May 17 2009 Triathlon day
Got up at 3:45 from an uncomfortable sleep from the night before, nervous about the race I took a quick shower, ate a banana and got ready for the big event. By 4:15 I had the bike in the car, dressed and ready with my transition bags next to me. I was at the marking area a little before 5. Sky was turning light and a nice breeze was blowing. The ocean was calm and looked really beautiful, but the swim area which was marked by buoy looked long, really long going deep into the ocean....I set up my transition area, put my bike on the rack and sat down with my teammate for a mental prep. Paolo only 27, is a strong athlete. We had trained the last 2 months together almost daily since we were the only two from our team that were doing the long distance race.
The first wave, Elite men started the race at 6 AM. Us women were the second wave on the list starting at 6:30 and the men started half hour after us. At 6:30 when we were all lined up on the beach, they blew the horn and we all ran into the water. The rule of the race is you let the faster swimmers go first, which I did. The swim leg is always the most anticipated part of the event for me since I am not very comfortable with open water swim. During some part of the race I truly had to hold my breath seeing amazing things such as fish and coral under the water. The swim took me much longer that I hoped for. By the time that I changed to my socks, bike shoes, helmet and gloves it was already 48 minutes into the race. My bike is my strongest part of the race o I knew I can't waste anymore time. The assigned race path was covered with rolling hills so from the start I was pushing and pulling my way through the hills, with one particular climb of 6% grade that lasted for a good couple of kilometers. The last part of the bike leg was all flat so with whatever juice left in my legs I peddaled as fast as I could to get to the 2nd transition arae. On the bike I already had one Hammer Gel, I bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water so I was well hydrated while riding. Hoping that in transition 2 I will have some cold drink, i changed to my running shoes and ran toward the assigen run path to discover that there is no water available. I had to ran one kilometer to get to the first water stop which felt like forever... The run being the last leg of the event is the hardest. Your legs are already exhusted, it is hot and you have 10k to run, ughh!!! It took me a while but as soon as I found my tempo i had to stop thinking about my legs and the heat. Instead I started thinking about the finish line and how fun it is to go through it when everyone will be cheering you :o) Mean while I told myself that I am done with this sport and this would be my last triathlon ( Hehe, I am already signed up for the next one :o) So I ran the 10k in 1:02 which is about 5 minutes longer my usual 10k, but oh well!!!! So I finished 4th in my age group (women 40 and above) and 21st place overall with time of 3:27:01. I am happy and pleased with my result since I am not a professional athlete, but only a passionate one.
The best part of the event was meeting Iran's trathlon Team. The 5 athletes and their 2 coaches were pretty surprise to see us there als! We had a great time talking Farsi and hanging out with them.
