Rubberside Down...

SOoooo I DID IT!! WHOO HOO!! You can now refer to me as Madam Triathlete! I finished my first triathlon yesterday in a wonderful way. I didn’t win in anyone else’s eyes, score sheet or time clock, but I did in my own eyes. And in the eyes of my favoritist roommate Becky, Leonard, mom and youngest brother, Steven. When I was done with everything and my belongings were being carried by my Mini Fan Club ($199.95/annual membership fee plus shipping and handling…for what I don’t know) and we were all headed back to the car, I saw that Lucy Ann Foxworthy (my car) had been attacked by window paint which read, “TRIATHLETE” right across the front windshield and on all the door windows it said “ABBY ROCKS” and “GO 365”. The back windshield said, “I AM A TRIATHLETE and my friends love me”

It was awesome to see that! I couldn’t have asked for better support. Getting to the race destination the day before was more difficult than the training just because things weren’t lining up ‘just right’ but nevertheless, we all had fun and I didn’t bleed at all! Or break a nail! Ok, so you wanna hear about the race or what?! Alrighty then. Read on my friends.

My youngest bro Steven had been visiting with me for a few days before the race, so when we packed up to leave town, he came with to be handed off again to my mother, who joined us at the hotel in Richmond, Virginia. An hour after I wanted to leave my house we were still putting stuff into the car and I was going over my packing list one more time. I thought it would be nice to take the bike computer (the more technical name might confuse some people, so we’ll stick with that for now, it tells you how fast you are going and how far you’ve gone and another dozen helpful things) from my old bike to the new borrowed one for pacing. I hadn’t even done a ride with it, but I thought, if we can get it to work then I’ll use it. Leonard knows more about that kinda thing being the mechanic that he is, so he put it on and got it to work, but it was wound too tightly so when I turned the handle bars the wire pulled out of the screen and it was broken. Not going to be used today. Never mind about that, put it into the house and we’ll just go.

During the 2.4 hour ride to the packet pick up site, Leonard took off his seatbelt to look at the pictures in a magazine that Becky was reading from, and I wasn’t about to have that in my car! My mom taught me better! “Leonard, would you be embarrassed if I had to pull this car over because you don’t have your seatbelt on?”
[blank stare from Leonard]
Next scene [Abby’s Honda stopping on the shoulder of the highway until Leo decides to buckle up]
Next scene [Abby becoming more and more like her mother = ) ]

Well, because of all that, the powdered Gatorade canister hit the floor and busted upon, spilling on Steven and assorted other goods. WE HADN’T EVEN BEEN DRIVING FOR 30 MINUTES! AHHHHhhhhh! Hardees was close we took care of things there, but didn’t stop to eat because I had been eating the whole day preparing to break my body the next, so I didn’t even think about my passenger’s growing appetites. We found a gas station/DQ and that was another unnecessary experience that Abby didn’t need in her day.

This is what the DQ counter looked like: a group of lost 14-year-olds responsible for meeting the requirements of hungry customers and at the same time maintaining a restaurant that will satisfy their ‘C’ score. There were a ton a people in line and nothing was being done about it. The dipped cones that 3 young ones were working on (if at this point you think there were 3 cones….one for each worker…there weren’t…there was one that all of them were working on!) came out looking like nothing was even covering them and the people in front of us wanted their money back! I asked them if food was being served today and they said “Go somewhere else! Don’t even think about trying to get anything here! It just isn’t happening.” I made the executive decision to get our lunch from the gas station wing of this fine establishment on an exit where Nothing Else Was!

Steven and Becky and I had paid for our stuff and while I was waiting on Leonard to get thru the line I thought, to calm myself down, I would start eating some of the sunflower seeds I’d just purchased. I looked Becky straight in the face and said, “I am SO irritable.”

At that very second I’d succeeded in opening my bag of sunflower seeds…very well! The contents of that little bag flew EVERYWHERE! I just maintained eye contact with Becky and laughed! Those little seeds had seen some air because they went soaring. I looked over at Steven and he said “I think some went in my pocket.” They had! That changed my mood and the rest of our lunch was eaten on the ground on the side of this place right out of the pits of….

We got to the package pick-up site and saw that I’d been placed—due to the swim time I’d entered—365 out of 408 participants. Wasn’t looking good. Didn’t matter. I’d only been training for less than two months and was going to go thru this to learn about it and find out if I wanna make it a hobby of mine. Which means dropping a lot of money on gear and a lot of time on training. Found the hotel, NICE hotel, checked in, took the bike into the room so nobody could cut my tires/chain/brake lines, then waited for mom then headed for The Last Supper. Chinese! Lovely place. Mom graciously footed the bill for us all so we ate well! THANKS MOM! Dinner was relaxing and full of laughter. Lots of dog and cat jokes. Jokes about our full-blooded Chinese waiter having a nametag on that reads JACK. = )

I didn’t have a way to get my race number on my jersey so we bought a sewing kit from a neighboring grocery store then headed back to the hotel for a nice light swim. While Becky perfectly sewed my number on, Steven, Leonard, mom and I swam in a little indoor pool with 30 cannon ball happy children. ALL THE SAME AGE! Young! It kept things light though. Bedtime came early, sleep came later…that could have been better but can’t change that now. I did what I could to shut off my world without loosing my salvation and that’s all I could do. The best night of sleep is the night before the night before the race and I did well with that.

Becky took me to the race site by 6 AM so family and friends could sleep a little more. Before Becky left I got on my bike to put it into the gear I wanted to start in but wasn’t wearing my helmet and an official stopped me. “Are you aware that at any point today if you are seen riding your bike today without a helmet on you could be disqualified?” “No Sir, I wasn’t.” “Well, now you are.” Then he walked away. I looked at Becky and asked, “I am aware or disqualified??!?!? AHHHhhhh. I didn’t even get to race! I can’t be out! Wait come back! But since he didn’t ask my name or number (not in the dating kinda way… =) we figured that he was just letting me know. Whew. Got the helmet, mounted the bike only to find out that I only could get one gear to work! That wasn’t good. I asked a dude parked next to me to tell me what he could about it but he didn’t want to help at all. I told Becky it would either get fixed or I would peddle the heck out of it regardless, so she should head on back to rally the Mini Fan Club.

An official was walking by so I stopped him and he said he could tell me as much as I needed to know, and whatever he could tell me, but he wouldn’t be allowed to touch it. He touched it anyways and we figured it out. Another WHEW! I got my body numbered and my racing timepiece strapped to my left ankle to time all of my sections. Then waited. Listened to the little pow-wow everyone had to go to about rules and times and awards and penalties then waited. Read strategy from my book then waited some more. How I wished I had brought my cell phone to call someone to take my brain off of pre-race jitters.

After the first swimmers got thru with that leg of the race, I was watching them transition and chose to rethink my plans for transitioning between events. Some people were even getting back from their bike ride after swimming and starting their run before I even got into the pool. From watching them I made a few more modifications to my transitioning post bike ride. I finally saw my Mini Fan Club and invited them to watch me swim from the Wall-O-Window inside the YMCA then got in line.

I didn’t even know what to think about when I started my swim. Absolutely nothing was in my head. You might think that’s astonishing, but it is so true my friends. Well, I did think one thing I guess: “Don’t swallow any of this water.” That’s about it. Once I got going and my heart was beating faster I did remember that “This is the easiest part of the race. Nothing will be easier than this moment, so it isn’t that hard.”

Just keep swimming Just keep swimming Just keep swimming Just keep swimming

All during my swim I could hear my mom from behind the glass “GO ABBY! ATTA GIRL!” I stopped to wag my tounge and give heavy metal hands (hold hand in a tight fist in front of you and stick your first and pinky fingers out…now you can rock ‘n roll!) That was fun! It costs seconds, but it’s ok! I knew where I stood in the race at that point, wanted to do my very best, working my hardest, but still be able to acknowledge my Mini Fan Club and thank them for being there.

When I got done swimming I thought I would be more dizzy than I was, but I could still run after gosling my inner-ear fluid all around. I booked it out the back door and around the backside of the YMCA in bare feet—on rocks—only to round the last building corner to see EVERYONE that had come with me cheering me on! That was great! Becky was taking pictures and running along with me. We were yelling at each other and it was fun! I took my goggles off and swung them around my head in jubilation (that’s right, I was jubilant!) and said “You’re doing this next baby! It’s you and me Bex!) I don’t know what happened after that!

Just kidding. I ran thru a kiddy pool of water to clean my feet off before I suited up for the bike ride. Bike shorts are hard to put on while wet, and so are sock, but I knew it was going to be and had prepared for it. From hundreds of yards away I could hear my mother again: WAY TO GO ABBY! YOU CAN DO IT! This is when I learned a very important lesson. God had made my mother loud for that very moment, and I was glad! I used to think, “OMG, not another life story for the check-out clerk” and now it had all changed! LOL it was funny.

With a strapped helmet and a gel pouch for later consumption under my short leg against my thigh, I ran the bike out of T1 and off we went. When I got to a place where I though I was supposed to go strait, the volunteers were pointing me to turn so I did. But that was wrong. Seeing a T in the road in a residential area with no markers of where to turn was indication to me that I was in the wrong place so I turned around and headed back. “Thanks a lot guys!” “We tried to yell for you to come back!” I thought, POINT BETTER NEXT TIME FELLAS!

It cost me about 4 minutes, nothing that would have counted in the end, but frustrating. I passed a lot of people, did really well, pushing myself the whole way. There were people all along the route cheering for us and telling us where to go as they stopped traffic. There was a girl in my age group that passed me and that made me go even harder. It was amazing to me that I could catch up to her on hills, where she was weaker, but she spanked me anyways. I pushed myself to keep her in sight, but the windy road didn’t allow for that.

Getting dressed for the run took half the time as dressing for biking because I could run and get dressed and drink water and kiss my brother. Multi tasking. I felt like I was driving! Some triathletes tell you that after a bike ride running is very difficult because you are using a whole new set of muscles. I didn’t feel that, but probably because I only rode for 13 miles. I ran smoothly and steadily for the first mile or so then walked then ran then walked and ran. It was hot out side at this point and I could feel how hot my body was because I wasn’t breaking wind with it like I was on the bike. That sucked. And because of my ever-weakening knees, I knew that running was going to be the hardest for me. I spent a lot of time doing it, and in the mean time I saw that same girl that passed me on the bike running back to finish just as I was getting starting. DAG YO!

When I got nearer to the finish line and could hear people cheering, I picked up the pace and pounded the pavement into the Y parking lot, YES!!! I had finished! The announcer was saying my name, where I was from and that I was the ONLY person there representing Liberty University! I didn’t even think as to how they knew that…all I wanted was a shower! Come to find out, my mother told her after she had been announcing other students of colleges in the area! I was greeted by my peeps with more picture taking (they will be up soon, along with the other 3,287 ones that I’ve previously promised!) and cold PowerAid.

T’was a day I shant soon forget. Especially with all the reliving I just did to share this life changing experience with you!