I was accepted to the Zoot 2015 team and accepted but then took myself off the team. I really really love the Zoot apparel but their shoes do not like me and it is a requirement to wear them if you are on the team. This I understand and decided to step down instead of injure myself. It really weighted on me. It weight so much that I decided at the last minute to wear non Zoot at my race January 10th. I didn't feel like I should present myself like I was on the team if I was going to step down. I called my local running/triathlon store and good friend and asked her to help me with some tri shorts. She of course was amazing and had all sorts of things for me to try. I know the rule you should not try anything new on race day. Well I so did not follow this rule at all. Some was good and some was bad or ok.
The days before the race I had seen some stuff on Facebook about HITS possibly needing volunteers. My daughter has volunteered every year except the first that we have raced this event. I felt the need to volunteer so I signed up for the day before the race. Not sure if this was a good idea or not due to my nerves. Shaun had also gotten a call from the news paper to do an article on him and they came out to take pictures of us that same day so there was a lot of nervousness for me. But there is always major nerves on race day and day before. This was also package pickup, athlete meeting and bike check in day. Due to it being a local event we got to see many familiar faces and talk to many of our friends. Some was good and some was bad. I remember saying to Adam a dear dear friend of ours ..." I wonder what the water looks like".. it was windy and cold that day. I was walking towards the water and he looked at me and said its fine you don't need to see it. Right before then Shaun had said the same thing. But when Adam said it, it somehow it meant "Nadine do not go down there and look". So I didn't. Instead we dropped bikes off got our packages and went to the athlete meeting. Then we headed to the store before heading to grandmas for the night.
While walking out of Publix there was a little boy that was asking his dad about Shaun and I. We were wearing our HITS finishers jackets that read 2.4 swim 112 bike 26.2 run on the back. His dad told the son that we were triathletes and that we had done something that most won't ever do and that it was very hard. It was very sweet and quite and sounded like just a dad and his son out fishing and talking. It made me feel warm inside. There are many times that Shaun gets looked at like and athlete and I don't. So when he said "they" it meant something to me. Something big. I will never forget when we walked into the hotel at B2B and the person checking us in looked at Shaun and said so are you here for the race. I was so upset. She did not say are you both here for the race, she did not say are you guys here for the race she said "you" and was looking just at shaun. I know I do not look the part of an athlete but that does not mean I am not one. So when the father said this It touched me deep.
Race day
The swim :
So as always I am freezing. I am wearing new tri shorts and oh did I forget to say I had to buy new running shoes. I found out the week before I had 25 miles left before I was at my max miles on my shoes. Again Rachel helped me make sure I had shoes for the race. Another nothing new on race day ugg. So I am getting stuff organized and trying to not freak out about the swim, the cold or the wind. Well that didn't work. My feet started to go numb because it was so cold out. Kirshner asked if I had brought the booties that they gave us in our goodie bags. I told him no because nothing new on race day and I had never swam in them. Well he went over and got me a pair and I put them on. WTH why not. My feet were cold and I could just take them off if I hate them right?? I didn't pay for them. Well I was walking down to the swim and my feel were so numb I thought I had rocks in the socks. So I decided to keep them on. The gun goes off and I start to swim. I thought I had turned my watch on but would find out later no I had not, because you have to hit the button twice. I start to swim and the waves were coming at me like crazy. We had just swam this course the week before and it was so rough that I got sea sick. Adam had told me that if it was that bad on race day they would not let us swim. I am sure he just told me this to make me feel better because let me say that those waves were the same. I started to breath ever stroke and then cause myself to hyperventilate. This was not good. I then started to freak out. I stopped and looked around. I saw Kirshner to my right and he stopped and asked me if I was ok. I said "No, but its ok keep going". I then rolled on to my back to try and catch my breath and thought for a second about calling it quits. It would be my first ever DNF. I tried to do some back stroke and thought I am not gonna be any good this way I can not see the buoys. I then remembered what Paige had said. Once we round the first buoy it should be nice and calm. So I rolled back on to my stomach blew out all my air told myself to pull it together and get to that first buoy because what else am I gonna do all day if I pull myself off this race course. If it does not calm down after the first buoy then I will decide what to do. I kept praying and telling god to get me to that buoy. I told myself I was a strong swimmer and I knew how to swim so pull it together. I got to the first buoy and things did calm down. That is until I hit the last buoy where we rounded it and headed back to shore to do it again. I remembered seeing Kirshner as I headed back into the water and thought ok I gotta catch up to him. As I ran out of the water I was stumbling because the water/lava socks had filled with water and made it hard to run. I grabbed Marks hand shook it and stumbled back into the water for a second loop. My chest hurt so bad but I did not let the waves get me this time. I just tried to stay calm and think of my stroke. As I was rounding that first buoy for the second time I started to get really cold. As I got to that last buoy headed home I was shaking so bad that I could feel my teeth chattering. Then while swimming into the shore I kept looking at the buildings and thinking am I even moving. I finally asked the guy in the kayak am I even moving. He reassured me that I was. I got out of the water and saw Kirshner right in front of me. I wanted to beat him out of the water but that did not happen and I knew he would beat me on the bike but I still tried to move fast as I wanted to try and make up for this awful swim. I looked down at my watch and this is when I realized it had never been started. Oh well I thought. I started to run to the shore and realized the water socks were not gonna allow me to do this. so, I stopped at the shore shaking and frozen and tried to rip them off without falling over. I finally got them off and ran to transition trying to take my wet suite off. As always I can not get my arms out. So I run with both arms half in to the wet suite strippers and ask them to first help me with my arms. One day I will master this ....getting my arms out of my wet suite. T1 was awful I was freezing and shaking and could not get anything on took FOREVER!!!!! Finally got the winter gear on and headed out for the bike.
ON to the Bike
As I rode people passed me but not as many as usually pass me. I thought great I swam so slow that so many people got out of the water before me. I had no idea what my swim time was. I thought it was actually 1 hr 37 min because of what I thought my watch said when I got into transition. As I rode I kept looking for the halfers to start coming back to see how they looked and felt. I should have just kept my head down and drove on but I didn't. I wanted to see if I could see Alexis, our friend doing her first half, and some of our other friends but that never happened. I saw a few people and then just thought look forward stop looking at them. Then came the turn around for the halfers and I knew it was gonna be lonely on the next leg. So I just kept trying to move forward knowing that eventually I would get to see Shaun.
As I rode I saw my mother-in- law she was taking pictures. She usually just gets pictures of Shaun but she waited for me. I was shocked either she was more patient or I was going at a pretty good speed. Either way I was all smiles. Further on I saw some friends at a rest stop waved and was glad to see them. Not sure what mile it was but then I heard a familiar voice and it was Adam. He was cheerful as always. So encouraging, he passed me and I said it was about time. I had been waiting for him to pass me, he is a lot stronger biker than me. Then I saw Shaun and he was looking great. I love to see him and make sure he is ok. Hit the turn around and saw Adam off his bike. I think he was stretching. Knowing Adam would catch me I knew I had to continue to ride strong. Adam and I are not competitive we just use each other's strengths to keep us motivated and in line. I love Adam and respect him as an athlete and a person. He is very humble and encouraging.
Speaking of encouraging.... As I continued on some of my friends were out on the race course in their car. It was so sweet of them. Nat and Laura came by honking and waving taking pictures. It was so nice to see them. At this point I was wishing I could stop and take some clothes off. I had started to get warm, but there was no way I was going to stop. I had already peed on my bike. The bike is always my "challenging" length. I say this because there are so many skilled riders out there and I in no way come close to their times. Percentages and places prove this.
Anyway.... I continue on peeing and riding and drinking and trying to not get caught by Adam but know it is coming any time now. As I near the end of the 112 miles Adam speeds by me with more encouragement and looking great on his bike.
I get to T2 and try to move fast as Adam has gotten into transition before me bike 10 or so minutes, I am guessing. I have to pee again but am trying to take some of these clothes off and get going.
The RUN
I finally get out of transition and what do I do? I run straight to the port-a-john. As I come out I see Adam. I say hi and move on. I thought for a minute should I slow down and run with him. We have wanted to run a race together for so long and we finally get to. I thought to myself no he would not want me to. He would want me to run my race. So I did. I ran and if felt so slow. I never once looked at my speed just my heart rate. At some point I realized I had left my salt sticks on the bike and thought great not only does my stomach feel awful but now I don't have what I need. I kept running knowing I had to get to mile 6 plus the turn around point. Of course as I get just a mile or so into the race I see Shaun and Diego. Shaun looked great and I could tell he was gonna get done before sundown. As I near the 5 mile mark I see Dan he smiles and tells me Kirshner is just about 4 miles in front of me. I smile and keep moving on. I then see a guy and he proceeds to tell me that I am really close to the second place female. I thought really why did you tell me this. It does not matter I just need to run my race. But now I have that in my head. I get to the turn around see Anne and all of the girls dressed in costumes smile as I am dying and I pass the girl who was the second place female. I turn around and keep going.
Running back to the half way point seemed easier for some reason not sure why but it did. As I ran back I thought I would see Adam any second now. I didn't. I ran into Megan who was riding her bike. She started to chat with me and I asked about Adam. She told me where he was and that he did some walking and wasn't feeling so good either. I ran passed Shaun again and also passed two other girls who I knew were going to be catching me any time now. I get to the turn around and see Jamie. I couldn't believe it. Her and Mitch had come from Cape Coral to see us. It was so nice I got a little tear eyed and wish I had stopped to hug them. I grabbed my shirt from my special needs thinking I would get cold and tied it around my waste. I had stopped taking in gels and coke because my stomach started to get worse. I did not stop I just kept moving on.
As I got to mile 14 or 15 I saw the two girls were getting closer and that it was just a matter of time. I was ok with it. Did I want to come in 2nd place female over all. Of course. Would I be happy with 3rd place female over all. Hell ya that would make it 3 years in a row. But would it happen. Probably not. But would I run my race - yep. So I kept moving forward wanting to get to Anne again.
As I near Anne's water stop I hear someone coming closer. I knew who it was. It was the girl who runs on her toes in Newtons. As she passed me I said " I have been waiting on you, go get it" I then get to Anne and the other girl passes me also I hug Anne and head home. It is now starting to get dark and I have my lights on me for the first time ever. I struggle to keep moving but I do. I only stop at water tables to drink a sip and keep moving. I never got cold because I think I was so warm from all the clothes on the bike. I get to the finish line and cross. I think my heart rate was in the high 80 percentage the entire run. I was so warm. That is until I stopped then I put all my clothes back on.
We waited until Adam crossed the finish line which was not much after me. He finished strong and got a new PR. I am so happy for this guy. He is amazing.
