American Triple T - Race #4: Team Time Trial - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Ryan and I decided to just swim separately, since it's nearly impossible for us to swim at the same pace. I took the swim pretty easy, and felt good the whole time. My navigation is nearly perfect, so I tried seeing how long I could not look at the buoys and stay on course. Did I mention yet how much I love my wetsuit? :)
Also, the water was friggin' frigid and dirty. You could not see past your shoulder. But it tasted pretty good!

I only had to wait 1-2minutes for Ryan. I tried to help him get ready for the bike, and then we were off. So, I thought yesterday's course was hard....but I was so, so terribly wrong. I had no idea what I was in for.
The course took us through a boy scout camp on roads that were hardly wider than a common bike path. It was an absolutely stunning course, and shockingly difficult. The first climb lasted 3-5 miles. This was the first climb where I had to stand up to pedal in order to just stay upright. Grueling. The fatigue from yesterday started to rear it's ugly head. Uh-oh.
After finishing the first climb, we had to descend on a road with 5 switch-backs, which necessitated some really heavy breaking, or else you would find you and your bike wrapped around a tree, or thrown into a gully. Not fun. We really lost time/speed on these descents because you could only top out at about 25mph before having to slam hard to make a 180 degree turn. Oh well, at least we weren't climbing!
There were at least 3 more big, long, arduous climbs before we reached the end of the first loop. Ryan and I both felt like absolute crap. We had to pee, our legs hurt like hell, and worst of all, we knew exactly what was coming. Those hills!! Again! That was the low point of the whole weekend. Amazingly enough, after peeing, I was completely rejuvenated, and we had a much better second lap- we even finished it 3 minutes faster!
I started going a bit crazy out there, but we really had a blast riding together. We both pulled evenly, and worked extremely well together. I had a near miss with a side grass embankment when I was trying to show off and catch a few boys going downhill. That was scary, and I still have no idea how I didn't crash. There were a handful of crashes, and the ambulance almost hit us heading to one of them. I would recommend a road bike for this race!

Getting off the bike felt amazing at first- I was so friggin' sick of riding, and riding hills, that I thought running would be terrific. And then, well, my legs just hurt, and I was tired, and 13 miles seemed like forever. oh well, HTFU, I don't do this because it feels like a tickle-fest.
We started off pretty easy, but we never got any faster. We basically trucked along at this pace the whole race, even though we were going up some big hills and down some big hills. We had a good system of communicating to try and even our pace. Ryan would say 'too fast' when I was up front setting the pace, and I would say 'WTF!?!?!' if he was going too fast :)
Not going to lie, this run was pretty damn miserable. I really had to shut down my brain to get through it. There was another co-ed team ahead of us, and I knew we didn't have much time on them going into this event. For that reason, we really, truly had to get it done, because I did not want to loose this race on the run. The best part about this race, though, was suffering together. During every other race that I do now, I always want to be racing with Ryan, because then I'm not alone. I finally got to have my cake and eat it too- we got to race together as a team, and he and I were at exactly the same level of discomfort/race mentality. Our highs and lows were opposites, though, so we never got too far down.
Everyone looked pretty miserable out there, except for my friend Doug, who crushed some souls out there. We only walked 1 part of 1 hill, which I am proud of. We really went as fast as we could for the weekend, and were so happy to be suffering together.
Finally, FINALLY, we got to the last mile. I knew that if we had gone any harder, we both would've blown up, because the last mile hurt like hell, and I felt constantly on the verge of loosing my legs. But, we stayed upright, and crossed the line smiling, holding hands. Best.moment.ever :) I can't even explain how happy he makes me.

Wow, I was so, so happy to be done. That was a very challenging weekend- physically and mentally. I hopped into the creek and chatted with other racers. Everyone wanted to know if we won the co-ed division, and I had no idea. The other co-ed team beat us by a pretty decent margin on the HIM, so I knew it would be close.

After eating and hanging out with birkierunner, we went to pack up the tent and all of our gear before the awards ceremony. We didn't talk about our place, because we just had no idea if we won it. I was preparing myself for yet another 2nd place finish, but it didn't really matter, because we really went as hard as we could, and didn't really make any mistakes.

When we got back to the race site, we limped over to the results board. As we tried to find our names, the girl from the other Co-ed team came over and graciously congratulated us- WE WON!!!!! Holy friggin' crap! I could not believe it! They total the time from both racers for all 4 events for your total time- 21 hours, 43 minutes. We beat the other team by 4 minutes. That's it, just 4 measly minutes over almost 22 hours of racing. WOW. That was close!

The awards were a blast! It was so awesome to be a part of Ryan's first win! We worked so perfectly together, that we couldn't have won any other way. The first place prize was two $1500 gift certificates to a bike shop- Wheelie fun. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! (in bike gear :) ) Now that's an amazing first place prize! We were ecstatic :)


Awesome race. everything was flawless- organization, pre-race, post-race - it was all excellent. I highly recommend this race to anyone. It is just ridiculously hard :)