I woke Adam up exactly at 5am so that he could pump my up my bike tires and load my bike. Hey! I'm a triathlete not a bike mechanic. I don't want to get a tri and realize I have a flat tire because I didn't pump the tire correctly, so Adam is kind enough to do it for me and give me a proper send off. As I pulled onto the tollway in the pitch black dark, I tried to calm my nerves by focusing on the directions...exit 380W...as the last thing I needed was to get lost. I recognized the names of the roads out in the sticks and got to Denton with no issues.
By 6am, I was parked, unloaded, and in line for body marking. When I entered the transition area, I was shocked how few bike racks there were. Where were the hundreds of people there normally are? I set up my transition area and got in line to get my timing chip. Apparently the computer went down and they couldn't assign the chips until it came back up so I waited and waited and waited. I started getting nervous that I was going to be pressed for time for my pre-race rituals. Imagine my surprise when there was no line for the bathroom, no wait for a mirror to put on swim caps, nothing. No large crowd checking out the swim facility...what on earth is going on?
As they called the athletes to line up they announced that out of the 14,000 triathletes that participated in races in the 12 months that was were used for qualifying for this race they only selected 200 participants. Ah, so that explains the low numbers! Tris usually have 600-800 people in them...
I found my spot right between numbers 106 and 108 who were both men that are about as tall as Adam. My heart sunk and I got a knot in my throat. Wow, so this is what the top 200 triathletes in the Dallas area look like. What the flying flip am I doing here? I only spotted one woman in front of me. I'm sure there were a handful more but it was hard to see anything given the height of the guys I was about to be swimming with. Within minutes the first woman exited the pool and she spun around in a circle seeming to be completely disoriented! She literally had to be told which direction to go....yikes!
Before I knew it, it was my turn. As I'm telling myself to swim my own race and not worry about the jolly green giants bulldozing me I see bubbles in my face. Dang it, someone is taking their sweet time, now I have to pass them. I hate passing...expending the energy to gain a couple of seconds in the pool is just not worth it. I totally throw off my cadence and stupidly take the last corner with 2 other swimmers. We all three try to sprint to the end of the pool and this light weight got thrown into the ropes. Nice start...
As I'm running to the transition area I see Adam, Maison, and my parents cheering me on. I quickly put on my cleats and helmet and grab my bike. The bike is 16mi down and back on a highway. The most eventful thing was seeing some poor guy trying to fix a flat tire within the first few miles. I would just have to quit. I have no idea how to fix a flat so I don't even bring a flat kit with me. When I had about a mile left, I reached for my Gu in the back pocket on my tri top and it wasn't there. Where is my Gu? Did I drop it? That's a bummer! I like to gu at the end of the bike so it hits me on the run. I see my fam again as I'm coming into transition and I'm so focused on them I completely miss the dismount line. I abruptly pulled my cleat out of the pedal but luckily didn't crash. I hear my mom screaming "Go Marcia!" as I go to rack my bike. I decide to look down and there was my gu! Hallelujah!
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