Tris, Trips and Tetanus - The Sharon's Back 2009 Recap

Did I get your attention? Because let me tell you, Sharon's Back was a doozy. And not necessarily in a good way. I've waited so long to write this and I plan to keep this short and sweet:

• It was hot and humid,
• I crashed my bike in T2 and gashed the top of my foot,
• I nearly passed out after crossing the finish line.

Actually, the race wasn't all bad...just the run. The swim was 1/2 mile and therefore the farthest I've raced. I was happy to have finished and had I not veered of course TWICE, I might've had a stronger swim time. Still, I was satisfied with 21:29 (2.67 mins/100 meters).

T1 - 1:44

The bike was flat and fast, but as Carol mentioned in a recent blog post, flat means a lot of work. There is no coasting; your legs are moving and working the entire time. It's more tiring than you might think. I went the 12.3 mi distance in 42:07 (17.52 mph).

And the race went downhill from there. Figuratively. Why? Because I'm a complete idiot. I've been doing rolling bike dismounts where I unclip and swing my right leg over the back of the bike while it's still moving for a while now. It didn't work so well this time, however, and I went over on the "clean" side of the bike (i.e., no gears) and caught my right leg on one of the sprockets (which meant there was a tetanus shot in my future). I didn't realize I had hurt myself to such a degree until I reached the transition area; I was far more upset...actually embarrassed...that I had dumped the bike in front of so many people. One of the volunteers in T2 offered to look for a bandage, but I didn't want to wait. I threw on my sock and ran/limped out of T2.

T2 - 1:59

Oh, the run. What can I say except it was horrible. With all the excitement in T2, I had forgotten to eat a gel or take one last gulp of my gatorade/water mix, so I started the 4.4 mile run with no energy, an injured foot and wobbly brick legs. I ran/walked the first half. I was fortunate then to find one of my clubmates who kindly offered me a gel, which I gratefully took although it was too little, too late. I managed to run most of the back half of the race until the very end when I just felt too exhausted to move. At that point, a man ran up behind me and yelled, "Hey Tri girl! Start moving." So I did and he and I ran until we could hear the cheers of the crowds at the finish line.

And then I made my second stupid mistake (and arguably the bigger of the two). A younger woman who had been just behind me for most of the race decided to make one last push to the finish. Well, I couldn't let her pass me, could I? Could I? Nope. So I raced her in. RACED. HER. IN. After I had gassed out. And did I mention that it was 90 degrees with high humidity? Well, I beat her by tenths of a second (hurrah), but the minute I crossed the finish line, I started seeing stars and went down. I managed to grab the arm of a woman in the crowd (you should've seen the poor woman's face at that moment) before I was picked up by a volunteer. Not my finest moment, for sure. I was taken to the medical tent where moments later I was right as rain (thanks to some coconut milk and an ice compress). And although my girls saw me cross the finish line, they didn't see me (almost) collapse, for which I am eternally grateful. Run: 46:15 (10:51 pace).

This was a tough race, but one in which I learned many painful lessons. So Sharon, I will be back. And next time, I will get the best of you.