Tupper Lake Tinman

I am a TINMAN!!!
Morning of:
Weather center shows showers in the morning with thunderstorms in the afternoon.
We arrived at Tupper Lake under cloudy conditions.
Swim:
I put my wetsuit on about 25 minutes before my wave was to go off. I was the second wave, right after the sprint triathletes. As I approached the water with the sprinters underway, I started telling myself that I have trained enough and I can do it. There were very few athletes in my wave (roughly 75?). I started in the center back position. The horn sounded from the ambulance to start our wave. I hit the lake feeling pretty good, but about 00 meters in, I get raked in the face by a hand. My right goggle lense flips down off of my eye and I start to fix it. As I am tredding water, I swallowing what feels like 2 gallons of the lake thanks to the waves ramming me in the face (needless to say, I am not experienced in this area of the race; fixing my goggles in the middle of the swim, that is). I get my goggles on but am having a hard time getting my breath back. I call over a kayak to hang on to while burping for a good 2 minutes. I can't burp while my chest is under water. Something about the pressure the water puts on that area... but once I hoist myself up on the kayak and get my chest out of the water, I start to belch like Homer Simpson. Even the kayaker was impressed, saying, "There you go!" and "Nice one!" He was great. I soon recovered and was able to continue. One funny thing while I was on the kayak, Kelly swam right up on the kayak (we got in her way) and she picked her head up and said hello to me and asked what was going on. How random is that? Out of all of the people in our wave, Kelly is the one that runs into the kayak while I'm burping up water.
I finish the 1.2 mile swim in a respectable but personally disappointing 41 minutes.
Bike:
I get my wetsuit off and get my bike shoes, helmet, and sunglasses on. The weather is now partly cloudy with some breaks of sun. Not too bad, considering we were looking at some storms coming. I walk my bike over to the mounting area and am told to stop and wait. I ask what I am waiting for and the volunteer tells me he is letting some traffic go first. WHAT??!! He lets a minute's worth of traffic go by before he tells me I can go. I tell him it's a good thing I am not worried about my transition time or I'd be upset. He just rolls his eyes at me and tells me to get out of there. I sprint across the street before he decides to let any more traffic go. I get on my bike and I am out! I start off smoothly, letting my legs get into the swing of things. The first portion of the bike (20 miles) is rolling hills. The last 8 miles is pretty flat. Then you get to turn around and go backwards for another 28 miles. The rolling hills did not flatten out while I was turning around to come back to them. This ride was a tough one. At the turn around, I noticed that I had not hydrated enough, so I grabbbed a gatorade from a volunteer and had one of my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. YUMMY!! My body responded very well to that. I got an instant jolt of energy and amped the pace. I passed several people over the last 10 miles (they were bonking, big time) and had great confidence coming into the transition for the run.
Bike time: 2:47.47 for 56 miles. Avg- 20 mph. I was VERY pleased with this effort.
Run:
Oh boy...
I got off of my bike and the weather was down right opressive. The sun was fully out and it was HUMID! I had not hydrated enough on the bike and was in trouble for the run. I took my time in transition and took in about a half bottle of water. I grabbed 3 gu energy gels, talked to Kelly's dad about how I was not looking forward to the run (normally my strong point). I quickly found out that my legs were ready but the rest of my body didn't have it. I stopped at EVERY SINGLE aid station and took in water and fruit. It was the only way I survived that run. The run, itself, was rolling hills and absolutely no shade. I noticed that most athletes were in rough shape as well. The volunteers out on the course were simply fantastic. They made sure that athletes were getting what they needed, sometimes running back to the supply table and getting what the athletes wanted and then running with them to make sure they got what they needed. Outstanding. I ran in between each aid station, about a mile apart, and then refueled. I did this until the end.
I finish feeling very good about my effort, knowing that this is all to get ready for the ultimate goal, the Lake Placid Ironman- 2009.
Run: 13.1 miles in 2:01.25 avg- 9:17 per mile. Eh... ok. I did it.
Here is the link to the results. I came in 175th overall.
http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=43481
Next up, Mini triathlon in Lake Placid (sprint distance) on Monday and the the Utica Boilermaker on July 13th.
Until next time...