"Today was a Dali painting."
- Twitter update from Anne after completing the Urban Epic Triathlon, Portland, Maine, July 10, 2010
Photos:
A long walk to the race start. Swim photos are here and Capstone Photography doesn't have a link system so I'm in UE10RA0620.jpg, UE10RA0621.jpg and UE10RA0622.jpg.
Bike seat that created the hesitant posture in the bike photos which, if you're interested are here for bib #235.
Results:
Anne CLELLAND 52 WOMEN 50-54 Blacksburg VA
swim rank 87
swim time 20:02
mini run 10:56
T1 4:29
T1 rank 109
bike 1 19:48
bike 1 rank 110
bike 2 15:53
bike 2 rank 105
bike 3 20:21
bike 3 rank 108
bike total 56:01
bike mph 13.9
T2 2:40
run rank 108
run time 44:10
run pace 12:37 per mi
total 2:18:15.6
Overall 110 of 118
(Urban Epic Overall Results 2010)
Report:
Race report given via Twitter, July 11 while watching Tour de France with Mr. Handshake 2.0. Most recent is first, edited a bit for clarity.
Celebration lobster dinner at Fore St. Restaurant tonight. Settled in to watch Tour de France w/ Mr. H20. Done.
Highlights for me: completing swim, completing race, seeing friends there, Mr. H20 waiting to race w/ me and singing to me during run.
One of hardest physical challenges of post-40 life.
Endured and finished, didn't race. If I hadn't trained hard and well before, could have been at risk.
Cliff disguised with grass was uphill beginning of not 3.1 mi run, but 3.5+
Bike ended w/ 2 back-to-back hills that couldn't even play because of #claystmi
14 miles on guy's bike seat just pain to wait to be over.
Why, why didn't I say to bike rental co "I'm a girl. That's a guy's seat. Not a match."?
Ran .5 from mini-transition to transition in -10.0 diopter swim goggles. Don't get me started on logistics.
Best friend from childhood and her signif other came to watch, told me later she was worried when I came out of water: "wobbly"
Wondered if newborn baby felt same, coughing out primordial soup, struggling to breathe in air.
Felt strong for 1st 600 then took wave of salt water straight in face. Nose, lungs, stomach full of sea water like baby in womb
Put wetsuit on well, lots of room in shoulders, snug and warm inside, putting face in cold water such a challenge for 1st 100
No time for warm-up (shuttle logistics problem), so did snow angel in water beside early waves to start to acclimate to water temp
Basics: 750m ocean swim, Casco Bay, 61 degrees, mini-transition to put on shoes, .5 mi run to transition, 13 mi bike, 3.5 or so mi run
Urban Epic Triathlon: Logistics hassle for out-of-towners made event something to get through rather than enjoy or use as personal challenge
24 hrs later, recovering and able to remember race. Thoughtful, for many reasons, again,about what's important.
So triumph of health of finishing Epic Urban Triathlon made fragile by injury. Injury or ill health make love and luxury so hard to value.
The black bruise to what we will call my inner thigh, again under ice, I will attribute to luck that it wasn't one more inch "inner."
Thx to my personal trainer's careful attention to my upper body strength, my shoulder is in its socket and my ribs are bruised, not cracked.
Do not step onto the edge of a bathtub to hang up wetsuits to dry.
Sometimes my dad reads my Twitter stream, so I'll start here: I didn't hit my head and I didn't break anything.
***
Summary:
Only for a few brief sections of the swim did I feel that ecstasy of absorption and intensity I love about doing triathlons. Most of the rest of the race was just a hassle. That was my 12th triathlon participating solo and least satisfying. Given the context of all my results, the swim time was good. I appreciated my past experiences with triathlons run professionally and smoothly by Set Up Events. Enough.
