Monday, March 12, 2012

Had My First Ironman "Nightmare" of the Season

And it begins...

Like most of my Ironman "nightmares" from last season, this one was another T1 dream. Why do they always take place in T1? I think it has to do with my fear of forgetting something important, like my bike, which is ridiculous, because it is the largest piece of equipment needed for a triathlon.

So I finished the swim, I am guessing pretty fast, because I had the T1 area to myself. In fact, the tent wasn't a tent, it was like the changing hut on a beach like out on Greenwich Island where I did that two mile swim the other summer. For some reason I was waiting for my Ironman friend, Jill, whom I did Lake Placid with.

What does that mean? She isn't doing Ironman Mont Tremblant, but brief discussions of Lake Placid 2013 have been floating around. Was this a nightmare of my T1 for a 2013 Ironman back up in Lake Placid? Whoa...

But I was waiting for her because I must have swam faster than her (were we gonna do the rest of the race together? We did a 16.5 mile training run on the course together last May and were matched up so perfectly in terms of pace that we thought about ways we could run the actual run together come race day), (btw, Jill is NOT a slow swimmer!) so I found a bench and started reading a book (who reads a book during T1 of an Ironman?!?!).

Eventually she showed up, so I hit one of the changing rooms, only I couldn't figure out what to wear. My T1 bag was my pool swimming bag and I must have stuffed every article of triathlon/cycling/running gear that I owned into the bag. There was so much stuff in there that I just dumped it all out. I was overwhelmed!

Meanwhile....tick tock tick tock, right?

I remember grabbing the green top that I wore for Lake Placid, putting it on, then taking it off thinking, "I can't wear this. I already wore this in an Ironman. I need something new!"

Like, don't wear the same outfit twice to a party? Huh?

I think I settled on some god awful gray/black top that I actually don't own. FYI: I should never be a triathlon clothing designer.

Then the dream ended.

I only call it a "nightmare" because of this sense of panic once I got into the changing room. I was super calm just reading a book on the bench until I actually started changing. Then once I realized I either forgot something or couldn't decide what to wear is when the panic set in.

I had a T1 nightmare last season where the race organizers lost my T1 bag. Once I learned of this I went to the "officials" in some control room (do Ironman races even have "control rooms" ??) and they just didn't care that they lost it and offered to give me someone else's T1 bag. That works, right?

So between these two dreams I guess my biggest fear is showing up to a race and forgetting something important.

Anyone have any good T1 reading suggestions?


18 comments:

  1. I had a dream last night that I had to hike my marathon and there were bridges with alligators trying to eat us.

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  2. I'm DYING! Thanks for telling the world I'm not a slow swimmer... you did beat out of the water by a good 7 minutes I think!! Maybe it's a sign we actually do need to sign up for 2013???

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  3. That's just funny! I was laughing pretty good...especially when you couldn't wear the same shirt. Hahahah! Next triathlon I do, I must not forget a good book to read in T1! That's genius!

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  4. This was very entertaining. I just finished two more books and will do a review shortly for your T1 reading pleasure. I had a weird dream last night. All my blogger friends got my cell phone number and started calling me to chat - not sure if it was congratulatory or wishing me luck, but I remember thinking "How cool to talk to these guys I feel like I know, but weird that they found my phone number!" LOL

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  5. 23 weeks out and the dreams are already beginning? wow!

    I had a dream last night about eating a burrito but they were out of whole wheat shells so I had to watch everyone else eat them. I woke up angry.vThis was a nightmare.

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  6. I have these dreams, most the time, I forget my bike, a couple times I was late to the start and started the swim a hour late, there is always the getting lost on the course ones, those are fun

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  7. Were you on the chapter of an IM training book re: how to make T1 faster?

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  8. I think it means you need to buy a new tri kit. You can't race in the same thing twice :)

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  9. My dreams always seem to be me missing the entire race because I missed my alarm.

    And it seems like you may need a new tri kit :)

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  10. Wearing the same outfit to an Ironman twice WOULD be a nightmare! You have to be able to tell the difference in your race pictures, right? And, in T1 you were probably reading either Macca's or Chrissie's new book... trying to get in a few last minute pointers, before heading out. That sounds normal.. :)

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  11. I thought there'd be more zombies.

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  12. HA HA HA!!!!! Dude, you could have and should have driven your station wagon to the nearest tri shop and gotten a brand new suit. I mean you were already breaking the 'rules' of triathlon by reading a book and taking your time so why not some more time and drive to the nearest store for a new kit.

    I would suggest you read Bob's OneHourIronMen book in T1. Might help with the rest of the race.

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  13. At least you avoided a MAJOR fashion faux pas. Phew!

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  14. I recommend playboy or hustler.

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  15. I always have crazy race dreams. Like stopping to eat a real meal in the middle of a marathon and forgetting to start again.

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  16. If you start having creepy dreams about me then we got a problem. :)

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  17. I had sooo many crazy dreams leading up to IMAZ, and they never made any sense at all..ha ha!

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