About a month after I gave birth to Alan, I told Dennis that I was thinking about signing up to do the Chicago Triathlon. In the past, I have used events, such as a triathlon, to motivate me to train and exercise. Since I was trying to lose 40 lbs of baby weight I thought an impending triathlon up would prevail vs lack of sleep, tiredness and plain inertia when it came to exercising. The last triathlon I did was in 2006 right before Dennis and I moved to PR. I did sign up to do the 2007 Chicago Triathlon but discovered I was pregnant right before I did the race and so I stayed in the sidelines and watched Dennis (who completed his first tri), Marsha and another friend (the “Trikingos” or “Ride for Fried” team) complete the race. Our great friends David and Magdi had even surprised us with custom jerseys.
Friday
Fast forward to August 2010 and Dennis and I were making our way, with Lucas and Alan, to Chitown. A couple of meltdowns later and we made it downtown. I had the intention to go for a swim in the lake but the masses of people around Navy Pier made it so difficult to move that we decided to keep going north, to our good friends Jim and Jen’s house.
Saturday
After a pretty awful night, where Alan woke up about 3 times and Lucas discovered how to climb out of his crib, we woke up Saturday pretty tired. Since I needed to go downtown and do a practice swim at the lake, Dennis stayed behind with the boys.
I finally arrived at Ohio Beach and got my gear out of my bag. Unfortunately, I discovered that wetsuits do not appreciate being folded and stuck inside a bag for 3 years. As I got mine out, I found a bunch of holes and tears around the legs that made it look like I was mauled by a shark. To make things worse, as I looked around, I overheard some triathletes saying that the water was 62 degrees!!. After doing what can only be described as an epileptic monkey meets gecko dance to get into my wetsuit, I confidently strode to the shore along with the other triathletes. The cool strut turned into some very colorful Spanish cursing as the leaky faucet that is my wetsuit allowed all kinds of fridge water in. Right at that moment a man from Iceland walked in the water and dove right in. At least I think he was from Iceland because he wasn’t wearing a wetsuit and got in the water like it was the most normal thing in the world. Heartened by the fact that he didn’t seem to immediately get frostbitten, I dove it after him. Then I stood back up, sputtering when my lungs mutinied and compressed. I could not, for the life of me, take a deep breath. After gasping for a couple of minutes, I proceeded to talk my more practical self back from the “lets forget this crap and go have dinner at the Melting Pot” ledge. After some convincing, I started swimming and that’s when I discovered it was pretty wavy (when one hit me straight as I opened my mouth to breathe in one of the strokes). Luckily, Ohio beach is pretty shallow and I was able to stand up while I cleared my chest. 20 minutes later I swam back to shore with the nagging feeling that I should’ve practiced outside the pool more.
As I thought about the fiasco that was my practice swim, I was heartened by the fact that Dennis would be able to watch me from the harbor and that if I started to freak out then I could calm down by looking at him.
Sunday
Remember the “Dennis would be watching from the harbor” part? That part would unfortunately not come to fruition. I had to leave our friend’s house by 4:45 am to get to the triathlon transition in time and set up my bike. Since there wasn’t a spare video or sound monitor in the house (and we neglected to bring one) and given the fact that Lucas was now easily able to climb out of the crib, we decided that Dennis would stay behind until Jen woke up and then leave in the 6:30 am train with Alan in tow. The unfortunate part was that my swim wave started at 6:45am and he would miss my swim, my bike and probably most of my run. I was definitely disappointed, to be honest, because I would’ve liked to have seen him as I did the race. I can’t count how many times I saw families kissing each other as one of them started to race or how many “Go Mom” or “You’re doing great Dad” I heard, which of course made me all sad and moist-eyed.
Once I got in the swim line with my fellow pink-cap wearers in Wave 11, I started playing “I Gotta Feeling” from the Black Eyed Peas in my head, which is my pump up song. I started feeling the adrenaline course through my body and reach my face which broke out into a smile. I braced myself for the cold water (in the triathlon you have to jump into the harbor and tread water until they let you start). As I waited for my wave’s turn, I heard someone ask a girl behind me why she didn’t have a wetsuit. Her answer? That it was her first time and she didn’t want to invest in a wetsuit yet. That was exactly what I did in my first Chicago Triathlon and I lived to regret the frozen 20 minutes I spent in the lake. However, all thoughts of that, and all thoughts in general, were wiped from my mind as we all jumped in the super cold water to start our triathlon. The cold water seeped into the wetsuit but after the initial shock, I positioned myself to the right of the group and started swimming. As soon as I put my head in the water I was greeted by a shocking and disgusting sight! The harbor was full of HUGE weeds and plants that were as high as my chest. My swim stroke was greeted with a handful of weeds that touched me as I moved. I was majorly freaked! Heck I don’t even like to sit on the grass, let alone look at a forest of green gross water weeds that reached my chest as I swam. I immediately veered left, towards the edge to avoid the slimy forest but had a really hard time getting through because that’s where everyone else was! After a couple of mouthfuls of lake water later I controlled my freaking by focusing on a guy with gym shorts that was following my wave and trying to pretend that it was Dennis. Since you can’t see faces very well while you’re swimming anyhow, I followed “mock Dennis” until I had calmed myself enough to hit a reasonable stride. Afterwards, I was lucky to find another swimmer that had the exact same stroke I did and we went along together for most of the race. She helped me get into a swim groove and get my heart rate and breathing under control. After about 15 minutes, just when I thought I was finally in the groove, I felt the water commotion and vibrations that could only mean one thing! The wave of men that started behind us, was about to reach our group. There are some men triathletes that are a bit crazy and over-competitive and they will elbow, kick and generally swim over anything or anyone in their way. In one of my triathlons I was the unfortunate recipient of a swim over where this guy literarily swam over me in his desperate attempt of a good swim time. I felt my body tense and at that moment I felt a hand in my feet. Since I was ready for the crazy men-wave, I kicked unconsciously and felt my foot connect with someone’s face. I have been kicked before in triathlons, both in the face and the chest, so I felt terrible 🙁 .
After what seemed like an interminable swim, I was out and running toward the transition area to get ready for the bike. I found my things quickly and proceeded the long process of trying to extricate myself from the wetsuit. Apparently the wetsuit had taken a liking to me as I could not peel it off! After even considering being the only triathlete biking in a wetsuit, I was able to get it off and get on the bike. The bike went well, I felt strong through most of it although my legs where definitely tired by the end of it. Then I was back in the transition area, racked my bike, changed into sneakers and started the run. The run was actually more of a walk and was HARD! The run is definitely my weakest area and by that point my legs were like two pieces of lead. My heart rate refused to come down and was beating hard in an effort to get me to stop the insanity.
Finally, the moment had arrived, I heard people cheering, the music and the crowds at the finish line. I saw a triathlete who had already finished the race, cheering for the runners and he said the most majestic, beautiful works….”150 meters to go and you’re done!”. Just when I was about to drop I found an extra reserve of energy to run harder and finish my triathlon strong. I went around a corner and there it was, the huge banner with “FINISH” printed on it. On both sides people were cheering loudly and I found Dennis and Alan (finally).
I made it!! My heart was pumping, my body felt exhausted but energized! I had completed a triathlon!!! After 4 years, 2 kids and 6 month after the birth of the 2nd, I had completed a triathlon. I was so excited and happy! I wore the custom jersey that Magdi and David made us 3 years ago (this one is for you guys!!) and held my medal in my hard, enjoying the weight of it.
After the triathlon, Dennis turned to me and said “maybe we should stay in a hotel downtown next year and have your Mom fly down to help with the kids”. I nodded in agreement, since we had discussed over the weekend, how guilty we felt about leaving Lucas with our friends (since he is not a very easy going age right now) and their toddler is very well-behaved and mature. The reality is that we have 2 kids now and staying in people’s houses feel very much like we’re intruding. We can’t help the kids crying or making a mess and it just makes us feel bad when that happens in a house that is not ours. I said “yeah, that makes sense, then you could come to the swim start next year”. He then smiled and said “I’m going to be doing the triathlon too!!” 🙂
I am sooooo impressed and can totally relate to your wish for seeing familiar faces in the crowd. Same thing happened to me at the pig this year jose and the kids had to stay at home because the weather was so bad and all I wanted was to see their faces in the crowd!