My coach said USAT Mideast Regional in Muncie, Indiana was my best race yet. I
won my age group, but I've been looking more at where I place overall
lately. Overall for the females, I was 1st on bike, 3rd in swim, and in
the middle of the pack for the run (big improvement). I did a new PR on
the bike for a tri in both speed (21.0 on my Garmin) and watts (179).
So it was a good day.
Lost in the finish chute!
My race plan for this triathlon called for me to push myself harder in the run than I ever have in the past. My heart rate was in high z4 for
the entire 5k. The run was total
rolling hills with a 6% climb at the end. For the last half mile, I was
in z5. I was just exhausted. The finish chute was long and ran through a park. It was outlined by yellow tape on both sides. At one of the corners, there was an opening in the tape and I ran through that opening without knowing it. I was following the yellow tape on my right, not realizing it should be on my left and that I was no longer between the two yellow tapes.
Somehow, I
did not see the big finish arch to my right and I ran right past it.
All of a sudden, I was running in the middle of a playground with
nothing around me that even remotely looked like anything to do with a
race. It was like twilight zone!
I knew there should be a finish line
somewhere but I couldn't find it. There were also no spectators. I was
totally disoriented. I was utterly exhausted and had been willing my
body to please just make it to the finish line. I was SO ready to
collapse over that line, but I couldn't find it! It was a total
nightmare.
In the video that Brian took, you can hear people yelling at
me but I was oblivious to it all. You can also hear me crying out as I
was running. I sound pitiful (embarrassing). I have never hurt so
bad. I was so ready for the race to be over. But I had no idea where I
was. Nightmare.
Finally, I heard a man scream,
"YOU'RE OFF COURSE." I turned around and looked back to my right and
saw the arch and then started running toward it. Then everyone started
yelling, "No! No! No!" and I was confused again and was just running
without knowing what direction I should be running in. I was ready to collapse but my legs knew I needed to get to that finish line first.
A man grabbed my
arm to guide me, but I was afraid that would be considered assistance
and so I said, "You can't touch me!" and shrugged him off. Then he
said, "Follow me," turned around, and started running back the way I had
just come from! I had no idea where he was going. I was afraid that
they might say he was pacing me but I had no choice but to follow him
because I had no idea what was happening.
Finally, after running back up the route for quite a while, he
pulled up the yellow ribbon and I ducked under and saw the timing mat. I
ran down the finish chute with everything I had. I literally started
collapsing on the last few steps but I made it over and two nice men
caught me by the armpits. The medical van was still at the swim so
there was no medical support. I was totally out of it. I do remember
the men arguing about whether or not they should make me sit down. They
finally decided they should walk me and did so for a long time. I
recovered, of course.
So close to podiuming!
According to the video that
Brian took and my Garmin, it took me 40 seconds to get back on course. I
missed OVERALL third female by 23 seconds. I can't begin to tell you
how bad that feels. This was not a large race but with it being
USAT Regionals, there were some very good athletes there. I'm really
proud that I had the speed to be third overall woman - even if I didn't
podium.
