Yeah, didn't so much get a lot of sleep. I fell asleep for a few hours, woke up at 11:30 (OMG it's only 11:30?), got back to sleep at some point and then was wide awake at 3:30. I figured I was best off just lying quietly and trying to relax (fat chance) but by 4:30 I couldn't take it anymore and got up. Got into my tri kit and morning clothes, made a cup of tea, ate a banana, and organized my nutrition bottles and double checked my special needs bags while I waited for the time to pass.
The good news was, that shin pain I'd been dealing with all stupid week was totally gone. So that seemed pretty promising and I put it out of my mind completely to focus on making sure I had all my stuff.
First thing I did on waking up? Put on the timing chip. No way I was going to forget that! Of course it's on the wrong ankle in this picture but I noticed that before the race started and fixed it. |
We walked to the swim start, did the usual line up for the porta potties, I took my pre-race gel, and we got into our wetsuits. I spotted Steve in the VIP section so obviously we got a picture:
SUPERHEROES. (oh, you thought I meant a picture with my husband? Ha. He hates having his picture taken) |
Which honestly was the first time I really noticed just how dense the fog on the lake was. You could only barely see the first buoy! Oh. Yes, clearly that wouldn't work. OK, 15 minutes is not so bad.
Hmmm. Yes that's quite a bit of fog, isn't it. (pic via Daphne) |
I've waiting this long to be an ironman, a half hour delay is just HILARIOUS. And no I don't have a weird growth on my arm that's just my heart rate monitor. (pic via Daphne) |
You can get a sense of the fog in this official pic - normally you'd see docked boats and lake and mountains and shit back there! |
(rumour on facebook is if they'd pushed back another 15 they would have had to cut the swim in half, so thank goodness that didn't happen!)
Male pros ready to start (pic via Steve) |
Age group start - pic via Daphne I believe |
Follow the herd, sight, nope no buoy, swim more, everyone else is headed this way, yes there it is! Repeat. Get kicked in the face, damn it, stop and adjust goggles, swim swim swim, where's the damn buoy, ugh, swim swim swim finally there's a buoy!
Wait that's #5? I never saw 4?! Huh. OK.
Keep going. Strong, controlled, happy, ignore the person who just accidentally grabbed your ass, oh my god this fog is INSANE I can't see anything. Just follow the person in front of you and hope this is right. Count off the buoys, nice. There's another one. Wait didn't I already go past #11? Am I just swimming in circles here?! Nah, can't be there's a ton of kayaks out here someone would have noticed you swimming backwards. Probably just can't read.
It really should have felt more stressful than it did, but I guess in some ways swimming through the fog wasn't that much different than, say, swimming towards shore with the sun in your eyes and no way to see a swim exit. With the large number of other swimmers to follow, I found myself pretty on target to hit the buoys when they did emerge from the fog (other than that #4 which I swear I never saw). I focused on swimming complete strokes and keeping things steady, relaxed, and controlled. And almost before I knew it, there was the red turn marker! Whoa. That seemed to go by really, really fast.
Around the marker, where I got hit in the face again and had to stop and adjust my goggles - which is when I noticed the fog was definitely lifting. By the time I reached the second red turn marker I could actually see the line of orange markers stretching into the distance! Yay!
The second half of the swim felt much easier, just because I could actually see where I was going! And it seemed like hardly any time at all and people around me were starting to stand up and I was grabbing the sand at the swim exit. I was almost (almost) sad it was over. It was exactly what I wanted - a controlled, relaxed, easy swim where I didn't expend too much energy and felt good the whole time. I crossed my fingers the time wouldn't be too slow.
I was soon up onto the stairs, hit my watch, and saw... 1:17.
Get out of my picture, dude! Damn it! |
Time: 1:17:07
Overall: 1034/2272
Gender: 217/602
Age group: 36/131
Got my wetsuit stripped and ran the carpet into transition (oh man, how nice is it to run on carpet instead of the usual run along sidewalk or concrete or gravel!). It was a bit of a long-ish run and also my first taste of what the crowds are like at Tremblant - the whole run up was lined with people cheering and screaming. Such a mental boost!
Screen grab from the live broadcast running along the carpet into T1 - thanks Zindine! |
See the bike post here.
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