We did it!

Well, I'm back from Hawaii, and we (my mom and I) are now officially Triathletes. wohoo! Here is a short summary of the weekend. I will try and post some pictures up in the next few days... When I get a chance to look at my computer in between seders.

(beware this is a long post)

Leading up to the race:
We arrived thursday night to our hotel. Which is a massiv resort. It took us 15 minutes to walk from our building to the hotel lobby, and we were in the closest building! I saw our coach at the airport, and he mentioned to me he thought I might not have a front brake... after my bike made the trip here... so we were off to a good start.

Friday morning I got my bike, and it turned out the brake was there, we just had to put a wire back in place. Then we had our first swim in the ocean! We were all pretty hesitant to get in, but it wasn't that bad! We got many warnings about the coral, which scared a lot of people. It turns out (as people had told me) that swimming in the salt water is even easier than the pool, because it helps you float! And we could see some coral, and little fishies for our swim. We followed the short swim by a 40 minute bike ride on the part of the bike course. And it was an even flatter road than I was expecting!

Saturday morning we did a short swim, then a short bike, and then a even shorter run.. and then called ourselves prepared... Then one of the guys who did the race last year lead a small group of us around the hard part of the run course. It turns out there was a stretch that you must go single file, since its narrow, w/ the ocean and rocks on your right, and its not paved, and its rocky... and it wasn't easy to walk! Let alone run. Then we walked through the resort... and over onto the coral part of our run. Yes, then we were supposed to run on large (6-12inch ) pieces of lumpy coral... What a perfect place to twist an ankle... This lovely mile part of the course, was followed by the .3 or so mile sprint to the finish line. on a soft sandy beach.

On a positive note, it was very beautiful, and there where some turtles sunning themselves on parts of it... and palm trees and the ocean and all that good hawaiian stuff.


That afternoon we got our numbers and packets (535!), then had a mandatory race meeting. Which we all decided scared us more than prepared us... Then had a pasta party with all the team in training folk there.

So from seattle we had about 60 people doing the triathlon. We were however only the 3rd largest tnt group there! There ended up being a total of 260 tnt (out of 750ish ) doing the Lavaman. Overall we raised over $1.1 Million dollars for the L&LS!

Stephanie (from our seattle team) gave a talk to all of us, and I don't think there where many dry eyes in the whole crowd. Her son died of Leukemia at age 10... So we all knew we were doing this for a great cause, and hopefully making a difference...

With the end of the pasta party we retired to the room, laid out our race gear, and went to bed early.... with the alarm set for 4:30 am!


Race day!
we met bright and early at 5:15 am, before the sun had risen! Though we did get to see the full moon set across the ocean... We headed over to the transition area, and set up our little spaces. Then proceeded to "body Marking" where they stamp your number on both your arms, then picked up our timing chips. We wandered around and finally made it to the beach around 7 am for our team picture... and nervously stared at the ocean tryign to interpret the race course. Noone seemed to know exactly which buoys to go around and which to stay inside. We heard differeing things from everyoen we asked (even some pro racers, and our coach). and finally went w/ the "follow the hundreds of swimmers around you" tactic.

Then we slowly made our way into the water... the first group was all the pros, relays, AND all the men. 7:30, and boom they were all off! then us women inched our ways forward. I tried to hang near the back (seeding myself) since I know I'm slow. But at 7:35 when the horn went off, it seemed all the people behind me where hesitant to start, so I ended up pushing off with the crowd (instead of waiting a few minutes as planned).

My main worry about the swim was that it would seem like it would take forever, since we didn't have the short lengths of the pool to count down. But it turned out there where a few buoys between the two marking the ends, so it was fine. I just focused on swimming towards the next buoy, then as I passed it, I'd find the next one, and just kept swimming. For the first 1/4 of the swim portion (ie 1/2 of the first lap) I was surrounded by people on all sides. As I turned the corner on the first 1/2 of the first lap and started heading towards the beach, the sun made it hard to see the buoys... but I somehow stayed on course mostly.

During the mandatory race meeting, us slow swimmers where told to stay on the inside track, and the pros would go on the outside. So I hugged the buoys. But it turned our some of those fast pros decided to do that too, and I had two or three swim right over me, then dissapear. (they where like twice as fast as me). Anyways, after the fast guys flew by me, the swim kept going and I ended up finishing even faster than I had hoped! about 45 minutes. (which is good for me. It turns out the fastest swimmer did it in 18.5 minutes!! crazy).

Then I ran up the beach, into the transition area. Threw on some shoes, and hopped on my bike. I was feeling good from the swim and started off strong on the bike. Overall the bike was pretty non eventful. While none of the hills where steep at all, there was one that seemed to go on forever on the way out there. I wanted to make sure I was eating/drinking properly, so I made a point to finish my one bottle of gatorade before the turnaround, so I could grab a bottle of water for the ride back.

I get to the turnaround and they are out of water! But kindly offered to pour ice on my head. The ice was so cold it took my breath away for a minute... but it started feeling good after that. So I proceeded to start the 2nd leg of the bike... sans liquid. Plus my open cliff bar had been soaked w/ the ice water... However I made it back w/o much of a problem. I wasn't fast, but I also wasn't that tired, so it was good. I looked at my watch here, and realized I'd easily make it in under my goal of 4 hours, so that made me happy :).

I came back to the transition area, threw on my running shoes, and took off... with my new race belt full of water. Which I had never run in. And found it it bounces around a lot, and is heavy. But after pouring out the water I settled into a good pace and had lots of energy. Luckily the run is my favorite part. I ran all the paved parts, and walked the bumpy rocky parts, figuring there was no need to twist my ankle with less than 2 miles to go. At the aid stations they gave us ice which we poured on our heads, and down bras etc... It was great for keeping cool. I finally got to the last .2 mile sandy beach stretch. I wanted to sprint it, but found the soft sand just sucks your energy. So I jogged, then sprinted the last bit. The finish line was full of people from our team giving high fives and cheering. And then it was over! I finished in about 3 hour 50 minutes. For reference the winner did it in under two hours!

My mom came in about an hour later, and I went out and met her and ran the last bit with her.

Doing the event with the team really made it a lot easier and more fun. Throughout the event everyone you passed was yelling "go team!" and "good job!"

So yeah, that about summarizes it for now. I'll post some more details with some pictures. I'm ready to sign up again for next year!! and now I have a time to beat.