Dilloman - Post

My alarm clock went off at 4:45 and I managed to get out of bed before 5 (and before Jennifer, who had been harping about getting up early the night before). I napped on the way to Lake Georgetown and we arrived way before sunrise, at the same time as Elizabeth and Felicia. We hooked up with Meredith, Michael and eventually Doug at the transition zone. We got marked (my team was 557) and went down to the lake where I picked up my timing chip. You wear it velcroed around your ankle and your time is automatically taken whenever you cross a timing mat (between the legs of the race, the transition zone and the final line).

The start of the race was delayed almost an hour while we waited for the cops to arrive at the intersections they were supposed to guard. The participants started in eight waves of about a hundred each. The girls were in wave four and I was in the last wave (along with other relay, "Clydesdale" and "Athena" competitors).

The swim itself was not too eventful. My wave quickly spread out, with me lagging in the back. The day was windy but the water was not too choppy. My swim mask fogged up fairly quickly, though, so I had a hard time seeing the buyoes - especially since some swimmers had bright orange swim caps that looked like the official buyoes. I kept a pretty brisk pace and tried alternating between crawl and breast every tventy strokes or so, which worked most of the time.

When I arrived back at the shore, the volunteers helped me out of the water and I valliantly ran up the incline - looking back on the water and seeing with satisfaction that I was not the last swimmer - through the transition zone and on to the bike where Doug and Michael were waiting. Doug yelled at me to give him the chip so I lifted up my leg and told him to take it, as we had planned. Only then did I notice that the chip was no longer on my ankle! It must have gotten loose during the swim. So Doug took off without the chip as I went to talk to some race volunteer about what to do. Apparently they fished some chip (or chips) out of the lake, so I hope they won't charge me for it. In any case, we do not have official times.

After Doug took off, I waited with Michael at the bike/run transition and watch the competitors arrive. Eventually Jennifer showed up, followed half a minute later by Meredith and then a couple of minutes later by Elizabeth. Doug arrived still some time after that and I watched him transition to Michael who took of running. At that point as I was leaving to hike to the finish line and just saw Felicia arriving on her bike.

I waited at the finish with Doug and took picture of Jennifer, Meredith, Michael, Elizabeth and Felicia crossing the finish line in that order. They all did a great job. Some of us then treated ourselves to a sports massage - very recomendable!

Team Flab did not achieve its stated goal, which was (according to Doug) to "beat the chicks" since both Meredith and Jennifer beat our time. I timed myself at about 27 and half minutes for the 800m swim (about 6 minutes slower than Jennifer, but quite good for me). Doug was slower than the girls, too, and only Michael had the faster time. Unfortunatelly his 4 seconds over Jennifer and our blazingly fast transitions were not enough to clinch it for us.

The highlight of my day came during the picknick after the race. They were handing out door prizes - mostly T-shirts and hats and such. I scored a coup by winning a pair of Tayo sunglasses which usually run at over $100! Jennifer got a Jamba Juice mug which wasn't quite as thrilling. I also scored a neat biking shirt which I found wrapped in my transition bag, courtesy of my lovely fiancée.

To sum it up: I'm glad I participated in the Dilloman and I'm also glad I only had to do one portion of it. I'm not sure if I'll ever do a full triathlon, but it probably won't happen in the foreseeable future. Until then, I'm an official monoathlete.