The title of this entry may be the longest blog title in the world but you get the idea. The Race Director had sent out an e-mail earlier in the week saying that the water temperature was in the low '60's, and the expected air temperature on race day was 65. And now you know why being a meteorologist in the PNW is like playing darts with your eyes closed after a few beers. The trip over to Moses Lake was uneventful. We saw a very pretty sunset behind the windmills above Vantage. I'm not sure whether you call those things windmills, but you get the picture. It was fun traveling to a race with my son. He's quite a bit more laid-back than I am.
It was a bit strange having a race start at 10:00. It was nice to sleep in and have a nice leisurely breakfast before the race. As David and I sat down to breakfast, I noticed that the wind was picking up and it was overcast. We were able to see the swim buoys on the other side of the lake; funny how the distance always looks greater from that viewpoint.
We drove the 1.5 miles to the race site, and, as we were unpacking the van, saw Doug, then Alycia, Hill heading out on the bike portion of their Olympic distance race. Doug was wearing his old-school sweatshirt, and since Doug dislikes the cold even more than I do, I understood why he was wearing it. But still, my first thought was, "Not a very aerodynamic bike outfit." As we were setting up, we saw Ali and Monica Rios, who were both doing their first triathlon. In fact, they were the reason that David and I were there, so that we could provide support for them on their adventure. After warming up on my bike, I headed down to the water's edge. My first thought as I swam out to the first buoy was that it was not low '60's in the water. I later found out that the race official had measured the temperature at 58 degrees. Even though it wasn't exactly warm, my hands and feet never went numb. David's last words to me before the race started? "I'll see you somewhere on the bike." (we both knew that he would beat me out of the water)
The swim was fairly easy. By the first turn buoy, I had clean water. I was in no-man's land: in front of some people, but too far back to get on faster toes. I'm not sure if the cold water was messing with my equilibrium or if the wind was affecting me, but, after the turnaround, I would be swimming in a straight line, and then look up and be swimming nearly perpendicular to the course. I ended up sighting a lot more often because of this.
After getting out of the water, I ran up to transition and saw David just starting to run out with his bike (he was 5th out of the water). I grabbed my bike and headed out of transition. It took me a few more seconds than normal to get wetsuit off and helmet on, because I wasn't really thinking that straight. After mounting my bike, I tried to get my shoes on. The right went on fairly easily, although my fingers weren't working that well, but when I tried to get my left shoe on, it came off in my hand. I stopped to put my shoe on, and nearly fell over. That's when I realized that my equilibrium was a bit haywire. My neck also was a bit stiff. And that's when I remembered that I don't like cold weather. By that time, it had started to sprinkle. Great. After getting my shoes on and remounting my bike, I headed out on the course. We had a pretty stiff headwind, and there were a couple of gradual turns in the road. Not trusting my bike handling, the roads, or my equilibrium, I was off the aerobars for the turns. Yes, I'm still very skittish from last year. I tried to settle into a rhythm, but was working hard to go pretty slow. I looked down at my SRM as I was climbing up a little grade and my power was in the 250's and I was going 16 MPH. Sheesh. I passed David after a couple of minutes, and shouted out some encouragement to him. As I was nearing the turnaround, I saw the leaders coming back the other way. They were a long ways in front of me. As I made the turnaround, I felt the tailwind, and was able to fly on the way back.
I reached T2 in 6th place and headed out on the run. Somewhere when I wasn't looking, someone poured wet concrete on my run course... or at least it felt like it. Maybe it was the cold weather, or maybe I'm just not in very good shape at the moment, but boy, did it feel slow. I saw David on his way out, as I was heading back and gave him another shout of encouragement. I finished the run where I started, still in 6th, but having given up some time to 5th and having 7th breathing down my neck.
Was I satisfied with my race? Well, an age-group win, no crashes, no disasters, and I got to race with my son (who also won his age group). I also saw two first-time triathletes, Ali and Monica, finish with the euphoria that one gets when one accomplishes something for the first time. I later heard that Ali was the first woman out of the water, and she ended up winning her age-group; she's anxious to do another race. So, yeah, I am satisfied. I'm hoping that my fitness will improve as the season progresses. We'll see.
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