Yes, I owe blogs. I know that vast scores of people are waiting for my tri report, and my scan report etc. etc. And i guess i have to say that i may well be putting Cancer Grrl to bed with this post. Today, ominously, i asked my boss for an extension on some work due and, for the first time, he
sighed. Well if that ain't the writing on the wall i don't know what is. Don't you see it? Cancer Grrl can NO LONGER PLAY THE CANCER CARD AT WORK.
Cancer Grrl's hair is long enough and thick enough to keep her head warm, and blond enough to preclude dumping vast amounts of cancer-causing chemicals on it. Cancer Grrl no longer faints after a mere hour of training, and no longer requires 14 hours of sleep per night (as if she ever ONCE in this whole freakin ordeal,
actually got 14 hours, or even 8 for that matter...grrrr). Cancer Grrl no longer can blame every ache, pain, attention lapse or excessive tardiness on chemo, herceptin or cancer.
So, folks, i bleve this means that Cancer Grrl is retired. I mean, there will always be a cancer grrl, b/c once you have dis disease, you is one of the chosen forever haha. BUT! Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, like the unsinkable Molly Brown, like that Armstrong man, I is back and I is better.
So now, on to the tri report. what i can remember is this:
The tri was the Lake Compounce Tri for Cancer. It was in Connecticut, at a very weird theme park. In fact, to get from the transition area to the lake, one was forced to run past a lot of those weird, plaster cast scenes filled with fantasy figures. I believe we ran past a graveyard with zombies and some sort of santa's village themed scene of cheery red cheeked, pointy eared folk. This could have been oxygen deprivation on my part.
The morning was cold. I and the bf biked from the motel to the theme park. I was fine, but the bf, who lacks my obsessive foresight, neglected to bring a tri bag, and nearly wiped out on his bike due to trying to carry a suitcase whilst riding. bad move bf! Listen to CG next time.
We donned wetsuits in the transition area. Right away I knew I was outclassed mightily. The man who racked his bike opposite mine had done ironmans. His bike must have weighed as much as a loaf of bread,
wonder bread at that. The two men next to me had more testosterone between them than the entire IMF. The man immediately to my right was probably half my age. And let's not discuss the women. I saw more sinews and teeth than alien3 and sigourney weaver put together, and more muscle than the men. A fair and robust lot of lasses to be sure.
I was a bit intimidated. And nervous. But since I walk through life intimidated and nervous, I was rather prepared for these feelings. I made my way to the lake to test the waters.
The water was not so cold, and I started to relax. I put on my white cap and waited for the beginner wave. There were only 200 peeps in this race, 135 of them were old timers and 65 of us were newbies. We newbies went second.
Into the water. Ah. I was swimming, I was being kicked, I was calm, I was swimming. I was fine. I was slapped. This was ok. This was a breeze. I was gliding along. I was rounding the first buoy. All of a sudden, mid breath, i realized that i was
really dizzy. I mean really. The sky was swirling. This panicked me a bit. As a land animal, a human in the water who suddenly feels as though she is passing out will panic. This human panicked for a second or three. Then, she got on with it. I went on my back and started doing backstroke. Yes, I swam over people. yes I got off track. yes I kept going. I rounded the second buoy. I was headed for home. I attempted the crawl again, but could not get a rhythm or breath going. No matter, I'm good at back crawl. I'm actually faster at back crawl than front (or, to put it more precisely, I am less slow). Finally, beach in sight, I flipped back over and finished with front crawl.
I got out of the water, kinda dazed, and still a bit unnerved. I offer this insight as a serious aside to anyone who is interested in doing tris,
TRIS ARE MENTAL. What I mean is that my mind was suddenly off. My focus was off and I could feel it, because I'd been freaked by the dizziness in the water. I didn't regain that focus during the rest of the event, and my performance suffered.
At any rate, I got on the bike. The one cool thing was that I had beaten the testosterone twins on the swim. Tee hee. Score one for chemopause. My bike race was uneventful. The course was two loops, with only one sorta hilly part (which, of course, you saw twice). It was pretty. It was not difficult, but I went out too fast and lost steam rather quickly. My bike time was not wonderful, but i still managed to pull ahead of quite a few non-newbies. I did begin to talk to myself at the end. I did not utter inspiring, self-affirming chatter either. At one point I turned a corner and stated, out loud, to no one in particular, "This is a particularly unpleasant deja vu". At another point, I and my aspergian brain got a good chuckle over a road name. Shouldn't I be saying things like "you can do it!" "Fast and strong!" and "you're a winner!" ??
Which brings us to the run. The run was not a stellar performance either. There was a big hill. A man I had trounced in the bike part came up behind me and said "Oh comeon kiddo you can do better than that!" as he breezed past. One of the T. Twins passed me. Worse, I had no desire to catch them. Or rather, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. My legs felt like all the atoms in them had been replaced by neutrinos. In less fanciful parlance: they felt like lead.
Nonetheless, CG ran. she may have walked a step or two here and there, but by and large, she ran. She may not have made as good a time as she'd have liked, but she did not wet her pants, injure her arthritic knees, or seriously embarrass herself by coming in after the 70 year old lady who was walking the run part. And the interesting thing is, about halfway through, I thought of Honey, and of Moon. Yes, I decided to run it for them. And my flat footed step
did get a little bit lighter...
For his part, the BF nearly drowned and got a flat, but finished the tri euphoric and addicted.
And thus, before one could turn around, it was over. And I am also still addicted. Springtime will bring more tris I'm sure, I may even do this one again. I have to, because now I cannot remember the funny name of that road.
My stats? Slightly worse than Danskin, but not by much. I was most disappointed in my bike stats, which should have been a lot better. Swimming, ok, i'll probably never be that good. Running, I have knee issues, so my days of any real swiftness are probably gone. But biking? Now I KNOW I can get faster on the bike. And I have a whole winter to do so...
Labels: cancer, grandes athletical diversions
