The challenge: 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run.
The times: 24, 55, 36 = NOT LAST!
When I signed up for this back in January, I had already
started my training- I had started taking swimming lessons to correct my
layperson swimming strokes. I went from gasping for air and burning lungs after
50m swim to decently pulling off over 1 km! My goal: to finish the full trace
in 2.5 hours or better, if I could manage it.
Anyway- so as the day approached I started to feel excited
and nervous, not really knowing what to expect, but confident that I could get
through it. My biggest fear being hitting a wall at 2hours and not being
finished, then having to drag myself through the last part of the run walking.
The day before:
My trusty friend Bill and I (and his dear wife, Nadine, who
was our moral support!) headed over to the site to pick up our race packets and
we were allowed to try out the water (the Olympic rowing basin, for those who
don’t know). The weather was a million degrees of humidity, so we figured it
would be good to get a swim in anyway J
The water:
Oh. My. God. For those of you who are lake swimmers, you
would have been like, “meh.. it’s murky, but it’s pretty warm and calm, so I am
good”. For us pool swimmers though… What a shock. I got in thinking “eww.. I
can’t even see through the water.. and there are lots of plants” then I dove in
to try a few strokes. PANIC!!! Total panic gripped me! As in: can’t breathe, heart-pounding, gripping
panic! I could see nothing under the
water but brown-grey nothingness, a total abyss, I assume that the bottom had
gotten all stirred up by the swimmers, but it was like my eyes and brain could
not compute at all.. Jesus- I flipped onto my back and tried to get myself
under control.. “Meghan, you gotta pull yourself together lady.. Jeezz.. you
can’t let this get to you! C’mon, a little at a time. 1 stroke.. another.. stop
panicking! Honestly… you can do it!” Anyway, with Bill talking me through it (a
lot) and me trying to not drown (also a lot), and a lousy 300 m later I had
hacked my way back to the shore with a sense of “holy sh*t, this is a new
obstacle”.
Race Day:
Woke up with a sense of dread and foreboding. Good start to
the day! Then I looked out the window: Rain and wind; excellent. That did
nothing to lessen my feelings of “help!! I am crazy!” and my stomach was in
lava knots- I couldn’t sit still. I ate, quadruple checked my bags, yelled at the
kids a bit (I was stressed! It’s not my fault) and got picked up promptly at
11.
Once we were there and set up all I had left to do was wait
for my wave time to start. In the pouring rain. I was getting soaked and cold
and I was in the grips of fear and trepidation as I looked out over that damned
water. I knew it would be murkier than
ever due to the weather. They announced that anyone who didn’t feel 100% about
their swim could don a silver cap so that the staff in kayaks could keep a
special eye out. I got one right away! That made me feel the tiniest bit
better.
The Swim:
The starter goes off. Jesus. What am I doing here? This is
crazy, no one should pay to do this! I wade in after all the yellow caps go
ahead… Well at least the water is warm. And I have long sleeves to ward off the
plants. Ok.. let’s do this (pushes self into the water).. panic! PANIC!!No..
no panic, breast stroke, breast stroke, you can do it.. A bit of freestyle?
Hmm? You know.. the DAMNED STROKE YOU HAVE BEEN PRACITICING FOR A YEAR?? A few
strokes, PANIC.. no, no.. you can do it…oh look, the first marker! .. don’t
quit, you got this. Stroke, stroke….WEEDS! PANIC!! Ok.. breast stroke, breast
stroke, back stroke… Oh finally, the white marker! Halfway there!!! Jeez this
is long… I wonder if I can clear 30
minutes! AAAHH! Lots of plants!! Ugh.. panic! No, no… swim, swim, you are ok,
look only about 200 meters to go, you got this! (makes up silly song to keep
myself company) Oh.. there goes the next wave passing me.. hahahahah!! (delirium
setting in, clearly).. The sand! THE SAND!!!I did it! I FRIGGING DID IT!!!
Whoa.. a bit wobbly on the exit, but I am still standing and really happy I
didn’t quit out there..
The Bike:
After sitting on my butt in a puddle to get my socks and
shoes on (still raining, in fact, it’s raining a bit harder, just to show us
who’s boss I guess), I grab my helmet and bike and head out to the track. I get
on and get going. First lap is slow as my legs are having an unpleasant
conversation with me that goes a bit like this “um.. we can’t be biking now- we
usually sit and have a nice morning coffee after we swim.. so.. let’s just go
do that, ok? Hey? OK??” But by the second lap I seem to have found my rhythm
and am back to making up silly songs to myself and grinning at all the nice
people passing me. By the third lap (1
more to go after this one!) I feel like yelling at people “look at me! I am
doing this! And it’s pretty neat!” but I don’t want to scare people, so I just keep
singing away to myself. As I hit the final lap I am grinning away like an idiot
and happy to come to the end of the biking portion. That was way better than I
had expected! Yay!
The Run:
Reminding myself to not forget to remove my helmet, I walk
over to the run starting line (my left hip having decided to not cooperate and
seize up for a few minutes) then I figure.. well- this is the last bit. Let’s
get going! And I start to run very slowly (the legs are having another
unpleasant conversation, but I manage to shut them up and find a bit of a groove). Hunh.. look at me! I am running! Like for
real! AFTER all that crazy stuff! Feeling pretty awesome I start grinning away
at the people passing me on the run, then I see the 1 Km marker.. It cannot be
only 1Km? Surely this is a joke? We MUST be at least at 2 km… oh man… better
start singing again. Or at least chatting with myself to pass the time as my
legs start burning. Oh look.. 2km! Cool… Humming and running, that is what I am
doing.. humming and running (slowly, but never giving up!)… Oh! Is that 4 Km? Really?? OMG! I am going to
pass someone! FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!!! OOOHHHH… As I get closer I see his
age: 70 (we all have it written on our calf), I peek at his race bib it says “Esprit
Olympic”. I give him a huge smile and a thumbs up and say “way to go!” (he
probably thought I was nuts, but that is ok) since he has just done twice what I
have, yep.. his Olympic distance at nearly twice my age is twice everything I
had done that day. And that was damned inspiring…
The Finish Line:
I know you are supposed to sprint that last 100 metres, but
It was all I could do to complete the race at all.. so I just kept up my snail's
pace run, sweating, feet soaked from all the rain, and crossed that line, knowing that I had accomplished a huge and
wonderful thing. And a really cool part was hearing my name over the loudspeakers
as I crossed (my chip registering on some laptop near the announcer) Meghan
Corbeil, from Pointe-Claire! And I had a teary moment…
The Thanks:
I have lots of gratitude for those who have helped me get to
this and get through it! My sincerest thanks go to:
· - Catherine So and family for lending me gear and
being so supportive of my crazy ventures.
· - Nancy Wood, for gear lending, solid advice and
actually being my inspiration to do this thing in the first place!
· - Ken Wood, for lending me a bike! A proper bike
makes all the difference!
· - David Wood for never doubting me, helping me
carve out training time in our busy schedule, and for listening to my excited
tiny advancements in swimming each week (and he biked over 50km one morning so
I wouldn’t get lost biking to work!). I love you!
· - My whole for putting up with me J
· - Bill and Nadine for helping me so much on race
day and the day before, just the damned detours to get to the site would have
done me in! I appreciate their mental support sooo much on race day. I don’t
know if they realize how much they helped me get through it.
Thank you all for believing in me
and being so supportive J
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