A short story, when compared to War and Peace, about my triathlon experience
When Alison asked on Saturday evening (8/2/08) if I wanted to do a triathlon the next morning instead of our scheduled 15 mile run, my initial reaction was “holy crap, are you kidding me?! I might drown!” But then in my mind I heard the words of a friend that I always have the option of responding to the unknown positively, too, and should try that more often. So I thought, “Okay, this will be a new experience, it’s just a workout, we’re not trying to qualify for an iron man…”
The tri was in Black Diamond and consisted of a 1 km swim, 15 mile bike ride, and 4.25 mile run. We figured it would be a nice, family, Seafair-wannabe triathlon for the people who live on Lake Sawyer. Swim a bit, bike the streets of Black Diamond, and run around the lake. Should be doable for even us measly marathon trainers.
After getting about 4.5 hours of sleep because we’d gone out dancing the night before, Alison and I arrived at registration just on time to enter the race. I started to write Alison as my emergency contact on my waiver, thought better of it, and wrote my mom’s name…then I realized, “wow, won’t she be surprised if she gets a call – she doesn’t even know I’m doing this!” (And she still doesn’t, as I write – I’m calling soon, Mom!) :) Technically they made the last call for registrations about 10 seconds before I completed my form. Dang them for breaking the rules and letting me in late.
Alison and I scanned the crowd of nearly 200 participants sporting full wet suits and XTERRA swim caps. We laughed at ourselves and hoped our spandex and sports bras would do for the swim. At least we had been given our own swim caps. About 30 minutes before the race, we realized what we’d gotten ourselves into. This was no typical, run-of-the-mill triathlon. XTERRA tris means mountain biking and trail running. WHAT?! I hadn’t ridden a real bike since I was 17, and NEVER on trails! I told Alison, “well, it’s okay if we get last because the last people in races always get cheered for the most!” As the start time neared, we began having second thoughts…and fourth and fifth…
Everyone lined up at the start line in the water. Alison and I hung out with the spectators until about five seconds before the race. We didn’t want to get cold waiting. The water turned out to feel absolutely fabulous. Therefore, I decided to stay in it longer than anyone else! Why ruin a good thing. I discovered in a few strokes that freestyle would NOT be my stroke of choice, and if I was going to make it 1 km, I’d need to conserve energy. Backstroke it was. My lack of speed allowed me time to make friends and conversation with the kayakers who made sure no swimmer was left behind. I told my new buddy, Chris, that “my name is Tara, but if I drown I’ll be an XTara.” Thank you Brown family genes… I decided to close my eyes, relax, and just stroke. When I looked up to check my course about a minute later, I was pointing almost back towards the start. Awesome. Apparently my left stroke is too strong. I hadn’t heard Chris because of my cap, so I had no idea I was swimming in circles.
When I made it to the small island that was the 0.5 km mark, Alison was waiting for me. There were tiki torches set up and some teenage volunteers dressed in grass skirts and coconut bras. “Are we having a luau?” I shouted as I swam up. “Are the Tuiasosopos there?” No, they weren’t. So we crossed the luau-themed patch of dirt and jumped right back in the water. I told Chris to stick close.
We were joined by another kayaking volunteer and a few lifeguards paddling on surfboards. I had quite an entourage, and we joked the whole way back, and I told them the story of how Alison and I had decided to enter about 12 hours prior. Chris and the other ‘yaker held up their oars in the direction of the finish so I could track better on my back. As I approached the shore I yelled, “Where’s my limo?” I had never looked so forward to running.
Alison and I crossed the first time check point and put on our shirts and helmets for the bike ride. We had no idea what we were getting into. As we left, the MC said, “Alison Gargle (haha, um, it’s GANGL) and Tara Brown are now starting their bike portion…they just decided last night to do this.” Word of our marathon training status and last-minute decision had spread. We were becoming rock stars.
We biked over a gravel road for about a quarter mile, when doom reared its nasty head in the form of the opening hill, which was nothing but tangled roots at an incline suitable for a decent water slide. As we got off our bikes to haul them up, the clearly-first-place-at-the-time (and maybe he DID win) contestant passed us and began hopping and climbing over the roots on his bike. It was amazing. He probably had a bit more experience than we. The bike portion was a 7.5 mile “loop” to be completed twice. We heard the average was about 45 minutes per loop, so we figured we’d probably do it in about twice that time, and finish biking in about 3 hours. After literally walking our bikes for the first 3 miles (we think), our spirits lagged. Isn’t biking supposed to be FASTER??? We could have run the trail faster. And in fact, we got passed by a competitor who had completed one loop and ditched his bike and was now running the second loop. We weighed this option, but didn’t want to get disqualified, and DEFINITELY wanted our t-shirt at the end of the race.
The trail was rocks and roots, hills and curves. We literally jumped into bushes with our bikes as we got passed by the top competitors. I was afraid we’d land in poison ivy. There was no room for passing on the trail. We even had to carry our bikes through water! About halfway through we were finally able to start riding somewhat consistently, still having to pull over for people to pass us. We got braver and gained more control with riding over rocks and roots. All with bikes borrowed from Alison’s parents’ neighbors! Neither of our bikes had shocks, and Alison’s had metal pedals of death. Her poor right calf. (Whoever said walking a bike isn’t dangerous never did this tri!) My bike was a bit too short for my legs, but it DID have fancy accessories like a carrying rack over the front tire. I heard later that other people found this quite hilarious; I hadn’t even noticed. Next time I’ll put a grocery bag full of snacks on there. (Did I just say NEXT TIME? No way).
When we finally finished our first loop it was such a relief. Now NO ONE would be passing us and we could go as we pleased. Certainly pulling over for people added about a half hour to our time, right? We were sure it would go quicker the second time around since we now had slightly higher than zero experience with riding the terrain. However, the first half of the loop turned out to be just as challenging and unrideable (yes I just made that up) for us. Sheesh. Just at the point where we could really get enough momentum to start riding again, the “sweeper” came up behind us. How lovely to have a trailing escort. We picked up a few other experienced volunteers along the way who followed us and provided words of encouragement as we flailed around tricky corners and moaned and groaned over every bump. On one stretch I was just motoring over rocks and the sweeper said, “Wow, you’re really tenacious” and I retorted: “Ignorance is bliss!” I had no idea WHAT I was being as we rode on that trail, other than ABSOLUTELY READY to be done with it.
We made it through with only a few hitches. Alison crashed sideways into some bushes after her foot and pedal hit a big rock and it jerked her to a stop. She sprained the top of her ankle but is such a fighter and continued to be the fearless leader that she is. I managed to bump into several trees throughout the day. Apparently they don’t disappear when you want them to (despite the fact that someone told us it was an ENCHANTED forest), and the more you concentrate on NOT hitting them, the more your handle bars miraculously aim in precisely their direction.
FINALLY we were off the trail and back to the time check point. We were greeted with enormous cheers and another announcement about how we’d just decided the night before to do this. Everyone else who had competed in the race appeared to have finished, showered, sung Kumbyah, and gotten a hair cut in the time it took us to finish the bike portion. Oh well. We still had the run! The anticipated highlight of the day! We had an escort because all of the volunteers had already left the trails. We cooked on the run, averaging about 9 minute miles for the 4.25 miles of up and down, rooted, muddy trails (plus two Gatorade stops, so really, we were faster).
As we kicked the last 100 meters to the finish, we were greeted by Gladiator-esque cheers. Kids handed us Gatorade. Photographers took our picture. The MC asked if we had any words. Alison said “Woo!” And if I had been thinking on my toes I would have said, “If only we’d done our 15 mile run like we were supposed to, we would have been done three hours ago!” Instead I could only come up with “our RUN was awesome.” That’s right folks, it took us a good 5 hours and 8 minutes to finish that bad boy. Throughout the race we had no sense of time or how much we had left, which was probably for the best. No expectations meant we’d keep going. (Plus, we had to get back somehow).
Anyway…long story…long…we FINISHED and had an amazing time challenging ourselves and laughing at how we could be such idiots for actually doing it. Oh, and while we came in last (Alison was 33rd and I was appropriately 34th out of the women), several competitors quit after the first loop of the bike ride. So we’re not the BIGGEST losers. :)
I’m so proud of us, Al.
Check that one off the bucket list!
Course website: http://xterrablackdiamond.com/index.html
Course map: http://xterrablackdiamond.com/XBD%20COURSE%20MAP.pdf
My photos: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Abt2bZw4bNmH4
Photos from the race photog: http://conaghan.smugmug.com/gallery/5572737_EWyqx#341643672_UiCCP
We’re in: 130, 361, 362, 364, 367, 369-371, 383-390, 400, 402, 403, 732-743, 746,747, 881-883, 886, 895-900, 1827-1835, 2021-2024, 2137, 2138, 2145, 2302, 2303,
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