For this year's Rage Triathlon, I decided to participate in it as a relay with my husband and son. Since I am still recovering from my knee surgery, it was a good idea to share the effort. I was the swim portion, my husband was the bike portion and my son was the run portion.
We arrived about 45 minutes early. Since we were racing as a relay team, we didn't really need to set up an elaborate transition area so we didn't need a lot of time before the race. Once we arrived, my husband got his bike situated on the rack. I walked around and talked with a few friends as they prepared for their races. About 20 minutes before my waves start, 7:40 AM, I stopped for one last potty break and then got my wetsuit on. I then headed to the water and awaited my turn to start.
It was forecast to get really windy but luckily, it was holding off. There was a constant wind but we weren't having to deal with the 25-30 mph gusts just yet. I gave my family a hug and kiss and entered the water. It was cold but not too bad. I had made it out the week before for one open water swim practice so that helped me know what to expect. I listened to some quick swim instructions from the race director and waited for the air horn to sound. Once I heard it, I was off.
They had changed the regular swim course to accommodate for the strong winds. We were to swim a triangle with the first section heading straight into the wind. It was slow going and really choppy. They were starting waves every few minutes but because of the wind and current pushing against us, there were a lot of people jammed together in this first section. I powered through it and made the first right hand turn around the buoy. Once I was on the straight backside, I had the wind to my back and was able to utilize the wind and current to my advantage. I made up a lot of ground there. I finally made the last right hand turn to head to shore. I was still passing people and felt like I was having a good swim. Since I only had to worry about the swim, I was able to go full speed for the entire swim and not worry about saving anything for the bike or run. I finally reached the shore and quickly made my way out of the water. I was worried about the swim exit and the run to transition since I had only been allowed to run for about two weeks but there were no problems and the knee felt fine.
Once I reached the transition area, I met up with my husband and he grabbed the timing chip from my ankle and placed it on his. He then ran up to his bike, grabbed it and took off. I then walked around until I was able to locate my son who was carrying our backpack. I changed my clothes and then went to the bike in area of transition and waited for my husband to return.
I wasn't sure of the exact time my husband left on the bike so we were trying to pay close attention to who was coming in so as to be ready for the timing chip exchange. Shortly after racers began to return on their bikes, I saw my husband. My son ran over to him, grabbed the timing chip from his ankle, placed it on his ankle and took off running through the transition to complete his 5K.
I walked with my husband to his transition spot while he changed his shoes and dropped off his bike. We then walked to the finisher's chute to wait for my son. My husband decided to walk up the course a bit so he could run my son in once he was close. I wasn't able to run that far yet so I decided to meet them at the final section and we would all three run the finish together. I finally saw them and jumped into the chute to join them. Once we were all together, we ran the final 100 yards to the finish line.
We had a great race! We ended up placing 4th out of 25 teams. My 750 meter swim was completed in 12:15. My husband's 12.4 mile bike ride was completed in 45:00. My son's 3.1 mile run was completed in 27:55. We missed 3rd place by only 27 seconds. It was really fun racing together as a relay team. We are also registered to race as a relay for Pumpkinman in October. It is a different course but it will be interesting to see if we can make it to the podium for that race.
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