Pre-Race

Once the horn went off and everyone started swimming it was impossible to find any place to swim, it was so crowded we were all swimming on top of each other. I tried to stay calm and kept trying to find an open spot, but my arms and legs were bumping into everyone around me. Finally after maybe 200 yards it thinned out a little and I was able to start really swimming, and at this point I was able to also go back to watching the sea life and blue water below me in between breaths which was lovely.

The time seemed to pass a little faster than the practice swim as there were so many more buoys to sight, and I just focused on swimming to the next one, and soon I could see the first boat where we turned right and were almost halfway done. I hit more congestion at the turn and decided to swim a little harder to get to the next boat and make the next turn to be on my way to the second half of the swim. Somehow it was still a little crowded on the way back and was finding myself having to stop a few times and completely move around people that were slower but swam right into me. I was a little frustrated which was maybe a good thing because I was able to push what felt like was a stronger pace on the way back. Soon I could see the yellow buoy which meant that we would turn right one more time to head to the finish. I really pushed the pace after making that turn because I was not only feeling good but excited to be headed to the bike. As I neared the pier steps, volunteers helped pull me up, one unzipped my swim skin and I started jogging to grab my bike bag. I decided to take a peek at my swim time before hitting the lap button for transition and was shocked when I saw 1:16! Woah!! A swim PR for me, at KONA! I was elated when running to the change tent.

Once in the change tent though my mood changed a little, it was chaos in there. The tent was so crowded, I kept running through the tent hoping a chair would be open farther down but couldn’t find one. At the end of the tent I started to just put my bag down and put on my gear standing but finally a chair opened up. All of this disoriented me and once I was sitting I wasn’t sure what to do first. Finally I decided to do socks and shoes, then next I would put on my arm coolers, which even though they were rolled up so I could easily roll them on, were still tough with wet arms. Then I decided I would put my spray sunscreen on outside of the tent, so I grabbed my bike gloves to put on after the sunscreen and handed my bag to a volunteer.

Once I sprayed a ridiculously thick amount of sunscreen on my legs, I used my hand to wipe some on my neck/face then realized… Sunglasses!!! OMG! I forgot to grab my sunglasses! I ran back to a volunteer and told them I forgot something and was there any way I could have my bag back…she looked at me with a sad face and said ‘sorry, it’s been tossed back with all of the bags and would be pretty hard to try and find in the pile’. I said ‘My sunglasses are in there… I need my sunglasses to bike’ with tears of frustration at my stupid mistake. I added that it had pink duct tape with unicorns on it, to which another volunteer looked over and said ‘…pink with unicorns, I had that one, I think I can find it!’ and off she went! I ran back into the change tent to make sure I hadn’t left my sunglasses case on a chair because I was all disoriented when trying to get all of my gear, but they definitely were not there. I headed back out and waited and waited and finally I saw the angel of a volunteer running towards me with my bag!!!! She had my bag!! I dug my sunglasses case out of the bag, put them on, gave her the bag back, and with tears of relief told her she was amazing, wonderful and saved my race.

Feeling many emotions I ran to my bike, grabbed it and tried to quickly walk/run with it to the mount line. I finally hopped on my bike and was off, knowing I had some tough miles ahead but with my sunglasses on, I was ready for them!

The Bike