7th Annual Louie Bonpua Memorial Olympic Distance Triathlon at Treasure Island, Sunday, Jan.27, 2008
(Early a.m. view from the transition area)
MORNING
Cold and wet, what a great day for a race! .93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run. This would be my first Olympic Distance Tri. I decided to wake up excited instead of nervous. My goals were to finish, have fun, and learn from the race. This is a special race because of the person it was named in honor of, Louie Bonpua. I'll save his amazing story for the end.
At 7:45 a.m. we drive into the huge parking lot and we're treated to a spectacular view of the City skyline and both the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges in sight. Stunning. The place is already abuzz with 150+ Team In Training athletes, staff and volunteers. I check-in, get my race number and body-marked, pre-race greetings to friends, then start laying out my gear at the transition area. Wetsuit on, team meeting to go over the course, then a short walk down to the beach.
Setting up in transition
THE SWIM
I'm in the green cap, my buddy Jun in red
I'm not a swimmer. Sure, recreational swimming in the pool, but open water and lap swimming, never. But hey, I'm training for an Ironman so I better become a swimmer. So I started lap swims four months ago along with a few open water swims. My first open water swim in Lake Berryessa last November was very, shall we say, 'eventful' and probably one of the top 5 times I've been most scared in my life, and I can't even remember what the other 4 were. Going from an indoor pool to this vast body of open water, no side of the pool to hold on to, can't reach or even see the bottom, the thought of drowning, and don't forget those sharks in the lake (hey, it could happen!) But what's life without facing fear and doing it anyway. (Easy for me to say now, but at the time, the thought of quitting and swimming back to shore crossed my mind. I did finish though, yes! )
So now I get to jump into the cold SF Bay, not a lake. I told myself that I don't have time to be scared, I've got a mile swim ahead of me, four laps around the buoys.
My plan was to relax, take one buoy at a time, one lap at a time. I seeded myself in the first of four groups, slower swimmers first, faster swimmers last. 3,2,1 GO!
I do a 'Tarzan' stroke (head above water) for a while so I can navigate all the feet and legs splashing around. I did get kicked a few times and people bumping into me, but no big deal. Once things thin out, I put my face in and start swimming. The water's cold but after a while, your face, hands and feet get so numb you can't really feel it.
I finally get to the buoy for my last lap (lap four) and saw most/all of the swimmers around me heading to shore. But I just kept going, one more lap. Then several minutes later I saw kayaks 'surrounding' me and I thought, 'Great, I must be one of the last ones out of the water. Personal kayak escort again. Or maybe they've all mistaken me for a drowning person in need of help, haha.' Then another swimmer swam with me to see how I was doing. She gave me some technique advice and once I tried it, it felt like I was going faster/easier. Man, why couldn't she have been with me at the first buoy instead of the final one. She introduced herself to me after the race as Nancy. She's a swim coach and SF TNT coach and was swimming with the newbies this morning. She's awesome, like my angel mermaid.
Anyways, I started hearing the bullhorn (Coach Ted) and crowd from shore, something like 'Go, Roman, Go, Roman' (it's hard to hear, I have earplugs, plus the swim cap and water.) That's way cool but now I'm thinking, I must REALLY be the LAST one out if they can keep cheering for just ONE person for so long. You know, it wasn't Go Roman, Go Jill, Go Jack, Go Dexter, Go Team ('Team' in Training and all). It was Go, Roman, Go, Roman. And I know there's not several different people named Roman still swimming. And how did they know it was me? My ubiquitous green swim cap?
Being last out of the water in your first tri with only 10 people is one thing (Lake Berryessa), but in a race with 100 people? Isn't there at least one, just ONE more person slower than me out here. I didn't think I was THAT slow (no offense to that one more person out there.) And now that everyone is cheering me on I feel 'obligated' to swim as fast as I can to shore. But people, I'm already swimming as fast as I can, I don't need any extra pressure, haha. Closer...closer...people getting larger...solid ground! Big smile. 52 minutes by my watch (Timex Ironman of course). People are whooping it up like crazy, like I was the first one out. Hey, that lady looks like mom. It is mom! And dad! What are you guys doing here? I do a really quick glance at the water and it's smooth and tranquil, not one more colored swim cap, the red buoys are gone, and all the kayaks are grounded. Rats. Last. Oh well, make up the time on the bike. But yeah baby, I just swam a mile in open water, last or not, something I never thought I would or could do. Time to go ride.
Even though I was last out, I was excited because I had a great day mentally and psychologically. I wasn't dreading the swim, I was actually very relaxed walking to the beach pre-race, chatting with my teammates. I had zero panic attack moments and minimal, if any, extraneous, negative mental chatter. And I only stopped to rest once for about 20 seconds. My pace going out was too fast with all the excitement, and people bumping into you, so I just took a few extra breaths to get my heart rate and breathing back down, no biggie. I even passed a person hanging on to a kayak for dear life. Now that was something I didn't needed to see in the middle of my swim. So I tried to ignore it and kept swimming. I wasn't really tired, I just swim slow (for now :)
I would learn after the race that many swimmers didn't finish all four laps so that's one of reasons I was last out. (Or maybe because I'm slow, hehe.) I'm not worried about my speed, I know I'll get faster as the season goes on. It doesn't matter if I'm last at all my other triathlons, as long as I'm fast enough to make the 2 hour swim cut off time at Ironman (2.4 mile swim). Even with my slow time, I think the cut off is within reach.
and we're off...
RACE REPORT to be continued...
