It was 0530 and I was waking up with those same nerves from a week ago. Well....here we go!
My running cousin and I head down to the competition area equipped with coffee to get body marked and to pick up our chip. On the way down, we talked about how I would pass the other waves of swimmers with different colored caps like a PacMan, and how I would make the sounds in my head as I passed them *bloop* *bloop* Nom, nom, nom! For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the swim portion goes out in waves. This particular race had about 7 waves of swimmers who would go out, each categorized by age group, or in our case all the relays would go out at the same time. Each was defined by cap color. I was silver, the age group ahead of me was old men-dark blue, there was also purple, green, yellow, red, light blue, etc. As you passed a person, you could know which wave they were in by their cap color.
We were soon joined by our cycling cousin, and we all got body marked with our race number, #606, and I had our chip Velcro-ed onto my ankle. The swimming start had been postponed 15 minutes because of the fog on the water, so my cousins had 45 minutes to go get their things ready for the race before my start. I said goodbye to them and headed over to one of the vendor ladies who had promised me the day before that she would help me don my wetsuit.
Putting on a wetsuit is quite an ordeal. Point your toe a certain way, balance on one foot, hold your arm out and to the side, streeeeetch....and finally, after about 15 minutes, I was ready! I headed down to the water, with none of my family in site. I put in my iPod and again, let Cosculluela pump me up for the race ahead of me. I closed my eyes and listened to the familiar beat pulse through my ears and into my body. I could do this. I was ready. I saw my mom waiting by the fence and I walked up to her, relying on our mutual knowledge of American Sign Language to communicate, since I was unwilling to open my ears to the race day madness...just yet.
It was time. The group ahead of me was being called to the start line. I took out my earphones. Said goodbye to mom. Walked over to the start. I started visualizing the race, and me passing all of these people. They don't look so tough. I could totally take them. I set up my strategy. It was time for the follow through. I dove in, and immediately took in water. Thinking to myself...is this normal. Is that bad? I had no idea even how to evaluate my start. All I knew was that it was GO TIME! :) The course was a triangle, with the start and finish at the same point. As I raced down the first leg, I realized that I needed a plan. This leg of the race would be my warm up, and I would kick it in during the second leg. (I mean, who am I kidding--when I'm racing I don't have a 'slow' speed...so I raced it anyway) As I rounded the first corner, I noticed that a lot of people were slowing down. I was continually passing caps of different colors *bloop* nom, nom, *bloop* *bloop* nom, nom again! ..and no one was passing me! I started having visions of me having the best time in the world! ;)
Toward the middle of the race, my goggles started to hurt my face and my cap was cutting off circulation to my forehead, leaving it to feel like it was frozen. I also started feeling a familiar strain in my shoulders...but overall--I was confident. I knew that this race was over halfway over, and that I was kicking some serious tail out there. I came around the second turn fighting a huge clump of people, but once I got through, it was home stretch HERE I COME! :) I was so happy to be in a race, I was so incredibly proud of myself for doing so well, and I was almost done...one more leg of the race to go, and it was my cycling cousin's turn to carry on the torch. I sure hope he was ready!
I swam up to the beach as close as I could. As soon as my hand brushed the bottom of the lake, I got up and RAN as fast as I could up the hill to where the cyclists were waiting to start. I had previously seen where he was going to keep his bike so I knew exactly where to run. I was running so fast, and I felt like I was going to puke, but I knew that as soon as I got there--that I was done. So I ran towards the place where he was supposed to be standing, ready with his bike. Only...there was no relative of mine standing there. I started looking around as I was running, yelling out his name, 'JAMIE!!! JAMIE!!!' The other people standing around must have understood my dilemma and started laughing and yelling out his name with me, to help me find him, "JAMIE!" Finally, I saw him standing off to the side of the cycle area leaned against a makeshift fence, kicked back eating a power bar talking to a fellow cyclist. He started toward me in his nonchalant way and when he got to me he said, "So, how did you do?" I quickly mumbled something about it being good as I scrambled to get the chip off of my ankle and reminded him to put it on his left ankle. "GO!" :) What a good transition!
He took off, and we waited around for two more hours before the cyclists started coming in. By that time, my running cousin was jogging to get warmed up and was ready to go! I was at the top of the hill where the cyclists were coming in around a curve with her two small kiddo's and my mom who was helping to watch them. My job was to watch for our cyclist to come in, and to yell down to her so she could be ready. Well....as luck would have it, I missed him speeding down the hill at 30 mph in a group of other cyclists. I heard them announce his arrival to the transition area over the loudspeaker "Three Keehner Cousins relay finishes the cycle" Wait, where is he?!? It turns out that our runner cousin had decided to do what she could to conserve her energy by sitting in the shade under the transition tent. And since I had missed our cyclist coming in, she had no idea that he had finished. He rode up to her, and said, "So are you going to run, or what?" Another good transition! Hilarious! It wasn't until we were resting after our runner cousin had taken off, that he told me that he had gotten lost and crashed! I then noticed his bleeding elbow and knee...he was sure he could have come in at least 10 minutes sooner than he did. Which is a good goal for next year! ..?
Our runner took off and we moved to a place close to her race path, so her kiddo's could watch her run by and cheer for mommy! About 30 minutes later, here she came! We yelled out, Go Mommy!!! and cheered. I wanted the girls to get to see her run more, but alas, watching 5 hours of a triathlon was not in the agenda of a 1 and 3 year old. So, we headed to the playground to appease the children. About an hour into her race, a man came up to my mom asking if we had a runner in the race. My mom affirmed and the man said, well she asked me to tell you that she'll be done in about 30 minutes. Really?! :) The silly girl had sent us a message! So, after about 20 minutes had passed I strapped on a 1 year old cranky baby and headed down toward the finish with the camera. Sure enough, here she came running by right on time!
We ended up getting 10th place out of 38 relay teams, getting a time of 5:09:04 which would have put us between 100th and 110th place overall out of around 434 competitors. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it couldn't have been a better weekend. The weather was gorgeous, not too hot, not too cold. The support of our families was amazing, even across the country we knew we had members of our family cheering for us! I was filled with a sense of pride. How great is it that we are getting together and doing something productive. Showing the world what us Keehner's are made out of.
The weekend ended with a great camp out. Our cyclist cousin's wife drove down with their boys and we all spend the night bonding and rekindling some family ties. The weekend was so positive that there was talk of doing it again next year, or even of finding another race toward the end of the summer and making it a biannual event.
Before we all went our separate ways, we took a group photo to capture the weekend and prove that we CAN get together without a wedding or a funeral!
