Delaware Diamondman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The plan was nice & easy. Just tried to stretch it out. At one point I started to pick it up for maybe 50 yds and had a quick conversation with myself that the point of the whole day was EASY. I swam over a few people. Not intentionally, but I just don't like to make the process of passing someone any longer than necessary, so I just go for it. If I crash into a female, I stop and apologize, (sorry, you ok?!), if I crash into a guy, forget it. He's fine. Well...one of my 3 or 4 run-ins I stopped and looked to see if it was a dude or a chick, and it was a guy. And for a second I thought, 'was that newleaf?', cause it sure looked like him in his new clear goggles. But alas, he was a guy, so I didn't worry about it and just kept swimming. (Read newleaf's RR for his rendition of this, it was quite different...basically that little miss pink goggles and pink top completely plowed over him, fully submerging him). I finished and wasn't remotely out of breath, which was exactly what I wanted.

Maybe push the swim, but the plan was to make it easy & effortless and I did what I planned.

HA! Upon arriving at T1, the first thing out of my mouth was "OMG, there's a huge spider on my stuff." There was no way I was picking up my helmet with a huge daddy longleg on there. And I also wasn't about to pick him up to get him off, so I just stood there. A T1 volunteer a few racks away heard this and said, "maam do you need some help with a spider?" By the time he got there, he had crawled off. So yes, I am in the midst of a HIM and my total girly side came out and I was not about to proceed with racing with any sort of bug on my stuff. JoshKaptur was at his bike at the same time and witnessed it all. True bada$$ girly girl in all her glory. Other than than I just took my time, which is what I wanted to do.

Easy. I got passed like crazy, but I didn't care. Somewhere about mile 5, newleaf passed me and said something that kept me laughing for a few miles. Another guy passed me at one point and said, 'and i'm 60 years old.' My gut reaction was to say, "you rock!", which is what I honestly thought. Then i thought wait a minute, he was being completely cocky. Anyways he and another guy behind him turned left at the next intersection, and the 2 guys in front of them went straight. No volunteer. Hmmm. I picked straight, but as I turned my head to see if I should have turned right I went off the road and almost bit it. The guy behind me was laughing out loud, which I'm used to. Almost wrecking is quite typical for me as I get distracted out there. There was one bridge that was all metal, I call them a singing bridge b/c they make a hum when you drive over them. This was my favorite part. There there was another big bridge that we went over 4 times. It was fine. No problems whatsoever. I got kind of bored out there, so I practiced riding with no hands when no one was around. Prior to the race i had only done 3 right pedal strokes with no hands, and i got it up to 10. I did 10 several times, so that i could solidly say i've got 10. Oh yeah, nutrition. It sucked. And I have worked so hard on that in the past month! I wanted nothing to do with eating. I had maybe 400 calories total while i was out there. They ran out of both water and gatorade at the bottle exchange, which I had banked on, so I had nothing the last 90 minutes or so of the ride. Lesson learned. Always keep one in case they run out! Stopped at the port-o-pottie to pee during the bike. The last 8 miles or so I was definitely ready to get off the bike. Not that it was hard, I just didn't feel like being out there anymore.

Not drink all my drinks banking on an exchange! Keep working on nutrition when it's hot out as I just don't seem to want it.

Took my time.

Well well well. My favorite part. THE RUN. My beloved run. I've been working on Galloway running and doing a 2 min run:1 min walk pace (you know, for the past 3 weeks that I gave myself to train for a HIM). This was the plan for the race. I held my 2:1 solid the first 5 miles. First three miles were 10 min. miles, 4 & 5 were 11 min. miles. I was thrilled to get to mile 5 at 52 mins doing it all on a 2:1 interval. I saw my friend Holden when he was at mile 12 and i was at mile 1. I saw PennState early on in my run and at the end of his and he was flying...in his typical super trained natural tri-star Fred state. Somewhere in there some guy I kept leapfrogging asked me what in the world interval I was doing and when I told him he was totally pissed off....as he was doing a 10 min run:1 min walk and I was hanging with him. LOL. I love Galloway.

I saw newleaf at the mile 5/mile 8 aid station and he asked how I was doing. "Great! This is so easy. I'm sticking to the plan and this HIM is a joke (Foreshadowing). The only thing that I'm having a problem with is that I'm so bored out here. All I'm thinking about is the cheeseburger and sundae I'm going to eat when I'm done!" I think his response was, 'Ok, well let's see when you're back here at mile 8.' (Again, read his RR for a totally different rendition of this exchange!). So here I was feeling fantastic at mile 5. Everything I said to newleaf was totally true. I knew the aid stations were every mile. After passing 5 it seemed like a long time to the next one. The next one was at the turnaround. Which of course in my mind was mile 6 b/c I'm thinking they are every mile (since it was the turnaround we jumped from mile 5 to mile 6.55, but i didn't put that together). The next aid station after the turnaround I then thought was mile 7 (which was really the mile 5/mile 8 aid station. I kept looking at my watch and even though I was feeling fine on my 2:1, I totally freaked when I realized it took me 33 minutes to go 2 miles. Complete implosion. 'What the h just happened?'. I immediately changed my plan (somewhere b/w real miles 6.5-8) b/c of how I had apparently shut down and was now sucking so badly on the run. So, I switched to a 1:30:1 interval and the "mile" to mile 7 aid station (which was really 8) was still seeming like an eternity to get to so I switched to 1:1. Which quickly became 50 seconds run:1 min walk. I had convinced myself that I was falling apart physically (even though I wasn't) simply b/c of the time it was taking me to get between these couple aid stations. I seriously considered leisurely walking the last 5 miles of the course b/c i was so disgusted with not being able to figure out how I allegedly fell apart physically after mile 5, all a conclusion based on time. I knew I needed a different plan (i.e. not time intervals) if I wanted anything other than a t'ed off stroll to the finish. So, I started counting footsteps. I did the last 5 miles running 100 right foot steps and walking 60. I saw my friend Holden (who had been done for over 2 hours) at mile 12 and pretty much went off on him about how pissed I was that he'd ever even gotten me into this sport, how this was the worst decision I'd ever made in my entire life, etc. I didn't realize any of how i screwed up the mileage/aid stations until several hours after the race when talking with newleaf about it.

Stopped to pee at the porto-pottie on the run and of course wouldn't sit down and my quads were shaking like mad. Thanks to all those squat holds in boot camp to let me endure that quad burn when I needed it!

Oh yeah, almost forgot that I debated taking my timing chip off my ankle and putting it on my wrist b/c it was irritating my ankle so much. I don't know why i decided not to as it seemed like a totally rational thought, until newleaf told me later the beam only goes across the bottom and i wouldn't have had a time.

I finished in a horrid mood, which while unusual for me at any other time in my life, it isn't that atypical for me at the end of a run,. Needed some time to decompress. Then I was fine.

Go by how I feel.

None


Wasn't going for speed in the first place, so that's pretty much irrelevant.


I am thrilled. 150% glad I went for it. I am extremely happy with my times, especially given that I didn't train for this. I could have just gone back to State College Friday after I found out Patriot's was cancelled and I would have never known the difference. I stayed and met a bunch of great people, and made a great new friend in the process of the entire weekend. I shocked the heck out of myself and days later am still in total disbelief. I'm capable of far more than I think I am. I've often said my ability to perform is rarely physical, and for me is rooted in winning mentally. Despite the collapse in the run, overall I won mentally out there, which is what did it. Outstanding race and I am so grateful.