SOUTH BEACH

South Beach Triathlon, June 23, 2012

I have never been to South Haven, so when I saw there was going to be a tri there, I thought it would be nice time to check it out.  My husband Adam signed up too, and so we drove down the day before to pick up our packets and check out the course. 

The morning of the tri was early as usual.  We were some of the first to arrive. After setting up our things it was a long wait to start time.  They sent the Olympic distance off first, which meant I had plenty of time to think about how nervous I was.  Only one bathroom break before the race, which was a victory in itself!  I’m always hungry but can’t seem to eat anything.  So there I was wading in Lake Michigan, waiting to start, hungry with grumbling stomach, heart rate already over 100. 

See?  No waves at all!  Gorgeous day.

Finally time to go!  They had all the sprint women in one wave, 88 of us.  It was a beach start.  The whistle blew and we were running into the water.  It was quite a ways out before it was deep enough to swim, and by then I had gotten into a bad position almost in the back of the group.  I settled into my swim, through perfectly calm 66 degree clear water.  I could see straight to the bottom, covered in rippled sand, and I thought, “This is like a Pure Michigan commercial!”  I positioned myself a little further out from the crowd to avoid traffic.  It was only a 500 meter swim and it flew by.  Moving to the outside paid off, I was first out of the water for my age group.

Next came the bike, it started immediately out of transition with a short but fairly steep uphill.  It was at this time I laid eyes on my first nemesis.  You know you all have one during races as well, someone you keep going back and forth with, your eyes darting immediately to their calf to see what age group they’re in.  In this case, we will call her Spartan tri suit girl.  I ended up passing her and several others on the bike.  It was a fast, flat course with a tailwind on the way home. 

I came back into transition, and as I was hopping off my bike who pulls up next to me?  Spartan tri suit!  ARGH!  I run to my rack, fling my bike on it, my husband arriving at the rack just moments later.  I’m off on the run, up that same hill which magically became steeper since I rode up it.  It was at this time I decided I need to do more brick workouts.  I’m completely dead.  Sparty was just ahead of me, and now is when nemesis number 2, yellow-tank-pink-trimmed-shorts, arrives.  We battle back and forth, I pass Sparty, yellow-tank-pink-trimmed-shorts passes me.  Finally I tell myself to get out of my own head, just run my own race and stop worrying about what anyone else is doing. 

At the end of the run, the course went down a set of stairs from the street to the beach and you had to run in sand to finish the race.  If you weren’t already running on empty (I was) the sand would surely zap your last bits of energy.  I finished feeling happy that I performed the best I could.  The overall results were posted but no age group so it came as a surprise when they announced I was third place for my age group.  I also found out I was someone else’s nemesis!  I love the competitive nature of the race, but then everyone is friends afterward, congratulating each other on a job well done. 

Possibly the coolest part of the day was waiting for the last Olympic  racer to finish.  We were all gathered around the finish line for the awards ceremony, which they wouldn’t start until everyone finished.  Here came the last competitor, a 76 year old lady running through that sand through the finish line looking like a million bucks.  With a smile on her face.