I made a commitment several months ago to join my old chum,
Paulee, on a team for the 2012 Spudman Triathlon in Burley. This was my first team effort. My assignment was simply to run a 10K after
she had completed a mile swim in the Snake River and a 25 mile bike ride. I think I had the easy part!
There are a lot of logistics to contend with in a
triathlon. Here is how it went down …
I drove to Twin Falls on Friday afternoon where Paulee met
me for a little spiritual strengthening before we picked up our race packet in
Burley. The packet included the usual
t-shirts, race number, complimentary baking potatoes (It’s the Spudman!) and
ever important timing chip. After
racking her bike, accidentally applying chain grease to my jeans, returning to
the parking lot for the plastic bag with our number that would house Paulee’s
soggy wetsuit and towel after the swim, and placing her biking gear in
strategic order for the transition from swim to ride, we returned to her home
to visit and digest our pasta dinner.
Carbo loading is one of my favorite parts of racing!
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| Hopeful before the race. |
Bright and early Saturday morning Paulee said, “I didn’t
sleep very well. I kept worrying about
our timing chip.”
“It’s in the bag.” I
replied confidently. She was more
nervous than I thought!
“Okay, well, I didn’t see it, but it must be there.” What I didn’t know is that she had looked for
it the night before and it wasn’t
there. We looked again.
“I know it has to be there, because I saw it last night.” Where was it?
“I bet it is in the truck. I saw
it when I pulled our shirts out of the bag last night. Let’s go look.”
It wasn’t in the truck.
Even an under the seat inspection with a flashlight failed to locate our
timing chip. The chip was attached to a Velcro strap and stored in a small zipper
bag. It should have been easy to
locate. We deduced that it must be in
the parking lot. I obviously dropped it
when I was retrieving the bag for the swim equipment. We had two points of hope. First – someone may have found it and turned
it in. Second – we could get another
timing chip from the race director. We opted
to hurry to the race start (it was 6:15am) and plead for mercy. There was ample time for pleading before the
8:00am start of Paulee’s swim heat. We
hurried.
Maybe it has something to do with age. After all, we were in the 138-Over Female
Team category. If they had a 150-Over
category, we would have qualified for that! I only remembered stashing the timing
chip in the door pocket of her truck AFTER I glanced down and spied it! We had
a good laugh as we often do and headed to the race. The nervous rush of adrenaline normally
reserved for the start of the race had come and gone!
My teammate is a strong swimmer. I followed the racers along the bank, trying
to pick her out, but every racer was wearing an orange swim cap. I could identify men because they were large.
A few swimmers did not wear wetsuits, so I eliminated them. After that, I had no clue which one she
was! She finished in 20 minutes! For those who don’t know, that’s pretty fast.
I was there to cheer her on during the transition. Then I made my way back to the swim start
where we would pass off the timing chip and I would begin my run. My nerves began to factor in. So did my dinner. (Runners often have tummy troubles on race
day.)
I wore my Running Granny Green outfit so she could find me
when she came in at the end of her ride.
You can’t miss that shirt! I
snatched the chip from her ankle and wrapped it around my own. Then I was off. It wasn’t a stellar run, but it
sufficed. I kept thinking, “I have to
keep moving. I owe it to Paulee.” I later learned that she had similar thoughts
while she was competing, “I want Carol to take a trophy home!”
The trophies … we earned one! Sometimes it pays to be old. We placed first in our category. I am sure
our competitors were somewhere in the Over part of the category, as were we,
but I didn’t ask how far over. We
proudly stayed for the awards ceremony so we could collect our trophies. Paulee mentioned an article in the newspaper
that cautioned folks to be careful with their trophies as they were breakable.
We gathered our belongings and dragged our tired bodies to
the truck parked across the golf course and down the street, both of us gently
holding our trophies in one hand and a bag of gear in the other. We talked about the race and about getting
old. We probably talked about the men in
our lives. We each have only one – both of us married for years and still in
love.
Fifty yards from the
truck there was a loud “clunk” and a sudden lightening of the load in our
trophy laden hands! That is right. We managed to knock the bases off both
trophies in one fell swoop! Who else
could do that?
And we laughed.
This is a testament to our friendship. We survived the adrenaline aided panic of the
missing timing chip. We hoped for
success more for our teammate than for ourselves. We created a disaster together and laughed
about it. In the end, we had so much
FUN!
And we won!
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