Audrey Erlandson: May 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

First Race of the Season!!! Finally!!!...

Shawnigan Lake Half Iron

May 30th, 2010!

OK, so yes, this was the first open water race of the season, and yes, it had to be one of the coldest swims I have EVER done!!! It was a balmy 4' C at 7am and I have absolutely no idea how cold the water was, but SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! My mouth was frozen open, my feet and hands looked like they had all the blood drained out of them! Oh man... There are no words to describe the feeling of riding and running on frozen stumps for 5 hours!! Luckily I had my mom close by watching me in transition. BRAIN FREEZE! I was in slow motion. I heard my mom yelling at me "Aud, your race number!... "Aud, you haven't put your race number on!" At first I had no idea what she was talking about. Then, I looked down and saw the race belt laying on the ground, laughed, tried to bend down to get in on and almost fell over! All you can do is laugh at yourself in situations like that. Thank goodness this race was titled "Fitness Builder"! The plan was to be "pacing not racing"!!! The goal was "no racing" on the bike leg. Cruise it! Then practice goal Ironman race pace on the run. The bike course is absolutely fantastic. Cruisin it would have been great on a sun shiny day, but in pouring rain and wind... Ugh! It was everything I had in me to just get through that part. We had to do 4 loops around the lake for a total of 88 Kms. The volunteer at the intersection thought I was hilarious! Every time I passed her, I told her how I couldn't feel my feet yet and she would belly laugh!

Dude in the picture watching me 'slow motion' peeling myself out of my wetsuit. Can't see his face, but he was laughing at me as I was talking myself through the brain freeze!

I have absolutely no idea how I actually ran on frozen feet. After we left transition we had to run up a back trail to the road in bare feet, then get on the bike and start going. I couldn't feel putting my feet in my bike shoes.

Just off the bike and attempting to get my helmet off with frozen hands. My mom yelled at me here and asked, "Are you OK"??.... I proceeded to jump up and down and yelled, "I still can't feel my feet"!!!!!!!

I'm off to start running 21Kms on frozen stumps! Nothing else you can do but smile at this point! I had new shoes for the race and I couldn't tell you how they felt. No feeling in the feet for basically the entire half marathon!

Can you say "Deer in headlights"?... Totally stunned! The high light of the race was running with the yellow jersey fellow for the last 400m to the finish line. He was too funny. During the run he passed me around the 9km mark and shortly after that had made a pit stop in the bushes. Then a little while later he passed me again around the 13km mark and I saw him up ahead making another pit stop in the bushes. Then, for the third time, at around the 20km mark he came up from behind me again! This time he said to me as he was passing me, "Hey, I caught up to you three times! My reply was, what the heck have you been drinking??? You've been peeing in the bushes every half hour!!... Then we were making our way down toward the finishing chute and I was hot on his heals. I started to pass him and I said, "Are you going to let me get ahead of you again or are ya going to beat me"??? He was very kind and said oh that's OK you go ahead. I gave him the gears and told him to step it up and sprint in with me. He said, "But, I don't like sprinting!" I told him to suck it up and giver! "We'll make it a tie"!! He liked that and we giggled the whole way to the finish line together!! It made the last 5 hours seem like a piece of cake in the end when you can smile and laugh to the finish line! He made my day! Having my mom (who deserves super fan of the year award!) following me all morning in the rain, wind, and cold was super fantastic!! Thanks mom for being my domestique for the day!!!