Folsom Long Course 70.3
1.2mile swim.56mile ride.13.1mile run
August 11th 2013 ~
3:30am~
Thats a toughy. I hopped up out of bed excited that the day had came for the 70.3 miles we had trained hard for. 18 weeks of training, lots of hard work and dedication. We were just your average moms taking on a race we never imagined we could do.
Susan picked Eric and I up at 4 sharp. Unfortunately our bikes had fallen out of their tie down on the way over. We situated them and hoped they would be fine.
On the way over to Folsom we laughed and joked about our fun training days and all the great times we had putting in all of those miles at the pool, on the road and at the gym. We started to come down the massive hil on the road we would be CLIMBING for 30 miles. It frightened me and I made comments about how the website said there was only 1 Cat 5 climb (not a big deal, we are use to those) however this seemed MUCH bigger. Eric told me to stop worrying about it, its not that long..
We arrived in Folsom about 5:15 am and headed towards check-in/transition.
We walked straight over and found an empty rack for our bike and set up shop. I was surprised about the non-athletes being in transition and even told Eric he would probably be asked to leave. He never was. We headed over to check-in and grabbed our bibs and bag, used the john and checked out the competition.. (Not really) but I was checking out their amazing bikes that probably cost as much as my car. I secretly pretend my bike is just like theirs.
Back over in transition we decided to get our body markings over with. Again, surprised at the number of people in the transition area. I had my helmet,glasses and bib knocked off my bike two times by a spectator. It was frustrating.
I decided to take my bike around the bend for a quick spin to make sure it was all fine. It was (I thought)! I decided to put a new water bottle holder on the night before on my handlebars so it was easy to grab. ROOKIE move. I asked Eric to help me take it of but he said it was fine to leave it alone. I had a bad feeling.
1.2 Mile Swim~
As we headed down to the beach I hugged Eric and he wished me good luck. I tried to keep him in my sights so I could find him when I got out of the water.
They said we would start at 7am sharp. They lied.
I had no idea it was a deep water start. I was already nervous about swimming with the 250 pound men next to me. We swam out to the water and waded for about 9 minutes, I let the fear take over me. I began to panic. I don't know if it was all the men around looking all beefy and competitive or the fact that I was cold and getting tired of sitting out there.
I heard the countdown begin and Susan and I were right next to one another. THANK GOODNESS. I had a full blown "I can't do this " moment. This has never happened to me in a race before. Susan called out my name and asked me if I was okay, I replied with a "NOOO, I can't move" I was so scared. I tried to look forward and move along with the breast stroke. I couldn't see anything with the bright morning sun directly in my eyes and the large beefy man waves plummeting into my lungs. Not seconds later did I get elbowed right in the head and jacked at least 4-5 times by either a foot or an elbow in the arms and side. It was BRUTAL.
It took me a good 5-6 minutes to gain control of my breathing. Susan was great, she never let me out of her sight and kept asking me if I was okay. Every time I tried to put my face down I had a near death experience, Hyperventilation at its finest. I looked back and realized that the other group of red capped beefy men were about to take over the water around me again.
We had almost reached the first turn and I felt relieved that the sun would be out of my eyes and most of the crazy competitive men were out of my bubble.
Susan and I settled into a really good stroke , every now and then we could see one another as we came up for air. We made it past the second turn and things seemed to be getting easier. We were gliding right along and I can tell we had picked up the pace because we started passing people. (I wasted us so much valuable time in the beginning) I knew we were at the halfway point and I started to get really excited. So excited when I looked up to see Susan she was GONE. I lost her, I couldn't see her when I looked back because the sun was now blaring behind us. ( later she told me she saw me the whole time)
I felt really, really comfortable now and started to speed up.
BOOOMMM. I just got JACKED. Two grown ass men took me down. I tried to regroup, came up stunned and all disoriented I apologized as if it was my fault. The nice medium sized man on my right waved me on with the same apologies I had but the big ole overgrown beast of a man splashed his hand towards me as if I had ruined his Mojo.
After I revived myself again and did a few chest compressions to get the water enema out of my lungs I realized I was at the final turn. I could see the finish and I couldn't get out of that water quick enough.
Eric was waiting at the top taking pictures and yelling at me to hurry up. ( Get your ass out there and then tell me to hurry up) haha!! He was talking to me along the spectator side and saying how CRAZY that swim looked. He said the waves from the men were unreal.
Of course I had to know my time knowing I did not do well the first half of the swim. OH MY, I didn't realize it was that long. 48 minutes. NOT how I trained and I was hoping for 35 minutes. Oh well, make it up on the bike.
T-1 :
Susan came out of the water not far behind me( had she not waited for me she would have been before me). Eric was laughing at me about how long it took to get my socks on ( I put my compression socks on before the run) and again told me I was wasting time to hurry up. He said he was going to buy me short socks. haha
Susan was about done in transition and I was still putting on my shoes.
I remembered what Carla had told me about making sure my helmet was buckled so we wouldn't get DQ'ed. We had all of our nutrition in a bottle. It was the yummy Infinit Isis. We had trained with 250 calories every hour and that worked well.
We both ran out of transition not far apart. 2 seconds on my bike and my water bottle fell out off the new holder I had just put on. AUUGHHH!!
I hope I don't get a penalty for littering.
56 Mile Bike~
We knew we had about 4 hours for the bike leg and we also knew we would be close but fine. Eric said see you in a bit and I said around 4 hours, okay 3.5 I yelled back..lol
The bike started out great and Susan and I were right on target.
During the first 5-6 miles I felt great and we were in groups.
We were on small city roads and paved back roads around buildings. The course so far had been marked well with volunteers on hand.
We turned off onto Latrobe road and I started to notice my back brake was rubbing. It was the first of MANY hills to come for the next 30 miles. I had to pull off the road several times and try to fix my rubbing brake. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.
REMEMBER the rookie water bottle holder move. It was pressing my cable and it was so tight I couldn't move it. My brake was on drag mode for the rest of the race. Not only was it an annoying sound but it didn't make the ride easier either.
Susan and I would do the leap frog for most of the ride. We were close enough to talk and keep one another going most of the time.
Around mile 24 we started to notice people turning around and everyone going in different directions. A few people asked us what course we were doing. There was obvious confusion on the course for all the distances.
Meanwhile we are still pedaling our hearts out and I completely forgot to keep taking in my nutrition.It wasn't really hot by this time and I felt good but I knew how important it was to keep up with it.
FINALLY, no more major hills. We rode for a few miles and came to the water station at mile 45. I had to use the bathroom as did Susan. We did the you hold my bike, I will hold yours.
Apparently a few bikers had past us and Susan was on a mission to get them back.
She yelled back at me to hurry up that we need to catch the little skinny chic.. I yelled up ... "SUSAN she is only 15"..hahaha We both got a really good laugh.
We were holding a pretty good pace and I still felt relatively good after all those mountains. We were getting close to the 3.5 hour mark and I began to get a little nevous but I knew we would be just fine.
We had a good 10 mile stretch of flat and fast canal roads.
Near mile 53 a lady had passed out and fell off of her bike. There were about 3 other athletes assisting her and on the phone with 911. The ambulance had actually just turned as we were passing. SO close to finishing up the longest ride we had ever done.
We were definitely going to make the 4 hour cut off but it was going to be close.
we turned back onto the main roads and had caught up with the 15 year old and about 5 other riders. It was near the last half mile when things went BAD. The very last turn took us around the overpass .
NO volunteers at all , cones scattered everywhere and tourists and bikers coming at us all in every direction. When your riding down a hill at 35 and you have to make a split second decision you hope its the right one. Well, we made the decision along with 4-5 other athletes. We started up the overpass and by the time we had got to the top we all realized we made a crucial mistake, or did we? There was nobody around and to get back there was a very STEEP hill to go down. We went down and it took us into a very different direction and out towards the other side of the lake. OH MY GAWD. This can't be happening. The other athletes had all gone in every different direction and I could tell we were all trying to figure our way back.
FINALLY, Thank goodness Susan is somewhat good with directions. We made our way back up the overpass and back down to the other side where there was a volunteer and we let him know what was happening. ( I think he was in the wrong spot). The cones were obviously moved and we had no help directing us on where to go. It cost us a good 20 minutes.
We got over near the parking lot and again with the other riders were confused about where to go. There was nobody around and cones were everywhere. Well, the guy was there just not paying attention.
We made it back over to transition and Eric is there with a smile and a comment of course. "GEEZ, Babe did you get lost"..lol YESSSSS we did.
There were kids running everywhere and we couldn't even get into transition. I was thankful the ride was over and thought other than the mishap we did pretty well. UNTIL they told us we couldn't finish that we needed to drop out of the race. We were to late and we missed the cut off time by minutes. WELL NO FREAKING KIDDING.
Eric was yelling at me to go. Hello I can't I have been DQ'ed.. We were ALL in disbelief. How could we just spend 5 hours out on a course and then be told we can't finish. I was mortified. NO WAY.
Trying to hold back the tears, unsuccessful I might add. I made my over to the man in charge along with Susan and other athletes who also were in disbelief.
The staff were all arguing and another lady who was telling me it would be okay that she would bring us water to go finish what we came her to do.
T-2
MASS CHOAS- So many of us were so confused. Why are they DQ'ing us, why are they taking our chips, what on earth are they telling us we can't finish.
We still had well over 3 hours to run a half marathon. They said there was no support on the course and it would be dangerous. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, people are still racking their bikes and starting their run.
They kept telling us to go cross the finish line as an Aqua-Bike finisher. After 25-30 minutes of listening to staff argue and people yelling Susan and I went over to the finish line and walked through, I nearly cried in Erics chest for another 5 minutes, I was hyperventilating. The same was I was in the water..lol
Eric and the mom of 5 just kept saying you girls came here to complete a 70 mile race. GO DO IT. everyone else decided on running as well.
13.1 mile run ~ FORGET YOU PEOPLE we came her to race a 70.3 mile race. There was no way you were going to stop us.
Along the course of the chaos we had forgotten to grab our nutrition, visor and bibs. Susan was concerned because they said there would be no support. YEAH right. Every single aid station was still out there. Along with plenty of runners that still had their chips..
At this point my emotions had taken over and I cried about every 25 steps. I called Eric along the course and cried more. I was feeling very sorry for mysql. Get over it , right?!
Then after I realized that we were only 1-2 mile behind everyone else ( even after a 20-25 minute delay) I started to get my energy back and Susan and trotted along our merry way.
There were so many of us out there who had been told we couldn't finish what we had set out to do, along with the father of 5 who's wife was consoling me, the 15 year old girl, the old man with a limp and even the couple who had to wait for the ambulance to assist the girl on conscious , along with many others we all exchanged frustrations as we ran along or passed one another. I am sure the people with their chips were thinking ( glad it wasn't me who took that wrong turn 5 seconds before these duds..lol
Anyhow, after an emotional run but definitely a fun run Susan and I made the cutoff time by at least 20 minutes easy even with our turn around and chaotic T-2. We all out out SPRINTED through the finish line trying to beat one another across the finish, just like we do in training. It is always a competition with us..haha
In the end we completed what we had set out to do. We just completed a 70.3 PLUS Long Course Tri and we got to cross the finish line TWICE. Woo hoo.
Ultimately Susan beat me across the finish line, she BARELY beat me. It may have been like a tip of a fingernail that you bite off and thats pushing it..
Although this race did not go the way I had anticipated or planned it was a fun and rewarding day. I learned that my body can take a beating with some crazy elbows to the head, a few kicks to the side and being pushed under water by two grown men (exaggeration) I wasn't pushed just ran over. I can ride my bike ( I struggle and work hard every training day to be a better cyclists) up some massive hills with my brake dragging on my rear tire. And I can runs half marathon completely drained and full of crazy emotions.
It wasn't without trails and triumphs that is for sure. Trying to train for 2-5 hours ,5 days a week with 4 kids and a husband was not an easy task ( and Susan a full-time job and single mom).
I am thankful for having my friends beside me training hard and pushing me through some tough days.
The best part was having Susan by my side the entire race (we got lucky). We have had our good days and bad days with training and we always knew how to keep one another going. Michelle and Susan were my heroes on the hard days. They never let me give up or give in. They know the bike is hard for me but never made it easy just to give into my weakness. They are wonderful team mates and friends.
I was so happy to have Eric there at the start all the way to the finish. Without him there is no way I could have trained for such an event. It took a lot of hours and time away from the family but they always encouraged me and never made me feel guilty for the time I spent training. I have such an amazing support group.
Last but not least the whole reason behind this journey.
ELEONORE ROCKS... Such an amazing foundation for terminally ill children and their families. I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU again to everyone who has helped me raise awareness and to reach my goal of bringing rocking chairs to the NICU's.
ER is very important to so many families and children.
Most of you know our story and the time we spent at the hospital in the PCICU with Cameron and the weeks with Kendra in the NICU. The mission behind ER hits home for us. I really can't express how truly thankful I am for all of my family and friends.
Next up 26.2 miles of pavement pounding running. Long Beach here we come...
