Pineapple Woman 2011: June 2011

As you know, the Rotary Pineapple Man 2011 Sprint Triathlon was on Sunday in Melbourne Beach. If you've read any of the prior posts you know I'm not good at keeping things short so get ready for a mammoth post.

Saturday night racers had the option to have discounted pasta dinner at a nice local restaurant on the same road as the race site. Since I've never done a triathlon before I wanted to participate in all of the activities so David and I went out for an early dinner. I wanted to be at the race at 5:30 am the next morning, so like senior citizens, we showed up around 5:00 pm. Before the dinner we walked around the transition area that was already set up with bike racks. The transition area was huge! We speculated about where the entry and exit points would be for each leg of the race. We walked down to the pier and found a volunteer that David knows from work. He gave us the low down on the swim portion of the race. There were flags at the turnaround points in the water. They looked so far away! It was nice to have some idea of what to expect on race day. The dinner was very good with salad, bread, and pasta with oil and herb sauce.

I came home and got to bed at an early 8:15 pm. I don't ever have a problem sleeping. Most of the time I have more problems staying awake! I tossed and turned in bed for about 2 hours before I finally fell asleep. I kept thinking about what I was forgetting. I got up and went to the bathroom, went back to bed, got up and put some bananas in my bag for the next day, went back to bed, got up to go to the bathroom again, went back to bed. Ideas of how the race would be kept running through my mind. Would I fall and make an idiot of myself? It's been really hot lately, am I going to pass out? My thoughts were mixed with excitement and fear. I thought about when I was a kid and I was really excited about an event. I would wear my clothes for the next day to bed shoes included. I know, I've always been a nerd! Don't worry, I didn't put on my clothes for the next day. Finally, I fell asleep.

At 3:45 am my alarm went off. I am a snoozer. I NEVER wake up on the first alarm. Not Sunday! I hopped out of bed and made a breakfast of eggs with an apple and almond butter. I already had my clothes all laid out so I took a quick shower and put them on. I loaded my bike in the car with all my gear. Heidi was a good sport and left with me around 5:00 to head to the race. I checked my bags two times even though I'd already checked them the night before.

When we arrived at the race it was still dark outside. Ugh, God did not intend for people to be awake and moving around this early! David got there just as Heidi and I did so I had a support crew with me! Before I could enter the transition area I had to get marked with my race number. They marked both my arms and the front of my thighs with my race number. My age was marked on back of my right calf. I wondered why they put my age on me, but didn't worry to much about it. I picked up my timing chip that I would wear around my left ankle for the race.

By then it was light outside and I headed into the transition area to set up my bike and towel exactly the way I wanted. Each bike rack was marked with the range of race numbers that should go on that rack. I racked my bike on the appropriate rack as close to the exit lane as possible. As I was setting up, the person on the very edge was asked to move because she'd racked her bike on the wrong rack. Score! I slid down in the best possible spot on the rack. I practiced taking the bike on and off the rack to make sure I didn't pull a clutz move during the transition. I practiced putting it back on handlebars first to make sure I would know what to do during the transition from bike to run. By now the transition area was buzzing with activity. I left to avoid the commotion.

Busy Transition Area

I still had over 30 minutes before race time so I ate a banana and drank some water since I'd eaten forever ago at this point. I put on sunscreen and watched the other racers set up. A lot of people had ironman tattoos. I can't imagine being at that level of fitness. I was hoping those people weren't in my age group. :) Closer to race time I went back in the transition area to make sure nothing in my area had been accidentally kicked around. Everything looked good!

Family! So glad they came!

As race time approached my family arrived! I was so excited to have them there. My friends Melissa, Laura, and Q showed up soon afterwards. I brought a cheering section! Time to start the race!

I walked down to the end of the Melbourne Beach Pier with the other racers to start the race. We went in waves of 125 racers per wave! They intentionally split the waves so the people who will probably race fastest go first. I was in a wave with the rest of the ladies in my age group, wave 4. I watched the first 3 waves start. By the time the third wave started, the first wave was exiting the water and running to the transition. Those were the elite racers. They were booking it! Once wave 3 was started I found a good starting position. I was all the way to the outside of the pack. My main goal for this portion of the race was to not get kicked in the head and drown. I noted the location of the rescue boat. It's possible I may need it.

I'm somewhere on the right side of this crowd

At the start of the swim I came out with some serious gusto. I slowed myself slightly to make sure I wouldn't run out of gas before I hit the swim exit. I couldn't really tell how well I was doing. Before I hit the first buoy I thought I was doing great. Then, everyone crowded together for the turnaround and I realized there were a lot of people in the same area as me. I couldn't see much because water was splashing everywhere, so I just focused on staying on the right side of the buoys and swimming hard. Toward the end I thought I'd never get to the finish. At swim exit I had no idea how many people were in front or behind me. Turns out that I was sitting in 5th place in my age group! I came out of the water looking like creature from the black lagoon. As a result I have sludge all over my face for the rest of my race pictures. Oh well! I look like I worked hard.

Creature from the Black Lagoon! Laughing at the cheering section.

As I ran up the dock toward the transition area I could hear my family and friends cheering for me. I don't know why, but that struck me as absolutely hilarious. I haven't been cheered for like that since I was a kid competing in sports. It just seemed funny for it to happen as an adult.

I entered the transition area and found my bike easily. I went to go through the routine to get all my gear on for the bike ride. I hadn't unstrapped by cycling shoes beforehand! Oh well, it was only another extra couple seconds. Everything else went smoothly and I ran out of the transition area. My transition time was 01:22. Perfectly fine with me.

T1 - 01:22

Upon exit I was careful to get out of the way before mounting my bike. I'd seen people wreck at the mount point and I had no interest in doing it myself. Everything went smoothly.

There were a ton of people on the road for the bike ride. The ride south was with the wind so I started off the ride at a fast pace for me, about 20 mph. I realized very early on that while 20 mph is fast for me, it is pretty slow for everyone else. It became obvious why your age is written on the back of your right calf. It is so people can weep as you are passing them in the bike ride. A few people in my age group passed me. Then, a lot of people in my age group passed me. Then, people in the swim wave behind me started passing me! Oh no! I was losing serious ground. I passed a few people, but I don't think any of them were in my age group. I kept thinking to myself that I needed to hydrate early so I didn't have a ton of water sitting in my stomach for the run. On the way back north I was thinking that I was still going really fast compared to my regular pace. Even then, I was slow for my age group. Looking back at the race results, I found out that I was 16 out of 24 if you only consider the bike leg of the race for my age group. Obviously, I need more time in the saddle. As I was biking I kept thinking to myself, "Enjoy this! You've worked hard to get this far!" Even while getting passed I was having a lot of fun pushing speeds that are high for me. I finished the bike portion of the race in 51:03 at an average speed of 17.6 mph!

Bike - 51:03

Coming back to the transition area I unclipped early. The last thing I wanted was to end up taking a spill because my feet were still attached to the pedals when I stopped. I jumped off the bike without mishap and started running. Well, I thought I was running, but the scenery was moving by pretty slowly. My legs weren't used to powering a bike at that speed so they were very sluggish starting to run. The transition went as planned and I ran out for the final leg of the race.

The grinning fool starts the run

My legs were a lot more tired than I expected. I knew I would be tired, but I'd pushed a lot harder on the bike than I had planned. Overall, I felt good though. My attitude was still positive and I didn't feel lightheaded from the heat. The run was much different than the local 5k's I've run. In those, people are really moving. In the triathlon, people looked really tired. A lot of people were walking and nobody was running really fast. It was hard to find someone to pace because people were stopping and starting and either going too fast or too slow. I slowly started seeing the ladies in my age group that had passed me on the bike. I managed to pass a few of them and make up some of the time lost on the bike. The run went through a neighborhood and the residents were hanging out in the front lawn watching us pass. They probably thought we were crazy. Some of them had hoses out and were spraying the runners. The water helped beat the heat and I was sure to take advantage of every hose.

As I got closer I could see the final turn. Once I turned that corner I knew I only had about 0.1 miles left to run. I was moving slow. I couldn't let everyone see me moving this slow! I sped up to come around the corner. I could see the finish! I started to get really excited! I was about to finish a race I'd been training for! I wasn't dead. I actually felt decent! As I got closer I heard the cheering section. My friends had made a Pineapple Woman sign! I couldn't help but smile and laugh as I crossed the finish. They are nuts. I may not win any awards for my race time, but if there was an award for best cheering section, they would have taken first place!

Smiling Fool strikes again! At the finish!

After crossing the finish, they handed out towels soaked in cold water, water, and completion medals. Whoever decided to hand out those cold towels was sent directly from heaven. It felt so good. I stopped to recover for a minute before going to join my family and friends. My final time was 1:35:07 putting me in 9th place for my age group.

Results Ticket

In my wildest dreams I had hoped to finish the race in 1:30:00. In hindsight that probably wasn't very realistic. At my current fitness level I don't see how I could have shaved 5 minutes off of my time. While that was my wild goal, my main goal was to have a great time and get into the best shape of my life. In all the pictures I'm smiling like a fool so I think that goal was accomplished! My fitness level has increased dramatically since I started training. I feel great.

Best Cheering Section and Sign Ever!

I did this race to prove to myself that I could. I wanted to do something I didn't think was possible. I'm no one special. Anyone could do this. At the very least I've proven to myself that I can achieve more than I think is possible. This isn't just true in physical fitness. I can and should be pushing myself towards bigger goals in other areas of life as well. At most hopefully someone else has seen me out running the neighborhood or read the blog and been inspired to set bigger goals for themselves as well.

I'm not sure what's next for me. I'm taking the week off to rest and regroup. Getting ready for this race was a big commitment and my body and life need some attention and rest. I can't wait for the next adventure!

~~~~~~~~Final Note~~~~~~~~

This race required a lot of patience from my close friends. Thanks for being understanding when I missed events or didn't get to hang out as much as usual. Thank you also to David and Q for the excellent photographs! Below are some of the photos that they took that didn't fit into the story above but I couldn't help but post.