Tropical Tri Race Report

First off I just want to say - Wow I'm glad that's over!

Warning: this is a long post.

So I arrived on-site around 5:45am, with a race start of 7am. Needless to say, there wasn't a whole lot of people there yet, but they were starting to trickle in. Every single race I always bring a flashlight and have never needed it, so Murphy's Law would state that if I don't bring it, there will be no lights in transition. I went to pick up my packet & chip and then I got body marked. Grabbed my gear and headed to a totally unlit transition area. Now this is at a city beach and the transition area is in a city parking lot that has lights. The city is the main sponsor of the race. Do you think anybody planned ahead and had the lights set to turn on? Nope. Guess they are on a timer and the time says off at this time of the morning. After all it is sea turtle nesting season so they probably try to shut them off as soon as practical at night. So they hunted around but couldn't manage to get anyone that knew anything about them or how to get them going.
So I managed to find the Athena row and was thankful to see that it was almost to the end right where you come in from the swim, perfect! I have a hard time running with bare feet and was thankful to see it would be a short hop on pavement. So I managed to get myself set up reasonably well in the dark. Around 6:30 or so, the sun was starting to lighten up the sky, but the sun didn't rise until the swim start. After we got a little light, I double-checked by set-up, had a Gu Rocktane (love those things!) and a swig of gatorade and then headed down to the beach just across the street. Now because of all the storms over the past several years, our beach has been whittled away to nothing. You can pretty much walk down the steps and there is only 50 feet of beach at low tide. Now in the dark, the sound of the waves crashing was a bit intimidating. I had looked when I picked up my packet, but it was pitch black. Now that the sun was up, we could see that the ocean itself wasn't too bad, but the break was pretty daunting. I have never raced with seas like this.
I decided that I better have a hop in the water and figure out how to dive thru the waves and not look like a moron. So I get in the water around 6:45 and immediately realized it went from wet feet to waist deep in like a foot, then it stayed waist deep for about 10 feet, then there was a big sandbar for about another 10 feet where it was only ankle deep. Just after the sand bar is where the break was happening. I stood on the sandbar just watching some others warm up and got to see how they attached a 3' ripcurl coming at them. It was hard enough just standing there trying not to get swept in the with waves. It seemed easy enough, the successful ones just dove into it as it was curling before it completely crashed down. Perfect, now it was time for me to give it a go. After a couple trys I seemed confident enough that it wouldn't be too difficult. They had us swimming out a fair distance before we were to parallel the shore. It looked longer than a 1/4 mi and later the announcer said it was 3/8 mi, no biggie. So I swam around a bit and got loosened up. My shoulders seemed ok. I headed the dr's advice and rested it the last several days.
So we got called out of the water for the start. I was in wave 2, actually all the women were in wave 2 except relays and first-timers. There were only 4 waves. Attendance did seem down a bit from last year, but I don't think the race was published very well and in their infinite wisdom they decided to raise the fee to $80. I had written an email to the city because I was so pissed off about this. $80 for a sprint race in my backyard???? Are you kidding me? Well several others must have done the same because about 2 weeks later, they sent out a mass email announcing they were dropping the price to $60, so I signed up then. Also with all the storms that we've had, that probably kept a good bit of folks away too.
So the first wave lines up and I go down to the waters edge so I can see how the guys handle getting in. It was freaking hysterical! I guess not everyone warmed up in the water because several of the guys took one step and dove right in, only to take one stroke and be on their bellies! Now they had to get up and run another 10 feet and battle the waves and get in again. It was hilarious! So next the girls line up. There seemed to be alot of us, so I got towards the outside where it thinned out a bit and I was just behind the 1st row of people. When our waved started I went running out, high knees thru the surf! Got to the sand bar and kept my high knees going. Great here come a nice big swell, this is gonna make a huge wave. Sure enough! I dove in just before the break and popped out the other side. I look around and I am at the front of the wave. What the? So no time to gloat, here comes another wave. I dive thru again and pop out the other side in time to get slammed with a third wave and a giant mouth full of seawater. I had to stop and tread for a moment to hack up the water and watched as people started to blow past me, ugh. It was a good start until that stupid wave. So I managed to get myself together and start swimming. Visibility today was very poor. The sand was all stirred up, so I had to sight frequently to stay on track. Luckily the pack was not too far ahead and I used them to sight on. The swim went by pretty quick, I passed a few people along the way made it to the buoy and turned in. Now here is where the real fun began! As I was swimming to shore, you keep getting surged in and out, ugh. So I was kicking a bit for fiercely so I wouldn't lose ground as the water surged away from shore. I managed to pass a couple more people and I was right next to some other girl. All of a sudden I was swimming on top of a giant ripcurling wave and it just sucked me right under the water and tumbled be all over the place. Next to getting my regulator kicked out of my mouth in 90' of water, this was my scariest moment ever. And I am a water brat born and raised on the Florida beaches. Luckily I had just managed a breath and I held it while I got whirled about. I remember wondering how long it would last and which way was up. Yes it was scary. When it finally stopped, I stood up and I was only about 10' from shore, past the sand bar and in the waist deep water. My left calf had a major cramp, my right toes were cramped and my right shoulder was going all spasm. The girl that was next to me, I don't know if she got taken for the same ride or what, but she took one look at me and asked if I was okay. I said yeah just cramped up a bit. As I tried to hobble towards shore on one leg, the waves just kept coming... hard. I got thrashed around a bit more, but nothing like the washing machine ride I just had. I got out of the water and had to walk up the sand, my leg & shoulder were dying. I looked down at my watch 12:00. Awesome! Finally the cramp worked it self out and I jogged over to my bike.
So I swap gear and get out on the bike. As I got to the mount line, one of the first guys in the wave behind me caming flying up with his bike and he was going to mount it while in a full on run. I thought, wow this will be cool to watch, and it was. As he swung his leg, his seat came flying off, but not the seat post. His seat flew forward and knocked his aerobottle out too, so he was just leaving a trail of parts. Now that would of really hurt if he had managed to get mounted on only his seat post! I'm not sure what happened to him, cause I didn't stick around to find out. There is a really nice little downhill at the start, but then it goes right into the lake worth bridge. It's not a small bridge, but its not too bad. I got over that and then we had to turn and do 2 loops down the main road that cut across downtown. It was supposed to be 11 miles, but Mr. Garmin says it was 12.5! So the bike took me about 45:00 with an average speed of 16.7. My speed on the flats was pretty good. I think it was about 16mph going into wind and 19mph with the wind.
So back into transition and out for the run. The run was okay. My shoulder was really killing by this point. Spending alot of time on the aerobars did not help things. Just about every time I jostled my feet, it stabbed thru my shoulder blade. Yes I will be going to see chiro tomorrow so he can stick that rib back into place and my massage guy is off til wed, but I'll be seeing him then. The run course was okay. There were 4 water stops, which was great because the temps were in the low 90's this morning. The run leaves the beach, goes over the bridge and thru a park, snakes around a block of houses and then back thru a parking lot and back over the bridge and back to the beach. It came out to 2.9 miles. It's kinda weird but when you come down the bridge you have to sorta double back to the right to go under the bridge to get to the park. There were 2 other girls running down the bridge with me and they blew right by the turn. I gave them a shout and they turned around and came under the bridge. They both thanked me because they would have been off running into downtown and no one is there. The one girl was complaining they should have had a volunteer there, but it was marked on the ground and they did give us a hand-out in the packet explaining the run course. If you weren't familiar with the course, at least read your hand-out.
So I finished the run in around 51:00. I never saw my official time, but if we were 4 min behind wave 1, then I should be around 1:52. I'll post my numbers when they get them on-line. So I hung around a bit and went over to check the board to see if I could find my time and there wasn't anyone listed in the Athena. Weird. Well I realized that these times were obviously cut off somewhere around 1:37 so when they bring out the next batch it should be on there. Well the next batch never came. So I decided to stay for the awards, because who knows, I could be 3 of 3 again :) I was standing next to another Athena who recognized me from Singer Island a few weeks back. She too decided to wait and see what happens. Of course they wait until about dead last to call the Athenas, and guess what, I got 3rd place! Yeah me. I'm not sure how many people were in our group, but my guess is 3, but 3rd is 3rd. The girl next to me got 2nd. She said she hoped to see me next weekend at the last Singer Island race. Well I guess that will depend on my shoulder :) and the seas :)