Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin United States RecPlex

Total Time = 1h 25m 6s Overall Rank = 82/354 Age Group = 35-39 Age Group Rank = 3/26

After getting caught in the torrential down pouring of rain I had a sore throat all day on Friday and Saturday, but I figured I would head out to Pleasant Prairie anyways as I'd already paid for the race and the hotel (twice, but that's because I'm an idiot and booked it for the previous weekend instead... whoooops!), and the Crowny's were going to be driving... so I might as well go, right?

I managed to get everything (or at least I hoped I grabbed everything) in about 3 minutes as I was late getting back on Saturday in time for the Crowny's to pick me up, so I threw race kit, running shoes, bike shoes, helmet, visor, sunglasses, etc., etc., etc. into my backpack thinking "I've done this before, I'm sure I've got everything!". Uh huh.

We got to the Expo, racked our bikes, picked up our packets & another long-sleeved tech tee that I probably won't wear, got my bright pink swim cap and got to find out that I was in.the.very.last.wave of the day. Wave 21. Sigh. Oh well, the good news is that I was in the wave with Jen Schmit, which meant that I would at least have company as I whinged about being in the last wave. :)

Out to dinner with the Crownys and to watch the end of the World Cup Game that was on, and then over to the ice cream store where they brought out a milkshake in a glass clearly made to hold the largest margarita you can envision. OMG it was deeeee-licious, but there was sooo much of it that we were only able to finish about 1/2 of it before conceding defeat.

Back to the hotel to try and catch some shut-eye before getting up at stupid o'clock for my ride over to the race site with David & Bether. Wake up the next morning to find that you pretty much can't see anything because of the fog. Seriously, nothing. Driving was terrible and you could barely see the lane markings. Parked the car and wandered over towards transition where we wondered where the hell the lake was. You couldn't see it at all because of the fog. We were all really hoping it would lift by the time the race was supposed to start.

It turns out that the way the numbering worked this year was alphabetical by last name. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever, but that's how it was done. David had real-estate to spare in his rack and there were FOUR racks behind the one I was on with NO ONE racked - meanwhile, we were packed in closer than sardines. Not happy. Oh well, what can you do? I opened up my backpack to put out my bike shoes, helmet on the bike with sunglasses, then running shoes with socks, visor, race-belt... um... where the hell is my wetsuit?? Oh for feck's sake, you've got to be kidding me? I forgot my wetsuit of all things?? Dear lord, I really should have been born blonde instead of having to dye it this colour. Eventually I realized that the water temp was going to be fine & I would be a-ok without the wetsuit, so just decided not to panic about it. I mean, what's the point? I'm fine with NOT wearing one, and if nothing else, it *should* make my transition time smoking fast! Always gotta look for the silver lining, people. :)


Sooooo... the race was supposed to start at 6:30am. Well, that came and went without anything happening because of the fog. 7am, 7:30am, 7:51am (my original start time), 8am, 8:30am... All of the athletes just standing around in the fog.. most with their wetsuits already on or half on, except for me. The idiot who has no wetsuit because she forgot it in the closet at home.

Somehow the fog lifted enough to get the para-athletes out (who are all kinds of impressive and inspiring), and then the elites before the fog rolls back in and the waves have to stop again. Oh wait.. another wave went! Annnnnd, stop. This went on for a while until the RD decided to change the Oly swim route to being 2 laps of the sprint swim course and so all waves were halted again as a buoy was dragged over from the Oly course to mark the new course. Ok, awesome... so... we can get going again, right??

I think it was around 9:30am when we FINALLY went off. Almost 2 full hours after we were supposed to, and my back had started to cramp up, muscles were stiff, and I was HUNGRY. So come ON already, let's get this thing started!! I find Jen Schmit before the race, and we chat a bit as we head towards the water and I make my way over to the left side as I know that we all get into the water and it's a really sharp right that tends to stop up a lot of people.

Waiting for the gun, and I see Crowny coming out of the water just as the horn blows and we start running in which put a HUGE smile on my face! :)

Short version of the above: ~ 2 hour delay in getting the race started = standing and shivering for a warm-up.