NB 1/2 Iron RR

Dad at 5:00am, race day. Looking pretty chipper!

I think I'm due to provide a race report so here goes!

Last Friday I drove to my cousins place where I met up with my Dad who came over from the Okanagan to race too. He and I relayed the New Balance 1/2 Iron in Victoria. I swam, he biked, I ran. My cousin did the whole thing solo. A bunch of other friends did the race too so we were in good company.

Friday night consisted of pizza from the Steveston Pizza Co (soo yummy!) and Guitar Hero. That's right, Guitar Hero. It really should be part of everyone's pre-race prep. At one point I was worried that the cramping in my hand might have a negative effect come race day but I played on. I got Torb and I booed off stage once. Oops. Guitar Hero is fun and I want my own!

We were up and at em early Saturday morning for the ferry boat over to Vancouver Island. When got there we drove a good portion of the bike course (I napped and at one point woke up with my gob wide open...classy as always) then ate some lunch at the Blue Fox. Off we all went to the race venue to sign in, pick up our stuff and sit in on the "mandatory" pre-race meeting. Hmm.

After the meeting we checked ourselves into the hotel and then we had dinner for 10of us 'athletes' at the Macaroni Grill. We all went to bed pretty early due to ridiculously early wake up at 4:30am.

OK ok here's the meat portion of this post: I hop in the water about 1 minute before the friggin' cannon goes off (I near shat my wetsuit it was so loud and scared me so badly) and then off we went. As always I stayed on the edge of the crowd. I don't like people all up in my space when I swim and I'd hate to have to rip somebody's goggles off. I found a pretty sweet spot and just cruised the entire swim. I was comfortable and daydreamed most of the way, it was very enjoyable. At one point I did think to myself that perhaps one day I'll actually race a race. You know, give it my all and leave nothing in the tank. One day soon actually. Right towards the very end of the swim I had another thought and that was "hmm...people were talking about how warm the water is and how there's a ton of geese shit in the water...I wonder how much goose crap I've consumed so far...I wonder if I should have been more careful about keeping my mouth shut up tight...damn...I just swallowed some goose poo I bet.....I hope this doesn't give me the runs on the run". I found myself at the end of the swim and out I get to run up to the bike transition to tag my Dad off. Oh what's this? I'm at the bike, but Dad's not! Umm...this is a friggin' relay Dad, you're supposed to be here. I spot him, I yelled "Dude, get over here" and we manage to get the chip transferred to him and off he goes. He told me that he wasn't expecting me out of the water so soon. Harumph.

So Dad's off on the bike and since he did a 600km bike ride the weekend previous and based on his IMC bike times I had calculated 3 hours to chillax before the run. Nice. I change, eat, and indeed I chillax. I parked my ass on Cathy's beach blanket and gossiped with T & C and read my book and just rested up. At one point I was feeling like it was time to eat and pee so I put the book down, turned around and happend to glance up. Ahhh...what the? "Wait, is that my DAD?! Oh my god that's my Dad. OMFG. Oh Fuck! Oh FUCK!" I tied up my shoes, stripped my hoody and put my running shirt and race number on, swiped a gel and holy shit I was running. I was running. I was running down through the bike transition and onto the course. I kept thinking "I can't be here, I can't be running NOW. I'm not ready. I didn't pee or eat or tie up my pony tail or anything". I started sucking on the gel and just kept running. My heart rate was way high. I ran faster than I normally would and it was b/c I was all pumped and full of adrenaline due to the shock of being out earlier than expected. By about 20 minutes! Yeah Dad had a stellar bike. Too bad I can't run fast otherwise we would have done quite well! That, I expect, was the first and only time I'll be out running with those fast bastards. It was a fun experience and I'll remember it for some time!

Me at the very end of the run, rather happy that it's over.

A few minutes into the run all that I could think was "what the hell am I doing here with these fast people, this is sooo wrong, I don't belong here". Still I kept running and got passed over and over and over. The first 10km was fine and I felt good. The second 10km felt crappy. My stomach was having none of it and so towards the end I was just jogging along at the only pace I could manage. I saw a snake too, so that sucked. A 70 year old man and I kept playing leap frog which I must admit keeps me more than a little humble. There was also a 30 something year old man who kept passing me so I'd work to catch up and pass him and that helped me finish when I really just wanted a crapper and some tp all to myself.

Joanne being a happy after the swim!! She raced a PB this race!

The run ended. I found the porta pottie and felt better soon after that visit. A quick handful of pretzels, a half a banana and a drink and I got changed into dry clothes and was dropped off at the ferry to head for home. I fell asleep on the ferry and even with that little nap I managed to miss a turn coming off the ferry. I ended up in friggin' Delta and New Westminster. Duh Fox. Cripes. Must pay attention to signage!

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Dad and I on race morning at 5am.

So thanks to Dad for racing with me, again. Thanks Joanne & Torb for having us over, again, and hanging out with us and showing us the ropes.

I'm due to swim the Squamish tri in a few weeks and I'm thinking that perhaps this time I will give the swim a real effort and not worry about having anything left in the tank after. We'll see!!