On Friday, June 11th...I with the bikes in tow.. drove to Indian River, Delaware to spend Friday night with mom and dad in the camper. A welcome surprise was that my brother, his wife, and my three darling nephews would be there too….sweet….
I got to admit, the sleeping accommodations needed some work.. my brother in his intimate wisdom pitched a tent for he and his beloved for their anniversary… yeah… and the three darling nephews had to stay in the camper with the parents and myself... of course the littlest one, the five year old, wanted the top bunk.. I got the bottom bunk.. the other two the pull out couch and table…sometimes you just KNOW when things are not a good idea..
SMACK… I promptly smashed my head on the too low clearance between the top and bottom bunk.. “SHIT!!”…. The quietness of the room and the little peering eyeballs … OOPS.. sorry little ones… I wonder what else I can teach my young impressionable nephews....
Knowing that two nights before a big race is important for sleep, I retired early as the little ones are being tucked in…lights off.. nighty night....and out of the darkness I hear in a faint little voice, “SHIT IT’S DARK”…. Sigh.. lovely appropriate use of a new word…
… As I start to fall into dreamland I am awaken by the sound of little five year old fingers playing a melody on the metal blinds… "..Andrew.. shhhh"… alls quiet .. then.. flip... flip… flip.."ANDREW..." quiet… then flip... flip.. flip.." ANDREW... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD… KNOCK IT OFF!!>".. silence…
Ahh… so proud of myself … the life learning’s I have just given my nephews…back to sleepy… and then WHOOSH… BANG..SMASH… WTF!!!?… the littlest troll just rolled off the top bunk, bouncing off my “at rest” body on the bottom bunk and catapulted to the floor...… I sit up , hit my head (on the too low clearance), say some explicative’s, find out he is ok.. (my brother happen to be walking by and grabbed him before he wailed…).. and I went back to bed… dude.. Drama has once again found me…
On Saturday, June 12th I drove over to Cambridge, Maryland to meet Joe for packet pick up and bike racking.
This would be Joe’s first Half Ironman Triathlon and I was so excited for him. This would be my third, and even then I was excited
because I just LOVED the course, Cambridge was one of my favorite places to swim, bike and run…
The day went too fast, from getting our packets, to browsing the expo... and yeah I can buy something anywhere.... to racking our bikes and taking a warm up dip in the Choptank River. Life was in fact… good…I am blessed to be able to do these things and able to spend time with my loved ones.!!!
On race morning, Sunday, June 13th I was proud of the fact that Joe, even though he was really nervous looked really happy and excited. This was our day!!!
There are alot of things that can happen in a race.. the weather can be bad, tires can blow... nutrition can be off..just know you can count on just about anything in a race... I have raced in torrential rains for 15+ hours at the full Ironman, in snow for over 5+ hours in Vermont’s Half Marathon on Snowshoes, in the 93 degree/107 heat index for Eagleman 2008 Half Ironman, so I am mentally prepared for just about anything... but I wasn’t prepared to be told we couldn’t wear our wetsuits for the swim. WHAT!!?..It appears that the water was too "warm" and wetsuits were not permitted this year..
A wetsuit helps keep a person more buoyant, so they “swim better” and definitely helps slower swimmers swim faster, and well I already knew from reviewing the tide chart that we would be fighting a current going out..and I know I am a slow swimmer.. I know my swim rate and it would take a near perfect swim for me to make the 1 hour and 10 min time cut off without a wetsuit... and I knew I could not let Joe know how close I would be to that… so I made sure to let him know I would be fine… this is cake I say!
I watched Joe head off in his wave.. I am soo proud of him. For someone to have gone from smoking a pack a day, just a few years ago to tackling his first Half Ironman Triathlon, WOW! I couldn’t have been prouder!!! He went into the water with gusto. He is just amazing… I watch his wave swim away... I say a prayer, that God look after him and I head to the start to line up for my wave.
I want no issues of being swam over, punched or kicked, so i line up in the back, and then we were off... I had absolutely no problem in the swim, no panic attacks, no problems putting face in water, no problems what so ever… swim .. swim… swim.. look up to sight buoy, swim …swim… swim … look up … um.. WTF.!?. not going anywhere?… I swear I was swimming in place.. then the swim waves behind me caught up.. ALL OF THEM… I was passed by orange caps, black caps, I think blue caps?
So after "playing with the dolphins" for a bit (joke) I return to shore.. 1 hour and 21 mins later!! (alas not knowing my time as I had forgotten to start my waterproof watch)… I wipe the river slime off my face, say a prayer of thanks, and run into transition.. I am heading on the bike!!!!..
I had a flawless transition.. and no problems on the bike.. although my bike split wasn’t the best.. I still finished well within the cut off needed for the bike and 3-1/2 hours later, a little beat up but happy, I returned to the transition area...ready to run… WOW.. only 13.1 miles to go!!!!!.. easy stuff… I can do this in my sleep!!!
I sit down and wipe off my feet and prepare to put my running shoes on and um.... what is that???? .. I peer closer.. and there is a giant piece of silver duct tape across my sneakers with the words “DQ DO NOT RUN” in black magic marker.. I look to my left, then my right, is this a joke? I stand up… there is another piece of silver duct tape with the same words on my name plate on the rack… HUH???!.. I scratch my head, look around and I see others who have similar duct tape…
I think for a moment… I do some calculations…. I know I made the bike cut off.. I think... think.. OMG I must of missed the swim cut off.. oh shit! UGH!!!!
I don’t cry, I am numb. I walk over to Joe’s bike in transition to see if I can grab our truck keys, I figure if I cant compete now ...I best get to the truck and get the camera out and take some pics of Joe coming in… I look for the truck keys and can't find them amongst his stuff.. hmph… I return to my bike, gather my stuff and turn in my chip… my race is over…
Now to watch Joe finish.. I am truly excited… I cannot wait to see him cross the finish line!!!… I think back on our training… it was fairly spotty (due to lots of reasons) but we still got some in and I was just so dang proud of him… he is doing it!!!!
Alas, I will come to find out that Joe too was DQ’d (disqualified) and was “hiding” from me when I came in from my bike, he didn’t realize I too was DQ’d… When I didn’t come out of transition to run, he went to look for me .. about a half hour later we accidentally ran into each other.. and we realized we both were DQ’d. ...Was kinda funny… Joe? ..Wendy?? We gathered our stuff up and left..
We come to find out that 200 people were disqualified like us off the swim but not until after the bike and had silver duct tape informing them of that.. but what was the pisser is that 50 people were allowed to continue on… and some of them had worse swim times then us. Whether these 50 people snuck through or were allowed, don’t know, but the fact is that they got the opportunity to finish and we did not.. well just say angry is an understatement.
The rumors over the next few days were that some of the buoys had drifted, the course was long, times were off, etc.. either case, doesn’t matter, we can't get the day back.
Joe was only over the time cut off by 4 mins, and considering this was his first 1.2 mile open water swim, he did great! HE passed many of his age group on the bike… and well we got to work on that swim…! I got to admit this is not how I pictured the day going but sometimes there are lessons to be learned..and well when I figure out the lesson I will learn it..
PS: I have started my training for Chessy Man… no one will tell me I cant swim 2.4 miles in the time cut off… and this is when it begins…
