I completed said triathlon last summer, and I chose it very carefully. I drove all the way to New Hampshire to participate in the only Olympic triathlon I could find with a half mile swim. (Generally Olympics have a 1500 meter swim, 20-25 mile bike, and a 5-6 mile run). Upon arriving at the the Black Fly Triathlon in New Hampshire the night before the race, I did what I do upon arriving anywhere: went pee. I heard two women through the bathroom stall saying the strangest thing: with the unseasonably cold summer and the excessive rain the preceding week, the spring-fed pond we were supposed to swim in was only 48 degrees Fahrenheit, therefore the swim would have to be shortened to 1/4 mile. I was very excited about a shorter swim and bought my first wetsuit that night. I learned an important lesson that weekend: if you are ever given the choice between swimming a quarter mile in 48 degree water or a half mile in anything warmer, choose the latter!
The point of this story is that a true Olympic distance triathlon would be a new experience, and made me feel a little queasy. The race began at 8:00 am in Rome, about 45 minutes from my home in Mohawk. I was scheduled to meet my carpool at 6:15 in Frankfort (Congratulations Jane, Tara, and Ashley for being an awesome relay team!), which is about 4 miles from me. I arose at 5 a.m., dressed for the race, fed and let my dogs out, then ate breakfast.
Please take note of how dark it is! In two weeks I will be back to waking up at 5 every day, and every summer I seem to forget how much daylight is lost by September. For breakfast I ate 1 hard-boiled egg, 2 nun puffs (my substitute PowerBar containing egg, cornmeal, milk, salt, butter, and maple sugar), cider (barely visible), and a raspberry smoothie that I only drank half of. As I walked around in a daze, I was really wishing I could have coffee, but woke myself up by riding my bike to Frankfort to catch the carpool. It was raining, but since I'd be swimming soon I decided to go ahead and plunge into soppiness early.
Good news! I finished the race! I finished in 3:14:01, which is not great, but I'm happy. My bike and run times were good (24 miles in 1:26:14 and 6 miles in 51:14, respectively), but for some reason every other runner was swimming in a lake, and I was swimming in molasses. I am NOT a fast swimmer, and a mile of swimming puts me very far behind the field (52:52), but in my book, being in motion for over three hours is always a success!
I felt a little hungry halfway through the bike ride so I ate 1 nun puff, which worked just as well as a PowerBar. After the race I ate an apple and one more nun puff. That made this my first chemical-free race! Not that I'm a juicer, just that I'm starting to think that real food can do as much for me as chemically-produced goos.
My plan all along was to make garlic and tomato pizza when I got home, but I was too hungry too wait, so I cut myself a big piece of quiche and actually remembered to take a picture this time!
One thing I didn't have, my post-race beer. It's a tradition and was sorely missed. Before I could make my pizza, an opportunity arose, a chance to go to a movie! With no time to make pizza I heated up some cornbread with peach salsa.
Another tradition: when my boyfriend and I go to the movies, we go to Sumo first, a sushi restaurant in New Hartford. I like sushi, but he loves sushi and has been suffering withdrawal. We called around, looking for someone to go to Sumo with him, thinking that I could be dropped off at the bookstore to kill time before the movie, but everyone was busy. Not wanting him to eat alone, I accompanied him to the restaurant. It's funny how no matter how full your stomach is, when there's good food around your brain will trick you into thinking you're hungry. Sumo wasn't complete torture though, it's not like walking into an Italian restaurant where the smells overwhelm me. The waitress kind of thought that when he ordered he was ordering for the both of us, and I put my napkin on my lap to play along.
We saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (8 out of 10).
We arrived home around 8, and had time to sit and relax (Dick, my boyfriend, ran 8 and a 1/2 miles today and was also feeling the pain of doing what's good for your body), so I set up a mini wine and cheese party in the living room.
The cheese was Gruyere from Mountain View Dairy, and smoked cheddar from Tom's Natural Foods. The wine was Eye of the Bee, a honey wine from Four Chimneys Organic Winery, which I give a .....10! I've had it before, and although I don't usually care for reds as much as whites, I find that this one, slightly chilled, is incomparable. To me, the one advantage that wine has over beer: when my legs are completely exhausted and sore, a glass of wine makes them tingle like I'm receiving a mini-massage from thousands of little purple grapes.
If I new Dick was going to run so far, he could have run with me this morning! Excellent job on the race! Funny thing Russ and I were supposed to go to Sumo tonight but plans got canceled.
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