Just over 2 weeks ago the day had finally come, and we headed to Capitola for the triathlon. We checked into our hotel on Friday afternoon, and my lovely teammate/roommate Dianne and I just chilled out and relaxed – taking it easy!   That night we packed and packed (and checked and double checked) all of our gear.  I put the names of my personal honorees on the purple wings I got from Debra (our honoree captain) – these names, along with our team honorees that were listed on a card that I attached to my run belt would help inspire me when I needed motivation during the event.

We got an early night, and both of us woke up super early and got ready for our big day!  There was a lovely surprise on our hotel door in the morning – our mentors had made inspiring posters of us both and had taped them to our door (along with some streamers!).

We had some breakfast (a little hard to eat that early!) and met our teammates and wonderful coaches, captains and mentors in the hotel lobby.

 

We all cycled in the dark (with headlights of course!) to the transition area.  We picked our spots and set up.  Here’s Sue and I at our transition spot – we had our numbers marked on us and were ready to go!

We headed down to the beach and got ready for the start.  The sun was starting to rise and we helped eachother get into our wetsuits.

It was time to get in the water to get acclimated – it was pretty chilly!

Then we were off! Our lovely sprint teammates (thanks Dianne and Marlene!) cheered us on as we ran into the water. (I believe we have Coach Drew to thank for the gorgeous  panoramic photo below).

I really focused on not going out too fast, but that far away buoy seemed oh…..so…..far…..away!  We bumped into eachother frequently but I must say everyone was most polite with saying ‘sorry’ and smiling at eachother.  The swim was HARD.  We had plenty of practices in the open water but on the day of the event there was quite a swell and it made swimming more difficult.  For me I just kept focusing on getting to the next buoy – one step (or stroke!) at a time. I know many of my teammates also struggled with the swim – but we all ended up completing it thanks to the wonderful training we all got – we were PREPARED!

Finally the end of the swim was near – it was quite a challenge to exit the water without faceplanting from the waves but I managed it.  My legs felt like jelly as I made my way up the sand – I think I was wobbling all over the place.

It was awesome to see friendly, familiar faces cheer us on as we made our way to the transition area.  It took me several attempts to get my flip flops on, but finally I did it and I started my way up the hill.  I was fairly shattered and remember thinking to myself how on earth I was going to get on my bike, but I kept going and this was certainly one of the many times where thinking of my honorees helped get me through.  As I got to the transition area I saw several teammates already there – was great that many of us finished the swim around the same time.  I took off my wetsuit, rinsed my feet and dried off, and was eternally grateful for the practice triathlon (and practice transitioning) we had done in training.  Helmet on, and off I went on the bike!

It really helped that we had already done most of the bike course in a preview training session in August.  I knew the Rio Del Mar hill was approaching, and was definitely prepared for it! I made it up without getting off my bike, and was relieved that the first tough hill was behind me.  The bike ride was actually really enjoyable – loved having all the policemen out there waving us through the stop signs, and the actual course is gorgeous.  We had beautiful views of the ocean, and saw some lovely vineyards.

Since the course was (partially) out and back I got the opportunity to see many other teammates on the ride and it always perked me up to see a familiar face. I loved seeing the coaches out there, and appreciated the heads-up from Coach Marc (looking gorgeous in a tutu) that I was approaching the last big hill.  This was Spreckles – a hill I didn’t manage to make it up during the training course preview and I was determined to make it up that day.  I started the climb, and hadn’t yet got to the lowest gear yet, and went to change down to a lower gear when, uh-oh, I accidentally shifted up.  At that stage I pretty much came to a stand still, so did end up getting off the bike but only had to push it a short way up the hill.  Oh well – one day I’ll tackle that hill!

I finally managed to make it back to the transition area, put my bike away and got ready for the final run.  As I ran out it seemed like there was hardly anyone on the course – I guess we’d spread out a bit by then.

I’d been running just under a mile when I got a lovely surprise – my gorgeous teammate Anastasia caught up to me and we started running together.  Was great to catch up, and we decided that we would complete the run together and wouldn’t worry about trying to complete the run as fast as we could.  I think this was awfully generous of Stasia as she would definitely have done the run faster than me!  We chatted about how the course had been so far, and cheered as we saw our teammates coming back the other way.  This was another place where we truly appreciated seeing our coaches out there cheering us on – helped get us both in really good spirits and I have some of my fondest memories of the day from that last hour of the run.  It was a little challenging having to do the same loop 3 times, but again it gave us an opportunity to see teammates we hadn’t so far seen on the race.  It was on our first loop that I saw Sue (speedy Sue!) for the first time on the course.  Was just great to see her – she was on her last loop and on her way to the finish line.  Stasia’s husband Max found us and ran with us for a while – it was great to meet him (and apparently he is getting inspired by his lovely wife and getting more into running etc himself – a future TNT participant perhaps!).  He had his camera with us and took some photos.

Was a great feeling to complete the 3rd and final loop of the run, and make our way toward the beach.  Just as we were about to veer right back on to the beach I slipped on some sand on the sidewalk and went for a bit of a tumble. The people around me were ever so nice,and Stasia helped me get up but luckily it was only a grazed knee and I was able to keep running.  We wanted to run strong to the finish line, so we made our way across the sand and on to the more packed sand near the water, and had great big smiles on our faces as we got closer and closer to the finish line.

Finally we were at the finishing shoot – and we heard our names called out!  Yet again we saw coaches, mentors, captains and teammates (including many who weren’t doing the tri but had made a special effort to come out to support us) at the finish line and we felt fantastic!  I love this photo of Stasia – her expression and body language certainly captures the moment.

Finally we crossed the finish line!

We were greeted by lots of hugs and loads of smiles, and was just awesome to see the lovely Sue there to greet us.  We were done – yay!!!!

I had made a little detour to the medical tent to get my knee looked at – was good to sit down (thanks Carlos for the photo of my best ‘I’m wounded’ impersonation!).

It was a totally awesome day, to finish off a totally awesome season! Thanks to my wonderful friends and family I raised over $2600 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, and it was an absolute pleasure to participate in the training program run through this amazing organization.  I’ve met some incredible people, and will remember this day, and this wonderful season always!

G O  T E A M ! ! !