Triathletes Run

Picking up from yesterday's Triathletes Bike post, Tuesday's Triathletes Swim post and the general overview post...

As soon as I racked my bike and tossed my helmet, I was running out of transition for the run portion or the race.  There's just something about the transition area that keeps the adrenalin running.  I had completely planned to walk the first five minutes of the race at least to allow my legs to adjust from being on the bike for so long.  So as I'm jogging along in the transition area I kept saying to myself, "Stop running, stop running, you should be walking." Finally about halfway through I did stop running and moved to a fast walk.

I kept up the fast walk for longer than I expected to.  I started thinking about how I walk almost as fast as I run, and it would be worth it to walk longer and be able to run more later. When I started running, I kept mostly to frequent, short bursts. I had no way to measure time, I'd forgotten to take my watch off my bike and I didn't have my headphones/iphone with me. In the end, I probably walked about 60 percent of the 3.1 mile  run.  I kept thinking, "Will I be disappointed in myself for not running more?" The answer was always no.  I was accomplishing enough by finishing the race.

This leg of the journey was crowded. We ran on a narrow path. It was an out and back course- we sprinters turned around after 1.5 miles, but the Olympic distance participants were on the same course. They had a 6.2 mile run, and they had to turn around at 3.1 miles.  There was constantly people passing you in both directions.  This is where I felt a lot of encouragement from my fellow triathletes.  A lot of them said, "Good job!" or "Keep going!" to me as we passed. I think this is because I was walking a lot and they felt sorry for me, but I did not feel sorry for myself. I was being smart. They all looked pretty miserable themselves, and I was chipper.

The path wound along the edge of the beach. It was beautiful to look out over the seagrass and see the ocean and the sun shining on it.  It was also hot. There was no shade and by this time it was 8:45 or 9 a.m.

As I neared the finish line, I again heard my friends cheering for me.  Right at the end, I was supposed to veer off the path, run through the grass and under the finish line banner.  I almost missed it!  Spectators standing there had to tell me to turn!  I was so focused on the path in front of me that I didn't see the turn. I yelled "Thank you!" over my shoulder and veered to the finish.

At first I was sad...the clock over the finish line said 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I was hoping for more like 1 hour and 30 minutes.  After awhile it dawned on me that the clock started from the very first wave of the race, which was approximately 42 minutes before I started. This made me feel much better.

When I saw the medals all lined up afterward, I got very jealous and hopeful that maybe I had possibly earned one? They had medals for the top 3 finishers in each division, and I eventually found out that I finished 8th in my division.  So no medal this year, but something to strive for in the future. Someday I will earn a medal for something I do. I promise.

At the finish line post race. :

In the transition area after...this is how my
bike was racked, except it was crowded
with a bunch of other bikes.