say the water will be too warm for wetsuits, and I haven’t done any open water swimming without my wetsuit. I guess I know how to swim though, so I should be able to do it. After that I’ll focus on training for the Marine Corps marathon.

I feel like I should end with some inspiring thoughts about Team in Training. But I’m not quite sure what to say yet, except that I’m really glad I did it. Even with all the time and stress of fundraising, and driving around DC on Thursdays and Saturdays, and training, I definitely got more out of it than I put in. I met great people, I learned how to swim in open water, and my Ironman goal doesn’t seem entirely impossible anymore.

Thanks for reading!