Coeur d'Alene Scenic Challenge
Relays are FUN. Seriously... no stress, just show up & do your part! I've done one relay before, in Mexico - I totally forgot how much fun they can be.
The CDA triathlon is something I found on line a LONG time ago. I don't even know why I was looking at races in this area, because we had not started our plans to come here for the summer yet. Anyhow - I looked it up for this summer, and if happened to fall the week after Troika, what was supposed to be our 'A' race.... Had I only known.....
So, still not wanting to give up on the race, I put out an "Ad" on Facebook looking for someone to join Shane & I for a team. My only thing - I was going to swim. After swimming in 2 different, not so pretty lakes this summer I wanted to swim in CDA. Not to mention I had had about enough with my sub par swim times lately.....
Sure enough my Facebook post worked and within 24hours of posting we had a runner. How cool is this. A girl that I have not seen for about 12 years said she would love to do it! We were really good friends in Jr High playing softball together - then again in High School, but she was in a class ahead of me & I'm not sure I even saw her after she graduated.
But, Spokane is a big, small town - and well - if you knew someone once upon a time, chances are you still know them.
The forecast was PERFECT for racing. At one point I was almost bummed I wasn't doing the whole thing, because I actually recovered quite well from Troika. Of course that was short lived when we had a few too many cocktails on Friday night, but who's counting?
The weather was cool and overcast - windy which made the swim interesting. Nothing like IMCDA in 07, but enough to notice. I made the decision based on the cooler weather that I would be able to handle my long sleeve wetsuit without overheating....
3 waves went out ahead of mine, being the last. I got in my typical front position, close to the buoy line and before I knew it we were off. It was CHOPPY and for only having about 120ish people in my waive - it was very brutal. I was dunked under water, had my legs grabbed and pulled down MULTIPLE times. I felt like the front of the pack was slipping away... and got very frustrated.
Eventually I weeded through some people and by the 2 buoy I was feeling much better. I had a good stroke, alternated breathing & sighting DEAD on with the line. By the first turn I had caught up to the next wave & was surrounded by bright orange caps. After the first turn we had a nice current pushing us to the final turn... I had a lot more room & felt fantastic.
After the last turn the current pushing you back into shore was STRONG. If my timing was right I could actually feel the waves pushing me....
In the final stretch I was beside another silver (relay) cap - I started pushing as hard as I could trying to get out of the water in front of her, but she was moving.... Unfortunately for her, she made the mistake of standing too soon. I saw her stop, and stand up as I still took a good 3-5 more strokes before I touched the bottom. I stood up and started running up the beach - looked at my watch and saw 22:xx!!
I was so excited I just flew by everyone to the relay "pen" - found Shane & told him my time (not that he cared at that point, he had his part to do). I was ECSTATIC. After all my hard work and lap after lap after lap in the pool, then disappointing swim times I finally DID it!!! I finally had MY swim. I think this was a more gratifying victory than any PR I've had this entire year.....
And then I heard rumors that the course was SHORT. Someone had to go and burst my bubble. Short or not, even if it were, I'm still happy. I swam HARD, I got out of my comfort zone and I did WELL. Based on a few of the top times compared to last year swim time - my est if it were short was 100-200? So even with that I would still have a PR swim & still be happy...
But, officially - 21:57 - I'll take that ANY day.
What a RACE - over 100 people and the BIGGEST relay group I have ever seen... Someday I'll do the whole thing :-)
The CDA triathlon is something I found on line a LONG time ago. I don't even know why I was looking at races in this area, because we had not started our plans to come here for the summer yet. Anyhow - I looked it up for this summer, and if happened to fall the week after Troika, what was supposed to be our 'A' race.... Had I only known.....
So, still not wanting to give up on the race, I put out an "Ad" on Facebook looking for someone to join Shane & I for a team. My only thing - I was going to swim. After swimming in 2 different, not so pretty lakes this summer I wanted to swim in CDA. Not to mention I had had about enough with my sub par swim times lately.....
Sure enough my Facebook post worked and within 24hours of posting we had a runner. How cool is this. A girl that I have not seen for about 12 years said she would love to do it! We were really good friends in Jr High playing softball together - then again in High School, but she was in a class ahead of me & I'm not sure I even saw her after she graduated.
But, Spokane is a big, small town - and well - if you knew someone once upon a time, chances are you still know them.
The forecast was PERFECT for racing. At one point I was almost bummed I wasn't doing the whole thing, because I actually recovered quite well from Troika. Of course that was short lived when we had a few too many cocktails on Friday night, but who's counting?
The weather was cool and overcast - windy which made the swim interesting. Nothing like IMCDA in 07, but enough to notice. I made the decision based on the cooler weather that I would be able to handle my long sleeve wetsuit without overheating....
3 waves went out ahead of mine, being the last. I got in my typical front position, close to the buoy line and before I knew it we were off. It was CHOPPY and for only having about 120ish people in my waive - it was very brutal. I was dunked under water, had my legs grabbed and pulled down MULTIPLE times. I felt like the front of the pack was slipping away... and got very frustrated.
Eventually I weeded through some people and by the 2 buoy I was feeling much better. I had a good stroke, alternated breathing & sighting DEAD on with the line. By the first turn I had caught up to the next wave & was surrounded by bright orange caps. After the first turn we had a nice current pushing us to the final turn... I had a lot more room & felt fantastic.
After the last turn the current pushing you back into shore was STRONG. If my timing was right I could actually feel the waves pushing me....
In the final stretch I was beside another silver (relay) cap - I started pushing as hard as I could trying to get out of the water in front of her, but she was moving.... Unfortunately for her, she made the mistake of standing too soon. I saw her stop, and stand up as I still took a good 3-5 more strokes before I touched the bottom. I stood up and started running up the beach - looked at my watch and saw 22:xx!!
I was so excited I just flew by everyone to the relay "pen" - found Shane & told him my time (not that he cared at that point, he had his part to do). I was ECSTATIC. After all my hard work and lap after lap after lap in the pool, then disappointing swim times I finally DID it!!! I finally had MY swim. I think this was a more gratifying victory than any PR I've had this entire year.....
And then I heard rumors that the course was SHORT. Someone had to go and burst my bubble. Short or not, even if it were, I'm still happy. I swam HARD, I got out of my comfort zone and I did WELL. Based on a few of the top times compared to last year swim time - my est if it were short was 100-200? So even with that I would still have a PR swim & still be happy...
But, officially - 21:57 - I'll take that ANY day.
What a RACE - over 100 people and the BIGGEST relay group I have ever seen... Someday I'll do the whole thing :-)
Comments
Good times, many old friends and a terrific race course makes for a fine, fine day.