As you all know, from time to time, Swim Bike Mom features awesome folks and their race experiences in the form of official guest posts. Here’s a recent report from SBM friend, Laura! Thanks for sharing, Laura!
“First, some background. I ventured into the tri world because of really bad lower back pain. I’d struggled with it on and off for years but this past winter it became worse than ever. My heating pad followed me from my desk chair during the day to the couch at night. Physical therapy offered only temporary relief. My orthopedist sent me to a neurosurgeon, and he told me to consider surgery.
I had just turned 39, I was 25 pounds overweight and I felt like I had a choice. I could start to watch my body slowly decline as I entered my 40s, losing strength, flexibility and other abilities that I’d always taken for granted. Or I could finally make an effort and become stronger and healthier than I’d ever been.
So I went to an exercise physiologist (a triathlete, Ironman finisher and Mom to FOUR young kids), and I started to exercise. In February my first workouts consisted of 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. By March I was doing a lot more and by the end of March I wanted a goal. So we picked a Sprint triathlon to train for in July, and I registered.
Back to race day. My race was at 6pm on a Wednesday, a little unusual. So I had all day to stress get fired up. Registration started at 3pm, and we were there. My husband, my brother-in-law and a good friend (who is a triathlete) were all racing too. Every little thing was so exciting! I was number 181 – what a great number! They wrote my number on my leg and arm – awesome! A little bag of junk – hooray! I loved every minute.
So 8 minutes later, we were done with registration, and we had 2 hours and 52 minutes to kill until race time. We racked our bikes (hey, my bike is the only one with a kickstand so technically I didn’t need to rack it – I’m so cool!), set up our transition area and decided to take a swim.
Having no open water swim practice, even just a few minutes in a small area was useful for me. I learned that the green, murky lake water meant that despite my goggles, I couldn’t see past a foot in front of me. And we talked about how hard it will be to spot and swim straight. There was a tall water slide on the beach we decided to aim for on the swim back.
Friends and family started to arrive, and before I knew it I was getting into my wetsuit. And then, out of nowhere, it poured. I mean really out of nowhere. It had been a gorgeous sunny day. The start of the race was delayed 30 minutes. I shoved my neatly organized transition items into a pile and tried to cover them with a towel.
I decided to use the bathroom one last time (lots of hydrating) and when I came out, all hell broke loose. My husband had my goggles in his hand and was waving me to hurry up. Everyone was heading to the beach, they were about to start. I grabbed my swim cap and ear plugs and dashed off. Did I have everything? I didn’t know. My transition area was a wet heaping mess, no order at all. This wasn’t how I wanted to start.
I was in the first wave. One last peek and thumbs up to my husband, and I was off.
I started off well enough. I started in the back, intentionally. I even passed a few people. I was so excited to finally be doing it! But I couldn’t find a rhythm. I had to keep pausing to find a spot to swim because it was so crowded.
I finally ended up with a little space around me. I tried to relax and just get into it. I looked up and sure enough, the next buoy was waaaaay off the left. I’d veered off to the right unnecessarily. Which was why I had space around me.
Suddenly I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was hot (the water was about 80 degrees and I was in a full, long sleeved wetsuit) and I was much more tired than I’d expected to be at less than half-way through. I made my way back to the pack. Then it suddenly struck me as really odd that I was surrounded by people who couldn’t hear me (not that I was talking, but if I tried to, they wouldn’t hear me – I don’t know, it was weird)So I had my moment where I thought “I have to take off my cap and wave it, and they will come get me in a kayak. I am not going to finish”. But no. After months and months of training, I couldn’t give up. So I flipped onto my back and floated for a moment. I caught my breath. I remembered the tweet I got from Meredith the night before “just keep swimming!” So I did.
I’ve never been so happy to put my feet into slimy, sea-weedy lake sand. I came out of the water and spent so long in transition that I could have baked a cake. My sneakers and socks were soaked. But off I went on the bike.
The bike was fairly uneventful. Lots of “on your left”, “on your left”s. But also lots of “you look great!” and “keep going, you can do it!” Triathletes are the nicest, most encouraging people in the world.
Having done both the bike and run courses twice before, I knew where the hills were and I was ready. As I neared the end of the bike course, the sun came out, and for just a moment I was alone (because, you know, everyone else had passed me!) It was an awesome moment, and I’ll never forget it.Into transition and back out for the run. On my way out I see my triathlete friend who is now done with the race. We high-five and he tells me “This is the easy part!” And I knew it was. On the out and back run, I pass my husband and brother-in-law, both ahead of me. Having friends and family in the race as well as cheering made it so much more fun.
And finally, somehow, I was about the cross the finish line. I realized the moment I had been working towards for months was finally here. I rounded the corner and saw my Dad, my Mom, my husband and daughters, my wonderful friends, my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and in-laws. They were all cheering.
I didn’t want to worry about my time, my goals were really to just finish, and not walk any part of it. So I had met those two goals. But in the way back of my mind, I thought it would be nice to be done in 2 hours. The race was scheduled to start at 6pm and awards were scheduled for 8pm which said to me that I should be done in 2 hours (when I pointed this out to my husband, he said not to worry because I wasn’t getting any awards!) I looked at the big red clock and it said 1:59:00! I couldn’t believe it. I scooted across the finish line 5 seconds later. I did everything I set out to do.
My first race was an incredible, fun and life-changing experience. I later found out that out of about 500 people, I came in tenth from last. I don’t care. I had a ball. I’ve signed up for 2 more with a 3rd in mind already. I have never in my life been in this kind of shape. And while my back isn’t perfect, it’s way better than it was.
My time may improve in my next races or it may not. My goals are to just suit up and finish. And of course, to keep having fun.”
You can read more from Laura here, and follow her on Twitter @LauraOrban.
You can read more from Laura here, and follow her on Twitter @LauraOrban.
Great post. Thanks to Laura for sharing and Mere for letting her guest post on your blog!
She just screams fun and that the name of the game, thanks for sharing