Being the sarcastic individual I am, I thought it was so clever to put this status up on fbook: "Really tempted to wear my timing chip for the tri tomorrow out right now and tell everyone I'm currently in a race... See you all in Southie tomorrow!"
The timing chip would end up getting the last laugh but we'll chat about that later...
So I headed over to the race with the infamous Greg and I knew the morning was off to a rough start when our conversation went like this:
G: Can we have a little Eminem?
Me: I don't have any in my car.
G: No, I want a some Eminem before the race.
Me: Greg, I don't have any M&M's in my car....
G: Cat, the music, on your iPod...
O.....gotcha. 0 for 1
After that successful conversation we make our way over to transition. I rack my bike and start getting all my stuff together. I go to put my bib number on my race belt and I notice...MY TIMING CHIP IS NOT IN THE PACKET. #1 rule, put your timing chip on ASAP...and I messed that up. Such a bad triathlete. I panicked and looked around everywhere. I knew I could get another one but it would cost me $50 for my lost one ugh. I run back to my car and somehow it was on the back seat floor of my car. Whew! I will never joke about wearing it out again haha Cat fails: 0 for 2
I then come back to find the girls that have their bikes racked near me looking kind of panicked and I saw my stuff moved. They look at me and say, "Sorry!! We had to move your stuff because she is really 321 and your stuff was there and we didn't know what to do and we were so confused. We talked to the race officials and they said it was ok to switch spots...." I'm like wait what? I can move if you want me to? I was so confused...and then I realized I had mistaken the 1 for a 7 and racked at 321 instead of 327. Cat 0 for 3 on the day.
I decide to join the ridiculous bathroom line and try to get my head on straight for the race. There are older men in front of me and an older guy who wasn't doing the race comes over and joins them. He then starts telling this story:
"Wow! There's a lot of people here! I remember when I did my first race. It was a 5 miler in Cohasset and I just came back from 'Nam and ran it with my combat boots on. No joke! I was a cocky Marine. Anyways, there were only 117 people that did the race and I did not do well! I was running behind this super old guy and I was so mad an old guy was in front of me but then he died. During the race. Swear on my mother's grave! He died. Right on the corner. He was running and he just fell over and had a heart attack. Died in the middle of the race. I placed like 113 out of 117...well I guess 116 because the old guy died."
Yup.
So after that uplifting story and the long bathroom line, it was finally time to exit the transition zone and head over to the race.
A weird thing happened before we ran out the swim-I was surprisingly very calm. As we lined up and waited to go, I just sort of stood there and closed my eyes for awhile. The swim went off and I did ok. I kept trying to tell myself to stay with the pack but unfortunately I really do have trouble swimming in a straight line. I noticed I was far out from the pack and spent most of the swim trying to get back to it. I kept telling myself to hurry up and just to get back to the pack as best as possible. I was still away from the pack and all of a sudden I felt this woman swim right into my side. I was like lady, I'm not going the right way but you're REALLY off course haha I did manage to knock about 6 minutes off my time from last year but there is still a lot to improve on.
The bike was pretty uneventful. It's just flat so you can just stay in one gear and crank it out. I'm still not a great biker but I did do better than last year. It was also great having buddies on the sidelines cheering you on-no better feeling :)
I should probably add that I think I'm the happiest little triathlete ever. As my friends who were there can attest, every time I went by I had a big ole smile on my face. I had a blast. It really was the happiest tri I have ever done.
When I went out on the run I felt great. My legs were a little stiff (as they normally are after swimming and biking) but then they just felt great. I did have to do my hair coming out of transition so the photographer got some pretty sweet photos of that. I ran at about an 8:13 min/mile. Not too shabby (for a bad triathlete.)
I ended up finishing the race 8 mins (I swear I didn't make that up) faster than last year and felt a hell of a lot better. I ended up 3-0 for beating my times from last year (nice switching of odds from the morning) and the only time I was slightly slower in was T1. Boston Tri definitely has the best after party-right on the beach and all-you-can-drink-after-racing Harpoon! I really love a great post race atmosphere. No beer tastes better than after a race :)
The other really funny part of Boston Tri is that they have the Bustonian as the shuttle back to your cars. Yes, the party bus that has the stripper pole in the middle. Amazing. There was this 64 year old male racer who definitely had some moves to show off. Besides side-ways planking on the pole he went inverted and slid on down, legs in the air and all.
After that is was BBQs, beers, sunshine, rootops and Southie all day (and night). Such a great day :)
And o year, race numbers brought to you by the Men's Journal:
Rooftop!
Overall...best race to date! I'll like it :)
It also inspired me to actually sign up for my first Olympic Distance Tri (Lobsterman) on Sept 15th! Yes...I might have booked the campsite before I actually signed up for the race but that's ok :)
PS
Big thank you to Yifan for giving me some great swim instruction at the pool yesterday!
Yay for Lobsterman!
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