The Guest Blog...You Gotta Read It to Believe It...

OK--here's a first...the first guest blog entry in my little blog world. My friend Jen (see the "Pool Noir" blog entry from February) did an aqua velo race (swim/bike--no run) at the Eagleman 70.3 (half IM) on June 12--when I talked with her about it, I was in stunned silence most of the time due to the tales she had to tell. At the end of the call, I asked her to recount her adventures (or misadventures, as the case seems to be) for me to post--it makes my race in the rain at Logansport absolutely pale in comparison. So, enjoy...and thanks, Jen, for being such a good sport about this...

To all:
I am proud to say I have finished my first Aqua Velo this past Sunday in Cambridge, Md. It consisted of a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike ride. I had a blast only because my fellow race buddies were the best Maryann, Suzanne, and Keri. The honorary member was my husband who was the best taking pictures and driving around the bike course to find us (I will have CDs of the pictures for my fellow race buddies tomorrow).

Here is my story, which is quite entertaining. (It’s long, but worth it)

Saturday,
Maryann and I decide to go for a quick spin on the bike to make sure everything is okay. We get out on the course to encounter 20mph head winds. Needless to say 10 miles was plenty and we were glad to end that ride. Everyone kept saying “don’t worry tomorrow it will be less windy”. Yeah…whatever.
Next we met up with Suzanne and Keri for a quick swim. Again the expectation is a nice leisurely swim to get a feel for the water and check out what the exit will be from the water. Due to the lovely 20mph winds, there were white caps on the water – which makes it that much easier to swim in against the current = dripping sarcasm.

Well lucky for me I get stung by a jelly fish. (flashback from the morning: I went down to the water in the morning by myself and I over heard a woman saying she was trying to avoid the jellyfish in the water). A jelly fish is not just a minor annoyance for me. I am so lucky that once the poison hits my bloodstream I get a systemic reaction so I begin to instantly break out in small hives all over my body!! So I finish the swim and tell Frank what happened. He kicks it into high gear and gets my butt in the car wetsuit and all so I can get back to the Bates Motel so I can pop some Benadryl. I take 2 Benadryl and start calling my Doctor’s office in NJ to get a prescription for Prednisone. (you may ask why do I know this b/c this is now the 3rd time it has happened to me) In parallel Frank tries to find a pharmacy open. Yes the CVS was closed at 6:30pm on a Saturday – can I just say I love small towns. The only reason the local Craig’s pharmacy is open is because Main Street is having a street fair until 8:00pm. Luckily I get a call back from the on call doctor and he calls in the prescription so now I am on Prednisone for the next 8 days.

Sunday Race Day
I am totally psyched out because I don’t want to get stung again. So much for my prayers, I probably got stung at least 10 times during the swim (my wetsuit is sleeveless, but I had full length legs…I may be looking into purchasing full sleeves before I get in ocean water again for a race). The real highlight was wiping the tentacles off of my face – needless to say I was screaming in the water. I couldn’t spot for shit so I probably swam 1.5 miles instead of 1.2 miles. And oh how lovely was the leg back against the current. There is a reason they call it the “Choptank River” – that is no LIE. I was literally going up and down over the crests. I had the kayak guy tracking with me and I finally stopped and said “am I too far away” and he said “yup” then I say to myself “shit” and I start swimming back closer to the buoys. I get to the exit and I see Frank. As soon as I stopped swimming I start commiserating about the jellyfish stings. You will have to get his version of my ranting and raving.

Now I am into the transition area trying to take 2 Benadryl that I had with me ‘just in case’. For those of you, who hate child resistant packaging, well try it with wet hands and cycling gloves and time pressures to get on the bike and minimize “wasted time” in the transition. Clearly as you see my transition time it took me over 6 minutes to get out not exactly what you would call quick. Well I had to put on suntan lotion and a bike shirt – why – oh yeah being on Prednisone it says “stay out of direct sunlight”!! Oh well I have 56mile ride in direct sunlight.


Now I am on the bike course. Within 5 minutes or less the screws fall out of my right aero pad and the entire thing falls off onto the street. Well I don’t have the time to whip out my non existent handy dandy screw driver to put the thing back on. So I keep riding. Today’s winds were easily 20mph – 30mph winds. Not the best day to be in a non-aerodynamic position on the bike. So I just rode with my right arm directly on the handlebars, I now have a lovely raw spot on my right arm. The winds at least in my first race of this distance opinion were BRUTAL, by mile 40 I was seriously just praying for cross winds vs. head winds. I got up to a whopping 10mph during some of those head wind stretches. It got so bad, I was psyched to get up to 15mph. One would think you would have tail winds at some point, which there were but it seemed to me I had the tailwinds far less then the head winds. By mile 35 or so I thought I was getting a bladder infection (probably this is TMI for my male friends reading) b/c I stopped to go to the bathroom and nothing came out. I saw Frank around mile 38 and yelled out my latest ailment!! Luckily the constant feel of having to go to the bathroom did subside – probably b/c I was so consumed with cursing the head winds that it was the least of my problems. I am finally in the home stretch and I see Suzanne, Keri, and Frank cheering for me. Yeah I am finally off the bike.

I went to get my medal of which the volunteer said I don’t know if you get one – I did the Aqua Velo, which corresponded with the main event the ½ Ironman Eagleman race (so I guess she was thinking I didn’t do the Eagleman so no medal). I kindly said, “I highly recommend you give me that medal” so she did and I wore it proudly.

I hope you all got a kick out of reading this, I did have a blast and hope to do another Aqua Velo with no jellyfish.

Jen