I Finished!

Melissa and I before the race.

Yesterday was one of the best days I have had.  I did my very first Triathlon with 4 of my friends and it was such an amazing experience.  We all did extremely well and we all FINISHED!  Which of course was our one and only goal.  We all hoped to not get kicked in the face while swimming, to not have a tire blow out while biking, and to run our best and finish strong.  None of those things happened and we are all so proud of each other and ourselves. 

Our bikes on the rack before the race

The day started bright an early at 5:15 when my alarm went off and I woke up fresh and raring to go.  I showered, ate, and got all of my stuff together.  Jenn came to pick me up at 6am and we were on our way to the TRI.  When we got there, we found a place on our rack(assigned by number)and set up our stuff on our little towel where our wheel touched the ground.  This was our "official" space.  As you can tell by the picture, each rack held 8 bikes alternating wheel directions.  To say it was a tight squeeze would be an understatement, but hey, it's what you are given to work with.  We set up our stuff for the bike and run and were off to get our bodies marked with our number, our timing chip and drop off our bags at the bag check.

Jenn and I before the race

We were wave #17 which means that we had to watch 16 other groups of 40-70 take off for the swim.  It was awesome to watch and I immediately got goose bumps because of how incredible it is to watch that many women run into the water and later come running up the beach to go and get their bikes.  All too soon it was our turn to do the 3 minute countdown until it was our turn to run into the water.  I was so excited that I was literally jumping up and down and patting my teammates on the arms.  Nervous, excited energy does that to me! 

The announcer counted us down and we were off...dashing into the water, splish splashing and falling almost simultaneously to start our strokes.  Immediately I positioned myself in between two women and began my freestyle.  I suppose I made it about 100 meters before I switched to my recovery stroke and rested a little bit.  The second half of the swim was extremely tough as my goggles had completely fogged up and all that I could see was the intense glare of the sun each time I tried to "sight" the red buoys.  I kept thinking to myself, "you can do this, keep going, just get this part done."  In all of my training, I swam a lot of meters, but never did I swim it continuously.  So, I expected to have a bit of trouble.  At one point, I had to stop doing the freestyle even though I physically could have done it because my timing chip which was velcroed around my ankle felt as if it were going to fall off.  That would have been the worst case scenario as my race would no longer be timed, so I kept grabbing it to be sure it was still on.  I did fine though and remembered what the training guide said about not standing up until you are touching the ground with all fours, exit slowly and don't waste energy by sprinting through water that is deeper than your knees.  I made it out unscathed and began my run up the beach to the transition area.  There were a series of three kiddie pools to jump into to clean the sand off of our feet.  I hit two of them and skipped the third as I was pretty much ready to kick it into high gear.

I got my socks and shoes on, pulled my helmet and sunglasses on, grabbed my bike and sprinted to the mounting area.  I got about halfway around lake nokomis when it registered in my head that I had forgotten to take a gel pack with me.  I was so bummed because getting out of the water my energy was spent and I was dizzy and needed that extra boost of electrolytes and carbs.  Unfortunately, in my haste I missed my chance to replenish and I had to knock out the 15 miles without anything other than pure adrenaline pushing me forward.  The day was gorgeous yesterday, about 75 degrees when we started out.  The only downfall was that it was very windy.  The bike ride was very strenuous and I found it to be much harder than it ever was during training.  At one point my teammate Rachel rode past me and I yelled out to her to see if she had any gel packs.  Unfortunately she didn't but I was determined to keep my pace.  Towards the end of the bike ride I saw my best friend Sara who gave me a thumbs up, my old neighbors' and teammate Jenn's bff's, and our missing team member Elisabeth who had a bum shoulder.  All of them were cheering us on and it is so motivating to see familiar faces rooting for you.

I pulled into the transition area, ran to our purple and white balloons and just stared at the bike rack.  It was literally a mess.  Bikes all the same direction hung haphazardly, our towels and belongings scattered all around, and no one there to offer me any guidance.  I hung my bike(adding to the chaos)grabbed my visor and a gel pack and ran out of there. 

My run began very wobbly.  I had jelly legs like I have never had them before.  Sure, running right after biking 15 miles isn't the easiest thing to do, but again, in training I had never run into this type of jelly legs.  It was like having 10 pound sand bags attached to my ankles and attempting to run at a normal pace.  I slammed my gel pack and prayed for quick results.  Which, eventually came.  I ran with a few women part of the way and was able to chit chat a bit.  It was amazing to be doing this race and to have come so far.  I was in wonderful spirits this last leg of the race.  At one point, I met up with a girl who was doing her first TRI as well.  Her and I ran at least a mile together.  She was debating out loud whether to stop and walk a bit or keep running.  A gal in front of us overheard us and she turned around to say, "Ladies, you can walk a bit and run a bit...it will be fine."  It was none other than News Anchor Diana Pierce!!!  I recognized her immediately.  It was very neat.  That girl did start to walk and I kept on going, passing Diana and telling her good job!  Almost at the end of the run we approach the finish line but then have to veer off to do a 3/4 mile loop.  I had explained this to my cheering section(my parents, sister and brother in law, best friend and hubby)so that they knew when I was about to finish.  As I veered off, I heard my mom yelling out, "Way to go Amber!"  I got a huge smile on my face and knew that the finish was within my reach.  I picked up the pace determined to finish strong.  As I came upon the  finish line, I saw all of my friends and family and began to tear up.  I crossed the finish line(where the comically got my last name wrong)and ran to hug my family and friends.  I was immediately bawling!  Everyone was so happy for me and I was so proud of myself.  It was an amazing race.

Heading down the chute to the finish line.

My biggest fans!

Jenn, Me and Melissa after we finished.

It was an amazing race.  Thank you to all of our friends, families and supporters.  I am so glad that we all signed up and did this together.  The experience was priceless and like none other.  Thank you ladies for participating with me, training with me, encouraging and inspiring me.  You are all wonderful and I hope that your experience was as satisfying and fulfilling as mine was.  Rock on team JAMM'R!