Opening Ceremonies

Hello,
Welcome to my new blog. It's been a while since I last told the world about my ongoings....I am a former AOL employee who used to use the AOL Journals service but now have upgraded to Blogger. I'll post my last blog entry that should tell you a bit about on portion of my life and will continue to document my mis-adventures in Toronto. Enjoy. BTW...I quite enjoyed my writing style in this entry but don't expect that level of detail all the time.

Aug 2004

Subject: K-Town Tri 2004Time: 4:59:35 PM EDTAuthor: martellm Mood: Happy
So K-Town 2004 is done with and I'm back at work with some very sore legs. It was an interesting month leading up to this race and I found myself both excited and nervous to compete in the longest event of my life. Preparing for this race was very difficult to fit into our already very busy schedule but I felt very prepared heading in to the weekend.
We spent Sat at Elissa's place and enjoyed a nice BBQ that evening. I couldn't eat any corn although due to how it would digest :-) After dinner I wasn't much fun to be around due to the anticipation of the next morning and mostly kept to myself. Went to bed around 10:30pm and slept pretty well.
Race Morning
Woke up at 5:30 AM and ate my usual oatmeal breakfast. I headed down to the race site alone and began to prepare my transistion area. I ran into Bill (who I swim with in Toronto) and it's was good break from the nerves to chat with a buddy. As race time approach I put my wet suit on and saw Mom and Michelle arrive. It was nice to see them both and they gave me words of encouragement..I felt confident that everythings would go fine.
The Swim
I started the 2KM very slow trying to avoid traffic and get into a rhythm. The weather was perfect and I felt great around 500M. I planned to take a break at the half way point but to my surprise I was very energetic and feeling like speeding up. The second half of the swim was a blur and I came out of the water in approx 38 mintues....an unbelievable time for me. I knew I had a long way to go but the nervousness had left me and the race was going smoothly.
T1
I took my time at T1 and actually had a short chat with some other competitors. Relatively fast but not a blazing transition. Probably 2 mintues total..crosses the timer at 40:46.
Bike
Took it easy at the start of the bike even though I felt like pounding the pedals but knew 56KM was a long way. I noticed there would be a head wind on the way back so decided to conserve some energy. By the halfway point I was starting to feel some fatigue but still held a good pace. At about 40K we merged with the short course, I blew by a bunch of the short coursers and felt really good. Unfortunately, in doing this I was also usinga lot of energy. Finished the bike at 1:45 and averaged 32.0km/h....exactly my goal.
T2
When getting off the bike the race was already 2h:30min old and I could feel the stiffness in my leg. I again took it easy in this transition and almost fell over putting my socks on. I estimate about 2 minutes for this transistion.
Run
Heading out for a 15KM run was mentally very tough and now is when the emotional and physical pain really started to hit me. The first kilometer I just couldn't get going..no energy at all. It was also very discouraging seeing the short course athletes finishing when I still had 1 hour or more left. After leaving the short course my attitude improved knowing it would be a lot quieter and those other racers were likely having as much pain as me. The first 5km was about on pace of 5:30/KM ..roughly 27:30. I began think that at that pace I could substantially beat my 4 hour goal...little did I know just how difficult it would get. By the turn around I felt ok and had a chat with a nice guy but the sun was hot and I have having lots of difficulty cooling down. Around 10k we hit some short step hills, I decided to walk them and conserve energy..to my dismay even walking them was extremely painful. By 12k I was a wreck..the legs were barely turning over but I was still ahead of my 4 hour goal. The hill in front of Kingston Pen was definitely the low point as I struggled up it knowing that I was almost there. Those last 3k's must have taken me almost 20 minutes but as I ran towards the finish I saw Dad and Emma...they gave me some motivation and Dad shook my hand...moments later Michelle, Mom and Elissa were yelling at the top of their lungs...I recall wanting to smile but not sure if I was actually able to move those muscles..Michelle yelled encouragement to beat 4 hours and I looked at the clock 3h:58min.
I crossed the finish line at 3:59.02. I didn't stop at any point of the race and proudly wore the medal aroumd my neck.
After the Race
Strange feeling after finishing that race...not sad, not happy but another emotion..I suppose it was relief. I guess any strong emotion can bring about a strange reaction ...when I saw Michelle I almost broke down..she sensed it and consoled me. Strange to feel such a way after such a great accomplishment but I guess that's what happens when you do something you never thought you could do and experience a lot of agony while doing it. The entire family was very supportive as I told them the story of my race. Shortly after Mom and Dad went home as did Elissa and Tyler ..they had been outside for 4 hours so I understand they wanted to leave. I was in no mood to party so Michelle and I quietly packed up and headed back to Elissa's. That time was very somber...I reminded myself of the accomplishment but relief was still the prevailing emotion.
Today is 2 days later and although very proud of myself I don't feel the need for another race of that distance. I'm going to take triathlon less seriously and still compete for fun in shorter distances..it's a great hobby.