Overdue Race Report!!! It's a long one!!

On June 14, 2009 I participated in the US WOMEN's TRIATHLON in Naperville, Il.

I swam a half mile.
I biked 14 miles.
I ran/walked 3.1 miles.

Here is my report:



Here I am all set up and ready to go in transition.


I love this picture of Dar and I in transition.


I did not get body marked the day before the event, so after I was all set up in transition I went and got body marked.




It seems that no matter what event I am at, I run into people I know from the YMCA, where I work out. The lady next to me is Leslie. I was her children's pre-school teacher and we see each other at the Y from time to time. The lady next to her is Lois, who works and teaches spinning at the Y. Leslie was doing this tri as her first one. Lois was there to cheer her on.


The race started at 7am and our wave didn't start till shortly after 8am, so Dar and I had fun with permanent markers. Here is Dar's leg. It was her birthday and during her race she got lots of birthday wishes.


My favorite Bible verse, that I love and that helps me through all my events is, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." A lot of people thanked me on the run for having that verse on my leg.


I run my races in honor of children who are living with Trisomy or that have passed away. This race I did in memory of Baby Michael Z. In November, I ran a Turkey Trot, in his honor, just a day after he was born. Two weeks later, after a valient fight, he passed away. I knew that I would do this race for him when I signed up.


Here I am showing off all my body markings and showing off the skinnier me too.


Here we are on the beach waiting for our swim wave to start.. I absolutely love this picture of Darlene and me. Someone recently asked me if this was my twin sister? She is my sister from another mother. I love you Dar.



I have a wonderful friend named Michelle that I met online through our blogs. Two years ago we met in person doing this same Triathlon. This year we were in the same wave. She is an incredible lady and if you want to check her out her blog it called HITTING MY STRIDE. Just click that and you can visit her blog. We saw each other in transition and then didn't see each other again until the race start, so I ran over to my family members, grabbed my camera, ran back in the crowd, and took this picture, seriously like 2 minutes before the tri started. I'm glad I did. I love it.



Here are all of us girls ready to go. Check out my HUGE goggles. LOL I suffer a little bit with claustrophobia when I put my face in the water and I found that these goggles work the best because of I have more of a view. I look like a dork in pictures with them on, but they help. :)



Can you find me? I'm at the back of the pack and ok with that. Even when I am almost last in a race I think to myself, "What are most of my friends doing right now while I'm here at the back of the pack doing a triathlon? They are in bed still." So, back of the pack or not, I'm up and doing a triathlon and finishing.



The swim was tough. We have been having a very mild summer and the water temp was very cold. They even emailed us and let us know that it was going to be ok to use a wetsuit. The only problem is I'm not wetsuit size yet, so I did not have that option. When we stepped in the water it was cold. When our wave started I ran and jumped in and as soon as my face hit it literally took my breath away. It took me a good 5 minutes to get used to it, but 20 minutes later I finished and got out of the water as you can see here in the picture. At my first tri here in 2006 I had a panic attack in the water for the last 5 minutes of it. In 2007 I started to have a panic attack, but was able to breathe through it and not let it over take me. I am proud to say this year NO PANIC at all in the water. I've come a long way. Maybe it's the dorky looking goggles. I don't know for sure, but I was very happy.



After getting out of the water, and starting to jog the longest run to a tranistion that I have ever seen, I realized that my heel was flaring up. The pain was pretty bad and I had one leg that was cramping up. I did not have a fast transition due to this because I had to do some stretching, but soon I was out on my bike for a nice 14 mile ride.



Here I am coming into transition 2. I just rode 14 miles. For the most part it was uneventful except for my left foot/heel/leg cramp. Pretty much from the get go my left foot was giving me issues. It did not like my biking shoes and did not like being clipped into the pedal. The ride is a nice one. It is too loops and not hilly at all. The only excitement was a lady that totally took a turn to fast and hit the curb and FLEW off her bike. She got up, got back on, and passed me. :)

Next off the run and I'm all done. As soon as I got off my bike I almost fell over from the pain in my left heel. I took time to stretch it in transition, but I knew this run/walk would not be easy. I was right. I was on my way and not within two minutes I was debating whether or not I should continue on. I looked down at my arm and saw the words IN MEMORY OF BABY MICHAEL Z. and knew I had to do it for him and his family. This little boy fought for his life for two weeks and didn't win his fight. I realized that I could fight and finish a 3.1 mile walk for him and that's just what I did. I kept moving and eventually the finish line was in sight.



Here I am heading towards the finish line. I was happy to see it and happy to get some encouragement along the way. Everyone was high fiving me. It was great!!



Here's a close up of me having fun with the crowd. I love how happy I look in this pic. Also, for those of you who don't know I am part of a Team called TEAM TRISOMY and the founder, Michael Hennessy, always wears a cowboy hat on his runs, so I have started to do that. We have team members nationwide. You can check out Michael's website at IRONMAN FOR KIDS.I look really happy in this picture.



Here I am getting closer.



I'm almost there. Victory is mine.



I made it across the finish line. Here are Dar and I with our medals. We did it!!



Here is Dar loading our bikes on the rack. We were heading to her house for a victory celebration, but more importantly her birthday celebration with her family.



Besides my cool finishers medal I also got this nice token as a reminder of my race. That's my back and yes, that is sunburn.



It was a wonderful day!! I cannot wait to do it again next year.

Here are my stats for the race:

Melissa Black Swim 21:36 Transition 1 7:35 Bike 1:09:31 Transition 2 6:00 Run 1:00:09

Over all time 2:44:48

Results from 2006, first tri ever: 2:27

Results from 2007: 2:42