Venice Beach, Florida United States REVOLUTION3 Triathlon 85F / 29C Sunny

Total Time = 5h 26m 9s Overall Rank = / Age Group = Age Group Rank = 2/6

In the days leading up to every race I do (except 5 or 10ks), I start to worry about the race and question the training I've done. This race was even worse because hurricane Sandy and an incoming cold front were going to make the conditions really rough. As a result, my regular angst was double it's normal annoying amount.

I drove from Orlando to Venice on Saturday, checked into the hotel and immediately went to the race site for packet pick up and bike check-in. The venue was beautiful: right on the gulf at a nice park. The wind, however, was not nice. I don't know the official wind speed, but it was bad - walking into it was even an adventure. Because the wind was so bad, bike check-in was cancelled. The water was crazy, scary looking. Nobody was getting in the water, it was way too dangerous.

Everyone was hopeful that the wind would go down overnight and we'd be able to get the swim in and not kill ourselves on the bike. I spent many minutes checking every weather website I could find, trying to find one that would make me feel better. Unfortunately, most of them were keeping the wind speeds in the 20's with gusts of 35 mph. One site did have the speeds down to 17 mph, but it was the only one and it turned out to offer false hope.
After picking up my packet I headed back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, I promptly locked my keys in my car. Ugh. Just something to add to my worry. No one at the hotel could help, but luckily, 2 weeks ago I decided to join AAA, unfortunately, the card with its number was locked in my car and no one around me seemed to belong to it. The hotel receptionist looked up the number for me, but she got it wrong. Anyway, it took a few phone calls to friends and family, but I finally got the number. They sent a locksmith and he had the car open in about 10 seconds.

After hanging at the hotel for a bit watching the Gators lose (yay!) and the Seminoles win (yay!), I headed back to the race site to eat (and have a beer) at the restaurant right on the water. Spent most of the meal speaking with the lady at the table next to mine. It was nice to speak to her as it helped keep my mind off the raging water right outside the window. After dinner I walked out on the pier to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, of course I was alone, so that was unfortunate :( Out on the pier, the wind was really crazy and a couple of times it was a bit scary as it pushed me quite easily.
Back to the hotel were I got my stuff ready, ranted on the Manatee thread and watched Notre Dame beat Oklahoma (yay!). I also got a work call, so all of that helped keep my mind from fixating on the weather.

Woke up around 5am and went down to the lobby for coffee. The hotel was very nice and catered to the racers' need for an early breakfast. While getting coffee, I spoke to 2 of the race officials and asked if they knew anything about the swim. They told me it was cancelled. They said that making those decisions race directors have to think about the least capable swimmer and make sure the course is safe for that person. In this case, they couldn't even get out to set the course.
A little while later the race director sent out an email confirming the swim was cancelled for the AGers, but stating they hadn't made a decision about the pros. I thought that was weird considering what the officials told me about not being able to set the course, but I guess they still held out some hope.
This was Rev3's championship race and there were about 40 pros vying for some really good money, so I suppose they really wanted to be able to do a complete race.
Along with copious amounts of coffee, I ate a bagel and banana; figuring that would hold me til I was into the bike about 15 miles.

Drove the 3 miles to the race site and set up the bike. They had us grouped by AG, so i was around a lot of other middle aged women. Everyone was very friendly and all were anxious about the wind. One woman said she was considering not racing at all because of it and that a friend of hers did decide not to participate. In a weird way, it made me feel better knowing that i was not the only one feeling anxious about the weather.
Since the swim was cancelled, they did a TT start at the swim in. Basically, they had us line up by race # and started us every 3 seconds. You could not wear your bike shoes, but they did let you wear socks.
They ended up cancelling the pro swim, so the pros had to run about 1.5 miles instead of swimming. They started first and were out on the bike before the AGs started.

As I ran to my bike I heard someone call out my name and looked to see fellow Manatee Chris cheering for me. We had never met in person before, so for a split second i didn't know who was calling my name, then my brain got itself in gear and I knew who it was. Unfortunately, all I could do was smile (did I wave too? Can't remember) as I was trying to get my heart rate under control.