Once again back to square 1. This was my first triathlon ever.
I was at Brickwell on friday and a man and woman came in. They went biking to the swim start and were going to swim. OOPS. Too much rain = too much runoff = too much bacteria. CLOSED! Had a bad feeling about race day.
Website said that they will make a race day decision about swim. Rained saturday. Raining sunday morning. No way.
When we got to the race site, we were told that the swim is cancelled. Can't help but feel that they knew the swim would be cancelled but didn't tell anyone because they didn't want a mass emaila of "I'm hurt can I defer" due to no swim. One guy heard the news and just turned away and back to his car.
The competitor in me was annoyed. The water was choppy and cold and I knew there would be a lot of people who would NOT race due to the water conditions or would get sick (vomit) in the water and DNF which would be better for me. The human in me said "that sucks" and anyway who wants to get sick from the bacteria.
So we ran (3-3.5K), biked 12 and ran a short 5K (2.94 miles). It was raining, chilly and windy. They combined waves and things were a little nuts. Jim (duathlon) ran in first wave. Saw him on his run and walked back to the start for me. I was good staying dry but on the way to the start, I walked into a small puddle which turned out to be about 3 inches deep and got soaked. This of course was BEFORE the race even started.
Started the race. Paced with this girl back and forth. Passed Jubal (sunrisetri)on the run. Onto the bike. Drafting as best I can. Everytime I can. Being aggressive on all the U-turns. Gotta do it. Passed the first U-turn. Got to the 2nd U-turn and down the hill in the rain. At the bottom of the hill, gotta make a right. About 200-300 meters from the right, on the way down, I saw a guy wipe out. I've seen it on TV but never in real life. Ugly. About 8 feet away on his left, the rider there saw it, freaked and wiped out too. I started screaming rider down to guys behind me as I rode through between them.
Lucky for them, they found the best spot to wipe out if there is such a thing. At the bottom of that hill, there was an EMS truck. The 2 EMS guys quickly ran to the riders. I was out of there.
Finishing the bike, you can hear brakes strain to stop the bikes with the wet tires. Volunteers and race marshals screaming at people to slow down. Thank God no accident there. It would have been ugly.
Started the run just behind Dave Schneider. Caught up to him and said hi to him in a relaxed, I'm not even straining voice. He was tight lipped and quiet. I knew he would beat me. He's good at pacing himself. I just figured I'd mess with him a little. Well, he took off. So I did too and caught up to him and passed him. Still running strong. Well, he caught up again and I said to him that I was wondering where he was. He left me again. I knew I would not catch him but I decided if I did that I would ask him if he was waiting for me...
Run almost over. About to go through the toll area to get to the parking lot where transition sits. I was running/pacing next to this guy who looked good. I thoght he would drop me. In front of us was a guy going through the toll thing. There was a huge lake of a puddle there. I decided to go through the puddle and make my move. Right then, someone started screaming at that guy to run and that they are catching up to you. That's all I needed. Sprinted hard to dust off those 2 guys. Getting to the finish, you see me huffing and puffing and constantly checking out behind me to make sure I don't get passed.