934

My race morning began with a phone call from a fellow TriDiva. We had decided to leave our hotel room doors at 3:45 am (yes am) and meet in the lobby. I told them I'd give them a call at 4am if they weren't down there by then. I'm glad I made that comment. The phone rang at 4am, Dina asking me why I wasn't down there. Apparently I had set my cell phone alarm for 3:30 pm, nice.

Luckily I had mixed all my liquid nutrition, filled my transition bag and laid out my clothes in the order I had to put them on (a throw back to my childhood when we were getting ready to go skiing, thanks Mom). I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth for all of 10 seconds, put my contacts in, got dressed, got my gear and headed to the ice machine. I filled one bottle full of ice and went to try and catch an elevator.

Why, you ask, *expiring* at the thought of waking up at 3:30 am, were we getting up this early to get the the transition area which wasn't supposed to open until 5 am? Because Coach Martha said to be there at 4:30 so we can get the end caps and not miss the race. We were going to leave the hotel room at 4am, but the night before we were having trouble getting elevators and I couldn't imagine the chaos that was going to unfold race day morning. I got an elevator without any trouble and met Dina and Stacey in the lobby. We set off for the Timon Parking Lot.

When we got to the parking lot/transition area they were already letting people in. Surprise, sup rise, the women setting up their stuff were fellow Divas. The transition racks were assigned by number, but you could put your bike at any point on the rack. Mine was at the end, not near the transition area aisle.

I finished setting up my transition area and waited. Went the the bathroom and waited. Finally I put on my wetsuit at 5:15ish and we wandered over to take our TriDiva team picture. After the picture people in the earlier waves went "Backstage" and Jillian and I went back to the transition area to get our swim caps and goggles and drop off our flip flops. It was all paved, so we decided to chance running barefoot.

About 6:10 (the first wave was supposed to start at 6 but was a few minutes late) we decided there was only so much arranging and rearranging we could do, so we set off "Backstage" to huddle with the masses.

The swim start was in a chute. It was very narrow all the way around. When I saw all those people in such a small space, I almost lost it. I am very peoplephobic. Small spaces I'm good in, places filled shoulder to shoulder with people? Not so much.

I started swimming as soon as I could and did my version of a swimming sprint, confident that it would thin out soon. It never really did. I actually hit someone in the face. I was swimming straight and she was a bit diagonal. I felt really bad, but there wasn't anything I could do.

The swim was done. I do remember sighting on the ferris wheel and the big orange and then just looking for the bridge we entered under. I wanted to scream, and probably did, when I realized there was another turn, but that's just what took us back to the chute. I ran up the shoot, unzipped my wetsuit and ran. I really didn't think I would run all the way back to the transition rack, but I did.

4 minutes at the rack to get ready for the bike, then I unracked and ran out. I mounted well past the mount line, so I could be out of the way. I need to work on the bike. I think I averaged a 10 minute mile, going faster on the second part of the loop, where it was all flat. The bike was the most dangerous leg that I saw. The fire engine/paramedics were called for someone I saw whose leg did not look like it was in a natural position.

When I came around to enter the dismount area there was a man yelling at us to slow down and the dismount area was right ahead. Well, I think he scared a lady and made her hit the curb. She fell and almost took another racer out with her. That racer stopped to help her up.

Transition 2 was much faster as I already had my running shoes on. Sometime during the bike I remembered to put my inhaler and a gel with caffiene in my back pocket (score!), so I just had to take my helmet off, put my race number on, switch my Garmin to running and run out the run out.

I was a bit wobbly, but I was huffing. I caught up with a fellow TriDiva and started walking with her, she got a cramp in her calf and was going to walk the rest of the way. I left her and caught up with a sick TriDiva. She'd been sick for a while but decided race anyway. After that I started running in earnest.

Somewhere after mile 1 but before mile 2 my knee started talking to me, but not enough for me to stop running. I saw Martha, and should have realized the finish was just around the corner, but I didn't. As I rounded the corner I saw my mom and her camera, and you all know I can't pass up a camera. Then I saw the timing mats. I started sprinting. I should have started earlier, but such is life.

When I saw Mom, Dad, Jeremy and Melissa (my cousin) afterward, my dad said I didn't look tired enough. Jeremy seconded that remark. I definately wasn't as sore as after my 1/2 marathon. In fact, I felt like I could do it all over again. The tired didn't hit until after we checked out of the hotel about 9am. The soreness didn't kick in until we were already home about 10am.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, 934 was my race number. I may actually frame it. Well, maybe not, but it will make it into it's own mini scrapbook and I'll display it with pride next to the scrapbook I made of the Iron Girl 5K in Solano Beach, my other very first race.