DNF on the swim!! And I’m not the slightest bit upset about it. (Perhaps a testament to how NOT hard core I am, LOL.) And I rode the bike course anyway.
Screwy day. Water was 79 degrees, fully wetsuit legal w/a USAT amendment due to the jellyfish… Pre-race meeting scheduled for 6:40 - planned on warming up in the water from 6:30-6:40. Wrestle into my wetsuit and get ready to head for the water and they’re now saying the meeting will be at 6:30 and are telling people to get out of the water for it. And we stand around and wait, and wait and wait, then find out the delay is because there had been an accident out on the bike course and the sheriff’s dept was getting it cleaned up. Finally the first wave goes off (men 39 & under) and we watch and try to figure out what on earth is going on since they’re all inside the buoys. Can you say strong current? Next wave goes off, with a little bit more success as they angle themselves more to the left. The women head out and we’re near going straight left trying to compensate. Went out very slow, no OWS freakout but also keeping my head above water simply because I need to keep track of where I am after watching the first two waves end up all over creation. Past first bouy, getting on to the second and all forward motion pretty much ceased. (Apparently this was where the current was kicking in, or I suck even worse than I ever thought) I am expending WAY too much energy to get NOWHERE. But, absolutely no panic whatsoever. I’m looking at where I am, and where I need to be to make the turn and there is no way it’s gonna happen, not with the water seriously not cooperating with me. So, I realize I can snag a kayak now and get in a boat under my own power, or try to continue on, get in real trouble and get pulled out by the back of my wetsuit. Discretion being the better part of valor, I went for option A.
The guys on the boat were super nice, kept asking if I was OK, I was more worried they were going to ground the boat getting me to the beach. Handed off my chip to someone and they said they were so sorry, I just said “No worries, I’ll kick it next year” which I guess isn’t a normal response cause I got some very surprised looks. Got out of my wetsuit and dried off a bit and went back down to watch the rest of the swimmers come in and that confirmed I made the right call - they were hurting bad coming out of the water. Folks were so off course trying to come back in because of the current - one of the race officials said he was sure folks did a minimum of 1200-1400M with the current. One other gal came in on one of the boats, and she was in tears - I felt so awful for her, and hugged her and told her it was OK. She said she was going to bike and run anyway, which for some reason sounded like a great idea to me, too. So, off we go to the bikes. This may have been in violation of several rules, but the bike course was open to traffic with no aid stations, so it’t not like they can tell some random person on a bike they can’t be on the road.
I have mixed feelings about the bike course. Technically, loved it - the hills weren’t nearly as bad as they seemed when I drove them last night, it was a very straightforward out and back with 2 turns and the turnaround. (However, one turn was 90 degrees at the bottom of a hill.) From a safety standpoint, it sucked in my eyes. Course was totally open to traffic, just some police & volunteers at the intersections. Fortunately, the traffic wasn’t heavy. The 90 degree turn had an oil slick on it. The “shoulders” were gravel & grass, so if you had to go over the white line, good chance you would wipe out cause you only had another 6 inches of pavement. 5 cars intentionally came as close to me as they could, including one pickup truck deciding to honk as he got right by me, despite my being near on top of the white line and there being NO oncoming traffic. On the way back in I saw the last rider on the way out w/the sweep behind her. The two cars behind it decided they wanted to pass, and came over into my lane. No crash, but WAY too close. I discovered I do have nerves of steel sometimes, as on all 6 occasions I managed to ride as straight and perfectly as I have in my life.
The last left turn to get back to the race site was no longer manned as I approached it - no biggie for me, I’m not racing anymore, but there are still folks behind me! I turned left a block early and just went through the neighborhood to get back over to the site. I decided to bag running since I figured I’d already tired out my guardian angel between the swim and the bike route, and 6 more miles of being a slow moving target might not be the best idea. (Full traffic on the run route, too.)
So, what could have been a really craptastic day was actually really good and I made two goals - happy (even without the finish) and under 2 hours on the bike. No OWS panic and some really good calm, clearheaded decision making.
Don’t know if I’d attempt it again next year, obviously there is always the revenge factor, but nearly getting creamed 6 times on the bike doesn’t have a lot of appeal.
