Redman Recap...

I was horribly nervous all last week leading up to the Redman. I headed up to Lake Hefner after work Friday to drop off the cookies I traded out for mine and Rochelle's entries into the Oly pic distance tri on Sunday.

I got to see the sea of bikes all set up in the transition area for Saturday's races, I also picked up my race packet and meet Ben to pick up the wetsuit I was borrowing for the race. I lucked out and borrowed one from Ben's sister, who is crazy awesome, she won the full ironman at the Redman last year. (After swimming over two miles and riding her bike 112 miles she ran a marathon in four hours. Amazing!)

Can I just say that wetsuits are not easy to get on?

This really isn't my best look, I think.

After spending most of Saturday feeling very sick to my stomach, we had a birthday party and then I did some carb loading. I got all my stuffed packed and loaded my bike in my car. I was in bed by 9:30, and I slept pretty good.

I was up bright and early (4:45) and got dressed and put on my tri tats. What a great idea to have temporary tattoos for your race numbers.

We loaded up, swung by and picked up my partner in crime, and after a bathroom pit stop at Starbucks, we made it to Lake Hefner. It was quite a scramble to get our tires aired up at the Schlegal's tent and get our transitions set up.

Assigned transition spots are a really good idea. The fact that they closed the transition an hour and a half before our race was not. The sprint distance race started at 7:30 and we weren't allowed back in transition at that time. Things like sunscreen got missed because of this. More on that later.

It was nice to be able to see the swim portion of the sprint race. It got pretty interesting, the water was so shallow we got to see exactly where we would have to walk during our swim. We also had time for pictures.

Do we look terrified here?

Where we were standing, there should have been water. The low water levels made for a very long trek from the swim to the transition area.

Before we knew it, it was time to get in the water.

I'm not gonna lie, the water was freezing, and the bottom was pretty muddy and slimy. I managed to not get too beat up when the swim started. It was not easy to adjust to not being able to see anything when you put your face in the water. I swear, every time I looked to see where I was in relation to the bouys it didn't seem like I was getting any closer to them. I did get kicked in the face once, and on the second lap when I had to walk I got a horrible cramp in my right calf. I managed to work it out and finish the swim.

The craziest part of the race was the strippers. If you had a wetsuit on, when you got into transition they had strippers to get you out of your wetsuit. I had mine unzipped and my arms out, so I ran up and laid down and they just grabbed ahold of the wetsuit and ripped it off, then they helped you get back up, threw the suit back to me and I was on my way.

I did have to make a stop at one of the most disgusting port-o-potties ever, and then I got my helmet and socks and bike shoes on. I did not get sunscreen, I managed to tune my Garmin on but forgot to put it on, and forgot my sun glasses. After a GU and a drink of water I was ready to go.

The bike route was a seven mile loop, which made the total long for an Olympic distance race. It was nice riding along the dam, but coming back up Hefner was not easy. By the fourth loop I was seriously ready to be done.

Transition 2 was a bit faster than the first one. I managed to get my Garmin on, had another GU and some water, put on my visor and set off for the run. I did have a bit of a freak out moment when people were cheering my name at the start, (the fans were awesome), but then I realized my name was on my race bib.

It was only about 80 degrees out but it was not cloudy at all. I was wishing I was back in the freezing cold lake. For the first half I was maintaining about an 8 minute pace, which I was really happy about, and I managed only one walk break in the first half.

After this there were a few more walk breaks. Im not gonna lie to you, because of the lack of wind during the walk breaks i could tell how stinky i was. I was very happy to finish the run in under 55 minutes. So after just over 3 hours and 17 minutes my first Olympic triathlon was over.

You can't tell from this picture but I was quite sunburnt.

Our cheering section were real troopers.

Josh even rode up with us at the crack of dawn. I think he might have gotten a nap in before our race started.

We got loaded up and headed home. After a shower there was this.

I used baby oil to get the tattoos off on Tuesday, and my arms look like this now.

That's my number 673, it'll be there foe who knows how long. What a great reminder of a great race.

Looks like 2013 will be the year of the half ironman. More on that later.

Posted with Blogsy