We began training in our separate cities, comparing notes, sore muscle complaints (that bike seat!), and training plans. Four months of hard work later, we felt ready. Mostly.
We headed up to Greenville the Friday before and met her husband and family at a local hotel. Our husbands stayed with the kids at the pool while we went to go pick up our race packets. As we were walking out of the YMCA, we saw a roped-off section leading into the woods. WAIT just a minute there, mister....was this a TRAIL run?! Oh lawdy. Trail runs do NOT mix well with my once-broken ankle and they sure as heck aren't ideal for Kara. We tracked down a race volunteer and asked him about it. He replied that "only the first 1/2 mile is trail...and it's not 'technical'" (I discovered later that that meant a lot of uneven terrain, roots, rocks, etc.) Welp, it was too late to turn back now.
We nervously headed back to the hotel and hung out by the pool for a bit. We discussed dinner options and settled on an Italian place that had gluten-free options and good reviews. After the kids dried off and changed clothes, we headed out. About ten minutes into the drive I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to do call-ahead seating and discovered there would be about an hour wait. Obviously that would not work well with five hungry kids. We rerouted to a different spot and got seated within ten minutes. It was a great dinner full of lots of catching up with surprisingly few interruptions since the kids were at a booth behind us. (Our apologies to the family on the other side of them.) We surprised Kara's oldest daughter and Audrey with an ice cream birthday treat for their June birthdays. There was enough for all five kids to eat a gracious plenty and everyone left with full, happy bellies.
By the time we let the oldest girls exchange birthday gifts and got everyone settled down in their own rooms, it was after 9 o'clock. Since they'd had a full afternoon of swimming, they fell asleep pretty quickly. David and I were a different story. My race jitters were running rampant. I finally settled down, but then woke up around 2am. I read for awhile and eventually fell back asleep around 3:30ish. The alarm went off at 5am and I got up and quietly got ready in the dark. We woke the kids up about 5:30am and they were surprisingly pleasant. After grabbing some fruit and yogurt at the continental breakfast, we loaded up the cars and went to the race site.
Kara and I got "body-marked" (still a favorite part - it just feels so hardcore!) and put our chip timer anklets on and then set up our transition area spots. I was still incredibly nervous, mostly about having such an attentive audience for the swim portion. David and the kids had never seen me do the swim before...they'd just shown up along the bike route for my previous races. The athletes began lining up poolside and we listened to a few last minute instructions from the race director. We got in semi-order of fastest to slowest (since it's a pool swim, they let athletes jump in one at a time every 5 seconds or so according to their swim time.) Kara was a good bit ahead of me so I was able to see her swim and then run over to give her a high-five as she exited the pool.
All too quickly, it was my turn to jump in. I started off passing a lady right away, which I think was my first mistake. I was going way too fast. As I came to the end of the first lane (which was 50 yards instead of the 25 I'm used to training in), I came up for air and gulped in a huge amount of water. As in, lungs FULL of water.
Now. If you're new to swimming or are just unsure how lungs work, you may not know that lungs full of water is no bueno.
Hindsight sure is 20/20 isn't it? Because I know now that what I should have done was stop right there, grab the wall, and wait as long as it took until I regained normal breathing. But I didn't do that. I pushed on. And quickly realized I was in trouble. I could not catch my breath and I was now in the middle of the deep end. I kept going, trying to regulate my breathing and calm myself down. I swam with my head above the water, trying to catch my breath. My mind was racing. I grabbed the rope and started treading for a moment. I really thought I was going to have to get saved by a lifeguard or get out and quit. It was HORRIBLE. I could not get my brain or my lungs to chill out. And my kids were watching.
Finally, I remembered what my swim coach once told me about flipping over and doing backstroke if I had to. I did that for a minute and finally felt ready to try freestyle stroke with my head down again. By this point, though, my mental game was toast. I felt completely defeated, humiliated, and incapable. Try swimming and breathing normally when those thoughts are racing through your mind. On the last lane, I caught glimpses of Luke standing poolside holding up his little sign for me. "You will not quit or fail in front of these kids," I told myself. If you ever doubt what a difference a cheering section can do, don't. I finished the lap, wearily climbed out, gave David a "that-nearly-killed-me" glance, and then ran to the transition area to get ready to bike.
It took me a few miles on the bike to shake off what had happened. I finally just had to tell myself that it was over and it was time to focus on the next task at hand. I did well on the bike, breaking my top speed record by nearly 10 mph when I hit close to 35 going down a hill. Honestly, that was probably too fast and a dangerous call, but I was determined to make up as much time as I could.
I finished the 15 mile bike and came into the transition area in a much better mood than I'd left it. I had a hard time racking the bike because the people on either side of me had left no room (serious triathlon faux pas). I finally got it, grabbed my running belt and race bib, and ran out towards the trail. It was tough and a lot more "technical" than they had let on (at one point I had to jump a small creek...it was very small, but if you have to jump anything, I'd say that's at least a little rough!) It was shaded, but pretty hilly. I reached the usual point of a race where one side of me is begging the other to let me walk and the other side is refusing. Yes, it's as schizophrenic as it sounds. I thought I caught a glimpse of Kara up ahead of me, which pushed me through another couple of minutes. It turned out not to be her, but the mirage helped tremendously.
When I came out of the woods and up to the road, our cheering section was there waiting with their signs and cow bells. I gave them a wave and turned out onto the road to pound out the 2.5 miles that I had left. In the distance I saw Kara coming towards me (the real one this time) and nearly burst with pride. It was so amazing to see her doing this race after all that she'd been through. I had seen her paralyzed in ICU then clawing her way back in rehab and now here she was just a little over a year later doing a triathlon. Awesome. Tears welled up as we passed each other and high-fived. "You can do this!" she shouted "If you can do that bike course, you've got this run!" I returned a "You're almost there! You're doing great!" and kept plugging away. It wasn't a bad run, but it definitely had some hills. I didn't have my music for either the bike or the run, which also makes a huge difference. Being stuck with your own thoughts is a lot more mentally challenging than if you have a distracting podcast or a good beat to listen to.
I reached the home stretch and saw Kara with our crew waiting. I crossed the finish line, hearing them cheer and the announcer say my name. Thank you, LORD, I'd made it. We circled up and compared notes about the course and our experiences. I told them about the horrible swim and they listened sympathetically. We looked at our results (I was last out of the 9 in our age group, but expected that...) Later Kara's husband showed me these meme and I died laughing:
A perfect depiction of my experience during that swim. But I'd made it. I hadn't quit and I lived to tell about it. We went back to the hotel for showers and then out for a celebratory brunch at Cracker Barrel. The kids entertained each other while the adults talked. We wrapped up and headed out to the "front porch" to say our goodbyes. I squeezed Kara and told her how incredibly proud I was of her before we peeled away and loaded up our van. The kids were as sad to say goodbye as we were, but we promised to get together again soon.
David, the kids, and I headed to Greenville to spend the afternoon tooling around the city. We went to Falls Park on the Reedy, which was gorgeous. We walked trails around there and then a little through the city before going back to the van and driving to a little toy shop the Taylors had recommended. The kids each got $5 to spend on a souvenir and then we went to a Mast General Store, which Kara introduced me to in Asheville. We browsed, grabbed an ornament for our travel tree, and then crossed the street for ice cream. It was a sweet ending to a great weekend. We walked back to our van, buckled up, and got on 85 towards home. All of us turned in extra early that night, but not without first thanking God for our sweet friends and a good race. He'd gotten me through, no doubt, and I was incredibly grateful!
Here are a few pictures from our weekend:
The kids table at dinner on Friday night
I've never been so happy to touch the wall!
Heading out for the bike ride and trying to clear my head from that swim
Nearing the finish line...as if you couldn't tell from the expression of joy on my face.
Love my cheering section!
Finished!
Falls Park on the Reedy
Outside an art studio leaving their mark on Greenville
In front of a cool local toy shop
Ending a great weekend on a sweet note with an ice cream treat
