Scenes from Criminal Minds and a PBS Special

(with a triathlon thrown in for fun!)

Thursday after work I left much, much later then I had planned for my weekend getaway for the local (to my parent's summer home) sprint triathlon. It was a long, long night of driving but I finally arrived at the hotel where I was crashing before heading to the Island. The lobby was empty but the check in dude was nice enough and he suggested I leave my bike in the hotel's ballroom (at first this seemed odd to me but then I remember that many people travel with bikes - mostly beach cruiserish bikes, but whatever - to the island so the hotel clearly had a plan) - it was late and I was going to be in the hotel for less than 8 hours, so I said fine. I was totally down with the ballroom right up until he emerged from behind the desk and I realized he was like 8 feet tall and walked with a weird limp and he unlocked the door to the dark ballroom and suggested I bring my bike to its far back corner ... um, nothankyouverymuch ... scenes from every creepy crime show I've ever watched flashed through my head and I was certain that as soon as I was fully in the ballroom that door would lock behind me and I would belong to the 8 foot tall dude and he would keep me locked up for years. So I did what any good triathlete with a nice bike and an active imagination would do - I gave the bike a shove in the general direction of a table and hoped for the best - my feet at all times stayed firmly in the hallway of the hotel and I then went quickly to my room and double locked the door. Crisis averted!

Friday was a great, relaxing day and Saturday was the race. Really, all I can say about this race is that it was what it was. Its not an A race for sure and not really even a B race - its mostly just a reason to get away to my favorite vacation destination for a weekend. I obviously wanted to improve from last year but the conditions were so different that its almost impossible to compare ... but I'll try, starting with the swim (obviously).

I was hoping for a solid swim because I always hope for a solid swim, its the part of the race where I feel, well, solid. During the swim I felt way off course, but I always had people around me. I also felt like when we made the turn towards home you could swim and swim and swim and get nowhere. This swim is in the sound and it later became clear that there was some sort of current going on. Despite this, I was hugely disappointed to see that my time was 4.5 minutes slower than last year (10:56 v 15:28). However, post race analysis reveals that I had the 15th fastest swim of the 74 people in my age group and that the fastest female swim time in the WHOLE race this year was 10:40 ... so to compare the two is really apples and oranges and I was solidly in the top 1/4 so in the end it was all good.

Someone also told me that the swim was all anyone was talking about in T1. I didn't notice, I was too busy catching my breath after the long sand run and putting on my bike shoes and helmet 18 seconds faster then last year - and considering how hard I worked in the swim this year, that's impressive! Ha.

The bike is what it is. And it is just not long enough for me to get into a groove (not to mention I was stewing over the swim a bit) ... it was about 2.5 minutes faster (44:33 v 47:17) so I'll take it.

T2 was when I realized that there was a distinct chance that we would all spontaneously combust on the run. It was now about 1:30 and it was HOT. Despite this I moved through T2 12 seconds faster then last year.

The run was, as expected, HOT and it was one of those runs where you're trying and working but your legs just aren't moving quickly - it was about 2 minutes slower (31:15 v 33:25).

Overall my time was about 4 minutes off (1:38:06 v 1:42:01) but a fun time was had by all so I can't complain. My super athletic Boston friend got a last minute spot in the race and had the fastest female run time. That is THE FASTEST FEMALE RUN TIME. She was also 4th in her age group.

Unfortunately the next day she almost drowned in the ocean. Seriously. Literally. A good samaritan rescued her because we were not at a lifeguard beach and while I'm a solid swimmer I'm not down with the ocean these days. All an attempted rescue by me would have done is left two people to be saved. Prior to the incident I was thinking that I needed to come to terms with my ocean fear so I'm not one of those scared moms (not that I have imminent plans to become a mom) but now I think I'm down with being scared - I'll just add "not afraid of the ocean" to things I look for in a man. Anyway, keep this in mind for any trips you might take with me to the beach: unless it calm, you're on your own out there!

Seriously though, she didn't know that if you are caught in a rip tide you swim parallel to shore. Despite the fact that given the rough conditions, swimming parallel might not have been an option, everyone should know that, thus the PBS special. And for those that know me and could envision me freaking out, know that I was alone in that general part of the beach (there were others that would have heard me if I yelled) except for the good samaritan's friends who, like the good samaritan, might have been 12, and therefore I remained incredibly calm - I kept my eye on her so I could point her out to anyone else that might have been needed to assist and I was ready to call 911 (the only reason I didn't do that initially is that we were down a long dirt road and far from town ... it would have been too late). It was only later that I wondered what happens when you're on vacation with a casual friend and she drowns ... it freaked me out a bit, but in the end I was just grateful that I didn't find out the answers to that question!

I anticipate this weekend's triathlon to be much less eventful ... more on that later.

Stay cool kids!