Day 149: Post Race

How fun was that? That was totally amazing! The weather held, the wind blew gales, the people cheered, we ran-biked-and swam! I'm a little elated right now.

We got to the base and got our packets with our bib numbers and t-shirts. Bib numbers were assigned alphabetically. I was 686, JE was 687 (we happened to meet Mr. Martin, number 688, just as we were discussing how the numbers were issued). The volunteers marked our bodies with giant sharpies. Our numbers went on our arms and our ages by the end of this year went on our calves.

The bike racks were set up according to age bracket and gender in the transition area. We set up our stuff, JE in the 30-39 Males and I in the... Big fat faux pas! Ooops! That U after the "29 and U," actually means, "Under," not "UP." I moved my stuff, laughing with another woman who was just about to do exactly the same thing. Race-Brain=Duh!

Friends from our training class found us, including Jen, who hung with us a while. We all warmed up a bit (despite the sun, it was not altogether warm). What do you do for an hour before your race starts? Chatter and stroll. It was really fun. As we were heading to the race start, my dear friend Swantje found us. Swan is another 6', and a tailoring dynamo. She taught me everything I know! She came to cheer us on (I feel so blessed to know her!).

DW, Jen, JE and I were standing around at the start line, Julie, a woman from our class came and stood with us saying, "I need my comfort-zone." Another friend from church found us and stood with us also. Being over 6 feet tall, in crowded events, definitely has its advantages.

Speeches were made, the National Anthem sung (I always tear up--especially in light of Egypt and Libya). And then the race began. When the crowd started moving, it was a bizarre visual effect, with so many bodies moving forward around the same speed initially, like something writhing. And then the speedies moved on ahead, and the slower-polks fell behind. We ran around the tarmac in a large triangle. The wind blew in our faces at first and then we turned a corner and had a tailwind. Running was not easy. That one mile marker almost knocked all of my intention out of me. I swear that was the world's longest mile! My guts were going crazy! By the end of the second mile, I was feeling better and had momentum. I picked up my pace and passed a gaggle of women in my same age group. Of course, just after passing them, my shoelace came untied. I ate some humble pie as the gaggle zoomed passed as I fumbled with my shoelace. Next time I will use elastic laces

We transitioned smoothly and started our cycle laps. 3 laps on the tarmac, a little longer than the run. Remember that headwind thing? It was so much worse on a bike. We ducked down into the wind and peddled with everything we had, just to maintain 13 mph. Remember the tailwind thing? We sat up high in the saddles to make ourselves big sails and flew down the runway at 27 mph, without breaking a sweat. Fun!

We had been hearing so much about the horrible cramps athletes get when they jump into the pool after running and cycling so hard. We had anticipated the worst, but when we got to it, it was possibly the most enjoyable part of the event. My rhythm was there, the motion was set. The pool was incredibly crowded with people. It was divided by four, 50 yard laps. each lane was one direction, so at the wall, everyone needed to go under the lane dividers. There was a huge backup of people trying to get under all in one spot. I touched the wall on the far side of the lane and swam at a diagonal around the people, under the lane-divider and did my next lap. That little formula worked slick. It was crazy how fast the swim went!

I stopped to look back to make sure JE was coming. He stepped out of the crowd ahead and grabbed me over the finish line. We were met with water bottles, fruit, hugs from friends, and dog tags with the Race on the Base logo.

It was perfect. We finished with more people behind us than in front of us. Out of one-thousand participants, JE was finisher number 490, and I was 493. In my age group, I was 25 out of 69--and in the upper crust of my age group. Hurray!

We are getting a little rest before we meet friends at our favorite taco joint. It has been an awesome day!