Tri the Creek Race Report-Olivia

A late addition to my 2007 race calendar, the Tri the Creek Sprint Triathlon was meant to serve as a tune up race for my upcoming season. What a day it turned out to be.

The first of five swim waves was scheduled to go off at 7:00 AM, but was delayed by about 5 minutes. I started in the front of the 3^rd wave pack. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of my swim pace, but once we were underway and I started to see that the open water was truly open for me I realized that I was swimming pretty well. I was off to a decent start.

The run to transition felt like a mile; up a hill through some grass, down a concrete sidewalk, finally over the mat and into TA. Like last year I found I had trouble getting my wetsuit off. There I was sitting on the ground struggling, pulling and tugging but unable to get the thing off my lower legs and over my feet. I finally asked the guy next to me if he would mind giving a tug on the end of the suit. Finally I was free albeit after a total T1 time of an abysmal 3:35.

As I rode the fast bike course through Cherry Creek State Park I didn’t notice that my feet had become completely numb; probably due to a combination of the chill of the water and the crisp air flowing through my shoes during the ride. By the time I was in T2 attempting to get my feet into my running shoes I couldn’t feel my feet at all and I couldn’t control them very well. It reminded me of the way my mouth and face felt the last time I’d had Novocain at the dentist. I ended up having to use both hands to shove my feet into the shoes. Then when I tried to tighten the cord laces I found that my fingers were suffering the same lack of coordination. I decided to just start running and hope that I’d get some circulation back as I went.

It felt like I didn’t have feet at all. There was no sensation coming from them at all. I was worried that not being able to feel them would cause poor footing with each step and that I might end up in a heap under the feet of the other racers. About 5 minutes into the run I decided I should stop and tighten my laces to at least ensure that I was getting the full support benefit of my shoes. Once the laces were snug I told myself to stop thinking about the issues and just run.

Approaching the finishing chute I was running with all I felt I had left. I had completely forgotten about the issues with my feet, but I remembered clearly why I don’t do sprint distance races as a matter of habit. My heart rate had been well above my threshold for over an hour at that point, and I thought that if I had to keep going at that pace for much longer I would certainly be revisiting my breakfast. But one step led to the other and I finally crossed the line in a final time of 1:12:31.

In the end I was the 6^th overall female and 1^st in my age group. The thrill I felt at taking 1^st place at my “tune up” race was eclipsed though at the end of the event when my race number was called for the biggest of all of the door prize giveaways of the day….I won an Orbea bicycle!!!