I did it!!!

hehe - all my cool 'i've just done something i thought i couldn't do' posts are called 'i did it!'.

i had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4.30 this morning, which was surprisingly easy and I got a surprising amount of sleep given the nerves. I also spared a thought for the guys up at the Coastal Classic 12 hour track race who would have been in the really hard part, 9 odd hours in... congrats to horrie and belinda who I hear had fantastic runs and jen and will who were up there counting laps!

anyway - got on the road at 5am to make the trek out to jen's homeland, penrith. I have never been there before, except on my way through to the blue mountains and can't say I saw much of it today. I really enjoyed the drive. I had the radio up very loud and sang even louder the whole way. talk about relieving anxiety - i'm amazed i had any energy left!

i saw TA & the Gnome, Wildthing and Mr Wildthing, nitetimerunner and mouse and my new coolrunning friend Nihao and her husband almost immediately which was great. I took my bike up to registration which seemed to have a bit of a line but I was soon directed to the ladies line which was, predictably, empty :) The fear inched up a notch when I saw that the list of women doing the sprint (as opposed to the shorter enticer distance) was very short... coming last was a REAL possibility... i cheered up though when the man wrote my number on my arm and leg, obviously I am actually a serious athlete :)

i pottered around, set my bike up in the transition area and generally distracted myself perving at cute boys for a while and then after the race briefing we headed up the lake. For those not from sydney, this race was at the regatta centre which was built for the sydney olympics. It is a 2k straight lake meant for rowing (obviously) but lends itself nicely to triathlon! We jsut walked 750m down and jumped in!

The swim was ok, i decided not to bust a lung trying to keep up with anyone and I ended up doing 19.05 which was faster than I anticipated. I was definitely in the back few but I did overtake a few blokes who started 2 mins earlier so that was nice!

I ran out and into transition which I have to say was very smooth! Given that I can't drink on the bike yet I gulped down some powerade too. I lost a bit of time when I had to stop and carefully clip in etc, but better that than a stack at the very start! this was a 4 loop course with each loop being 5k. Including both transitions (poor stop watch management :) the time for this leg was 47.48. Definitely room to improve. The course was dead flat which was good for me. I overtook a couple of people but was being constantly lapped by the speedy dudes as it was a multi lap course. The last lap was the best, not just cause it was the last one, also cause I could watch all the runners and distract myself from my own pain for a bit. Plus the view was again very nice :)

The ride/run transition was a DISASTER! It was all fine until shoe time. I had my orthotics in my shoes and the stretchy laces, unfortunately the orthotic covers have seen (much) better days and as i was pushing my foot in they kept bunching up and moving around and there was no way i could have run like that. 3 tries later i gave up, ripped them out and ran in my shoes with no inner sole or orthotic at all. The knees were groaning before I even started the run. Actually apart from some blisters and a bit of a knee creak it looks like that is all ok.

But the run! my god - I felt like a little old lady and like i was stationary! I didn't get my legs until 3k but it was a sweet relief when I did and made those last 2k much more pleasant. I could have sworn I was doing about 7 min k's but in reality I did the 5k in 30.05, so nice neat 6 min ks. Damn it hurt though. TA gave me a cheer about 400m out and it really lifted me across the line, as did all the coolrunner cheers - so much appreciated guys :)

I collapsed on the grass with a sense of satisfaction and mild nausea and overwhelming relief that it was over for today. I crossed the line in 1 hour, 36 mins and 58 seconds. Heaps faster than I thought. And I have learnt a lot of things that I think will help me improve for the next one in Feb (on the same course which is great!).

anyway - now I am a little less smelly and have cooled down and hydrated I am pretty darn pleased and a little bit proud of myself. I never thought I could do anything like that. But apparently I can/have. :)

Had a lovely breakfast also with TA & Gnome and n.t.r and mouse. We went to the whitewater centre which is ace! I am definitely heading back for a try - it is an artificial whitewater rafting course that we saw fill up with water. So cool!

Thanks to everyone also for all the good luck wishes - I remembered every single one, particularly between kms 0 - 3 on that run!!!

EDIT - what I also meant to say was a HHHHUUUUGGGGEEEE congrats to wildthing and tigerangel on their runs. pretty inspiring women i reckon :)