Follow the Blue Line- A Triathlon Day Adventure!

Race Day!!!!
It was finally here. I set my alarm for 5:30 am so I could double check my bag that I had packed Friday night. My team mates are my brother in law, James, and one of my best friends, Stephanie.  I packed a smaller bag with banana's and almonds. I got my pink drink ready. Stephanie arrived just before 6 and we proceeded to pick up my brother in law. After filling up for gas, we were on our way....

Navigational Disaster
Friday night, I had asked my husband how to get to Oak Run in Dahinda near Galesburg. He had been there before and knew the way. However, I didn't write them down. I couldn't quite remember exactly what he said. The first leg of the trip I did remember. During that time, I gave the address to Stephanie to plug into her phone so we would have directions. At this point, Stephanie did say she is navigationally challenged. Yet I had the memory of my husbands directions and thought we would be okay with the phone back up. Error number 1!

So we got off on 78 and connected with 150. Now, I remember Peter saying something about going through a really small town and then I would need to turn, but I could remember what direction, and that Oak Run would be about 10-15 miles down the road. Stephanie had the directions loaded on the phone and told me when to turn, we were on 180. We were watching for our next turn, Knox road. As we came up on a left turn, I slowed but didn't see a name, and proceed but was quickly alerted by Stephanie we were "off the blue line" (incidentally this will become a phrase we hear multiple times..), so I did a country road U-turn and proceed to where the 'blue line' told us to turn. And I did! Now at this point the inner voice of my husband was saying: where was the  small town? and I was fairly certain he had only mentioned 2 turns. I made the turn and was immediately in doubt. It was a Narrow rocky road and we proceeded on. We got to the top of a hill and on the other side was a steep decent on rocky dirt. I was very skeptical at this point that the 'blue line' was providing appropriate directions. We made it down the hill after briefly considering that we could potentially die and no one would know how to find us!!! Soon the rocks started to disappear and it was just dirt.  We passed a large limb that had fallen and was pulled over to the side, then looking ahead I notice the dirt becomes mud. James reassured me the truck was four wheel drive and said stay to the left. Made it through that mud, then another mud spot came upon us that was more of a puddle than I realized and as I proceed through, mud splashed up and all over my truck. Now, registration opened at 7 and it was nearing 7 enough that if we were on the right roads, we would have seen others...we did not. Finally the road become rock again, then a small stretch of asphalt, then rock again. we came to a T and made the turn hoping the blue line would say were going the right direction. We shortly came to a fork in the road and I was certain that based on the condition of the 2 options we should probably stay to the left. Except the phone shortly told us that we were once again "off the blue line", so I did another U-turn and went down the embankment to the dirt road...it was a tight turn. So we proceeded down the dirt road again, pondering that if something happened to the car, no one would find us!  There were deer jumping across the road, more mud puddles and I was starting to fear we would never find Oak Run and we would miss the triathlon. Alas, we finally had more rocks and the road became paved and eventually we found ourselves at one of the entrances to Oak Run!  phew! Stephanie was promptly demoted from her navigational duties!

Triathlon Time
 Now luckily, I had utilized my inner bird side (my mom's side is always timely and well planned) and we had left with enough time to endure the above adventure that took us about 20ish miles out of our way. We checked in, got our bodies marked with our bib number and then we set up our spot in the transition center.

I think we all were starting to get nervous and doubt our own sanity at this point. They opened the water for warm ups and I decided I would wait until it was time to swim to get in the water.

So it was finally 9 am and I had to get ready for my wave. Relay members were in the last wave regardless of age group, so my cap wasn't purple after all.  It was finally my turn to go. I hung back a bit to let the crowd thin. Ran through the water and finally dove in and started to swim. The cold hit me and took my breath away. I pushed forward. I was doing the breast stroke but couldn't get my legs, arms and breathing into a good rhythm until after I passed the first orange buoy. I was doing okay and kept pushing. There was a couple to my left and no matter how hard I pushed I couldn't get passed them and we kept hitting each other. Swimming in the lake was definitely different than the pool, which I expected and had been warned about. Then someone was trying to get around me after I passed the second buoy. But she got just far enough that with each stroke she was shoving water right in my face. I was close to being done so I just kept pushing. Finally, I could put my feet down and ran in the rest of the way, up the hill and into transition. My body ached, my lungs couldn't catch up with my need for air but I was done. I passed the timing chip off to James. Stephanie helped me get control of my breathing and I sat in the grass and waited. I looked at the time and did a quick guestimate of my time and figured I was right around 9 minutes. James came in and then Stephanie was off. When we saw Stephanie coming down the hill to the finish it was a moment of relief. We had done it. We survived it. We are Triathletes!