I escaped! errrr... kind of

The sea was angry today, my friends

20-40 mile per hour nor’easterly winds caused 4-6 foot waves in Lake Erie and a small craft advisory. Which subsequently turned my “A” race- can’t wait to kick this swim’s ass-coolest tri start ever-triathlon into a duathlon of survival. See, I’m a swimmer. I can probably swim a mile in open water faster than I can run a 5k on land. I also have had no end to my knee problems this year, so the addition of 3.1 miles of running to my day was not a delightful thought. And have I mentioned that this run is 80% on sand? Other bad omens for this race

- My Wednesday run was cut short by a huge cramp behind my knee which led to my IT band flaring (I already have chondromalacia in that knee) and an inability to walk for the rest of the night

- When I went to load up my brand new Cervelo Dual into my car the back tire was pancake flat. With only 100 miles on the tires, I was stumped. When I changed the tube it all became clear. I had asked my LBS to put rim tape on the tires- which they kindly did for me. However, they didn’t cut a large enough hole in the tape to get the valve through easily. When they muscled it through the hole they must have stressed the valve/tire joint and it was totally torn. So now I’m wondering when the front one will flat… but don’t have an extra 650 to change it out (it’s a 48 cm bike).

- In my hurry to get out (I was now late) I took a quick shower. As I put on my jeans I noticed that I only shaved my right leg (I am such an idiot).

- When I got up to the race I realized I only had $10 in cash and my ATM was MIA.

On to the race:

They called the swim at 6am and decided to have us do a 5k run instead, and to start 45 minutes early. It was cold, so the early start was a good thing.

Run Summary: passed some people, got passed by some people, time 26:32 (8:34/mile)

Details:

- run was in sand/trails, piers.
- They time-trialed the start because much of the course was unpassable, single lane. My luck they had lost my registration and I was about the 5th from last runner. It didn’t hold me up too much, but there were definitely times where I wanted to pass people but couldn’t
- I felt good coming into T1. Grabbed Gatorade for my transition area to drink before the second run. No knee issues- yes!

Bike Summary: passed some people, got passed by some people, time 1:20.15 (18.5mph)

Details:

-dropped my chain at mile 0.2. I knew I should have had my 100 mile tune-up before the race!
- ran over a spider the size of a small child
- It was so friggin windy that for about 5 miles I had to lean my body towards the lake to keep from getting blown over.
- I drank next to nothing, but had a Gu at mile 20. Mmmmm chocolate

Run 2 summary: Passed a couple people, got passed by a couple people: time 59:50 (9:39/mile)

Details:

- knees were starting to hurt, but never got excruciating, like I had imagined
- running into 20-40mph winds sucks. But not as bad as biking into them
- for a total of about 1-1.5 miles we weren’t just running through soft sand- we were running through quicksand I’m pretty sure
- The run that was by the lake was actually awesome. Hard packed sand is very easy on the knees
-It was a slow run, but I ran the entire thing. Given my knee issues I was so happy with this!

The finish:

I was so happy to see the finish line. I sprinted in (well, it was a sprint for me), got my chip removed, stretched, and laughed at my hairy left leg.

Total time for 5k run 40k bike 10k run: 2:49.11

Side note- I had a great time with DaisyDuc and her husband Joey. They were so generous to let me crash at their family vacation spot, which was about ½ mile from the race. They are the greatest!