PNW Tri Novices

[teigyr]

Saturday was race packet pick-up and bike drop off. Despite my aversion to spending the day standing in line and driving, I think Danskin did a great job of lessening the impact of such a huge race. The expo was ok and there was a surprisingly lovely amount of free stuff that could be had.

Saturday night was our dinner. I only have one picture from that; this is us looking tough. They bodymarked us on Saturday so we got the pleasure of walking around with big numbers on our arms. Mine also came off a bit on my sheets, I woke up to an imprint of my race # on the bottom sheet.

On race morning, we were instructed to park offsite and a bus would drive us to the start. We left our house at 4:30am and were on a school bus before 5:30am. All the way down to the parking structure, we saw lightning! It turns out that there was quite a bit of lightning that morning but fortunately it stopped in time for the race.

The transition area was huge. I felt bad about my T1 transition being 6 minutes but then I looked at everyone else's results and that appeared to be right around average. There was quite a long trek from the swim finish to my bike and for those who had a shorter distance, there was a long distance from the bike to the timing mat for the ride. My T2 time was about 2 minutes which kind of made up for T1.

The swim was ok. It was crowded and I was kicked quite a bit. I swam freestyle the whole way but there were those who stopped to breaststroke and there is nothing like being kicked by a breaststroke kick. I tried to be aware and not kick anyone myself until a few people from the wave after me swam OVER me. I figured by that point I'd stop trying to avoid people and try to politely do what I had to do. I am not all that strong of a swimmer but I don't get that tired and I go a fairly steady pace. I ended up passing people and trying to work my way through holes in the crowd.

I wrote my transition spot on my wrist so I didn't lose my bike this time. Transition spots were letters then numbers for the rack.

The bike had a sketchy part where the road narrowed and riders had to make some sharp turns and go up a hill. I was fortunate in that I could squeeze by and stay on my bike. The volunteers were so great about telling people to shift and get off the bike before the hill if they couldn't make it but I think a lot of people ended up stopping where they were so riders that could've made the turn and hill had to stop so they didn't run into someone who stopped suddenly. We did the same bit for back down the turn and hill and I did get stuck behind someone who was intimidated by it. Some people tried to pass and cut in front but I figured it wasn't worth risking an accident for and it wasn't like it would make that much of a difference anyway.

The run was ok. Hot but ok. There was a hill in mile 3 that was less than pleasant but there was a drum band playing and it really helped me just mindlessly put one foot in front of the other.

To put the sheer magnitude of this thing in perspective, I was wave 10. When I was on the run, there were still waves starting for the swim.

I think all the PNW tri people did an incredible job!!! To my knowledge, we all met our goals. Several of our PNW people are going to do another tri in a few weeks so I guess this one wasn't that scary

I can't wait to hear from the other PNW people to see how they felt about the race. It was fun for me and a great experience to be able to race with all of you

And a special thanks to Wahine. THANK YOU!!!!