Crossing the Finish Line!!

WE DID IT!!!! Race day finally came and we were super psyched! I can confidently say that neither Crystal or I slept through the whole night.

I'll try and break "Race Day" down as best I can, and I'll try and not write a novel but I don't want to leave too many details out!

4:40 am, Sunday October 5: Both Crystal's and my phone alarm went off at the exact same time. I had been wide awake since 4:00 am, but we got out of bed and started moving. We had gotten our bags together the night before and had our race day outfits laid out so we could get up and out as fast as possible. With a whopping 880 people in the race, we wanted to be sure that we had pleanty of time.

5:25am - We arrived promptly to the park and walked across the street from the car to the transition area. It was SO cold out!! On our way in, we got our bodies marked (numbers on our arms and the front of our legs, and our age on our calf), and checked in our bikes. Then we made our way inside the transition area to begin setup.

There were already a good number of people there, but Crystal was the first one there on her rack, and I was the second on mine. We set up our spots and nervously checked them about 10 times each. You get a 2 minute penalty if your bike is on the wrong rack, so had to get it right.

My transition area...

Crystal's transition area... After setting up, we went to get our chips (a device you put around your ankle that tracks what time you come in and out of transition from each leg of the race), and left the transition block to stretch and wait for our families and friends to get there. The nerves were already starting to get to us. We ran into Robyn Singer a little later and the three of us mentally prepared ourselves by talking about what was to come. All the while, there was a guy on a microphone reminding everyone of the rules for the race, ways you'll get time penalties, ways you'll get disqualified, and reminding everyone that the water was 71.9 degrees. At the time, that sounded really cold!

6:45 am - Our family and friends got there (my mom, dad, sister, nanny and papa , crystal's mom, step dad and niece, Jen Hester, and Robin Peters who arrived shortly after) and we took them through how the race was going to work and where we though they should stand so that they could see us. I was pretty sure that they would only see us start and finish the race, but as you will see further on based on the pictures they took, they saw a lot!

7:10 am - We made our way down to the beach for the swim. Our families and Jen joined us as we shivered on the beach, and the nerves started to set in even more. There was a sea of people in different color swim caps (each wave had a different color), and most of the people looked like they were hard core triathletes - very intimidating!! Jim, the race director, went over some rules and the race was ready to get underway.

7:43 am - The race started a little late, but the first wave of athletes took off to the lake. They start with the men first. The first guy to finish the swim finished it in 5 minutes and 46 seconds. He was also the first one to finish the whole race - and he was light years in front of everyone. CRAZY!!

8:03 am - Our wave lined up at the start line, just after the last wave of men. Our wave consisted of the 20-24 age group and the 25-29 age group, so Robyn, Crystal and I were able to start together. While we were SO nervous, we were comforted by the girls who were standing by us because they were telling us about how nervous they were too, and how they weren't good swimmers. That made us feel a little more prepared at that point because we had been training for the swim so we at least felt like we knew what we were doing.

8:07 am - The race officially began for our group! We ran into the water in probably the biggest cluster imaginable. Everyone was so close together which made it much harder to swim that we could have imagined.

Despite the fact that we were wearing goggles, you couldn't see a thing in the water. We were getting kicked in the head and hit left and right because everyone was pretty much on top of one another, so with that and the combination of not being able to see, we were pretty much forced to swim with our heads above water. Needless to say, it was rough and we were sucking in so much water, I really thought I was going to drown before the first 100 meters was over. At that point I almost started to panic, but I tried to concentrate and push through. Once we rounded the first corner, I found it much easier to swim. We were more spread out so I was able to go back to freestyle with my head under the water and swim like I had been training. That was MUCH easier. At that point Crystal and I had lost each other because all you could see was little blue swim caps - you couldn't tell who anyone was. It was still impossible to see in the water, so I just keep looking up every now and then to make sure I was still on the right path. As I was finishing the swim I stood up to run out of the water, and I stepped onto a rock and face planted into the water. I came up laughing thinking that I was yet again giving everyone a reason to think that I'm sliiiiightly clumsy ;). Little did I know, I ended up getting a pretty bad cut on the ball of my foot, which is still killing me! We ran up the hill and saw Jen Hester, Robin Peters, and our families cheering us on and taking pictures.

Crystal and I met at our meeting place out of the water (about halfway up the hill) and proceeded to go up the rest of the massive hill to the transition area.

8:25 am - We had finished making the transition from our swim to the bike - putting on our shoes and socks, helmet, sunglasses, etc., and we set off on the bike course. Because we were on an open course (on the road with cars and everything!) the race rules were to ride in a single file line. Crystal was right behind me as we passed our families and friends once again - they were very good about following us around!

Somewhere between mile 2 and 3 on the 14-mile bike ride: I took yet another spill. This one was much worse than the fall getting out of the lake. I was going down a pretty steep hill, and my right foot slipped off my pedal and hit the front wheel of my bike. If you can imagine what momentum I had as my bike came to a screeching halt, you can get the mental picture of my back wheel flipping over the front of my bike, and me going with it. It was probably one of the scariest things that's ever happened to me. There was a group of people who passed me, as well as a pace car, who tried to stop to make sure I was okay. I said I was okay and told them not to stop. It was a bad fall, but I got extremely lucky with only a few scrapes and bruises on my legs, knees and palms of my hands, and I was back on my bike in a matter of seconds to get back to the race. I'm still not sure how I managed to get back up so quickly. But after thinking about it, I would have been absolutely devastated if I had hurt myself and wasn't able to finish the race. At that point I thought Crystal had soared passed me. Little did I know, she too had to stop because her chain came off of the gears of her bike, so she didn't know I fell.

The bike course was VERY hilly! The hills were steep, and it turned out to be a very difficult ride - definitely no Greenway. We had trained at going 14 miles, but we were not prepared for the kinds of hills that we encountered on this ride. Plus, neither of us were on road bikes, so that alone made the ride slower for us. One lady even pointed it out to me that I had the wrong bike for the race. I wanted to say back to her "I am sorry, but if you would like to buy me a $2000 bike, be my guest". I held it in and just stayed focused and didn't respond. Of course, she caught me in the middle of a huge hill.

At the very end of the bike part, Crystal and I finally made it back to each other by coincidence as we proceeded up the final hill to the transition area.

9:30 am - We had put our bikes up, helmets off, and we set off on the last leg of the race - the run. Everyone was there cheering us on and we got another burst of adrenaline. We were so close to the finish!

10:14 am - 2 hours 7 minutes and 34 seconds after our start we crossed the finish line! I can't even describe the feeling. Everyone was there to cheer us on, and a wave of emotions just came over us. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, scream, jump up and down or what. But we did it!! It was such an accomplishment for both of us, and we were so proud of ourselves for finishing - and not even in last place like we joked about!

We want to thank you all so much for your continuous support and encouragement. We couldn't have done it without you! We have a lot of people we want to thank individually so check back later for a separate post, because I think I've kept you here long enough!

And it's not over! We've already talked about signing up for another race, so keep checking in with the tribabies, 'cause we'll keep posting as we take on new adventures!