Race Report: Tri for the Cure

Waaay back in May, two co-workers and I had signed up for Tri for the Cure, a women's only triathlon similar to race for the cure. We signed up as a relay and I was pegged to do the swim leg.

I had the best intentions of using swimming as a way to cross train during my final month of half marathon training, but I ended up only swimming twice. Whoops! I then planned to swim twice last week, but was swamped with work and ended up not doing that either. Thankfully, it was just a race for fun and we weren't worried about being all that competitive.

It was a huge triathlon - around 3,000 women signed up. It was nervous about plodding around, looking all chubby and squiggy around the edges in my swimsuit, but I was happy to see there was a wide range of ages and body types. Since the relay wave was nearly the last one to get into the water, we stood around and watched the elite, competitive, and survivor waves exit the water and transition to the bike. Watching the survivors was pretty emotional, and a bit scary since some of them were easily my age. Some of the elites ran with their bike shoes already clipped to their bikes and then would jump on and slide their feet in. I giggled imagining me trying to do that, inevitably tipping over and losing any time gained by having the shoes pre-clipped.

As I waited in the corral for my wave to start, I heard all the other girls anxiously talking about how much they hated the swim. I smiled to myself, excited that this is the one leg that I'm really good at. There were about 100 people per wave with an in-water start, but I managed to elbow my way towards the front of the pack. Still, when the wave was set loose, there was a lot of kicking and flailing and people on top of each other. I pretty much just swam breaststroke until the chaos subsided.

Then I went to put my head in the water. I didn't like it. I've done open water swims before, in far grosser conditions (Schuylkill River, anyone?), so I have no idea where the discomfort came from. I swam freestyle with my head out of the water for a bit, but I didn't care for that either and it was hurting my neck. We were also swimming straight into the sun for the first two buoys, and I couldn't see a darn thing, including the buoys. I started to have a hard time breathing and my goggles were fogging (I later realized the foam had detached from one of the eyepieces just before the race started), so I flipped onto my back and started backstroking.

I worked on calming my breathing and yelled at myself for a little bit. Once my goggles were clear and my heartrate down, I flipped back over and put my head in the water. I was able to sight myself every few strokes and made it around the first two buoys and out of the sun. Then I took off, fueled by anger at my lost time. I started passing people left and right, mostly left, because I stay on the inside lane and out of the way of the "noodlers" - people who aren't strong enough to complete the swim portion and are given noodles to kick around on. They drove me nuts. As I cleared the third buoy and was headed back towards the shore, I started sighting not only buoys, but also green caps - the other girls from my heat. I picked up a lot of speed, thinking, heck I don't have to do anything after this, I had better leave it all in the water.

I know I picked off at least 3 or 4 girls from my heat and was closing in on another one when I got to the end. Since the boat ramp was slippery, they had volunteers holding your hand and pulling you/holding you up as you exited the water. It was a bit of a bottleneck and only one person could go at a time. I saw 4 green caps ahead of me.

Overall, my time was 14:29. I was aiming for closer to 12 minutes and wonder how much time I could have shaved off if I hadn't had issues with the start. Our relay, Berger Babes, came in 9th out of the 75 relay teams. Out of the 2411 competitors that finished the swimming portion, I came in 166th.

It was a fun day and great atmosphere, but I dont think I would choose this event as a tri to attempt to race. There were just too many lallygaggers and the transition area was pretty terribly organized. People didn't understand race etiquette and weren't concerned with times. Which is fine, but it would frustrating as someone who would want to do well. But it made me realize I really miss racing, especially a sport that I'm good at, like swimming. I've been toying with the idea of doing the Olympic Tri in Key West, and this only made me want to do it that much more.