by Janet Tsuji

Pamela and Sharley think I can do it. They said I was ready. I laughed!  After all, I’m still a newbie! I had just done an Olympic distance and struggled, big time. I finished 198th out of 242 women. I’m not ready…no way.  But, Pamela and Sharley can be very convincing.  Before I knew it, I was registered.

BK weekend. Show time! I was as ready as I was ever going to be at that point. I was so happy to have several FMRC teammates there to share the experience with me: Sharley, Pamela (they had better both be there since they talked me into it!), Chuck Ojeda, Glenn Puzio, Sherpa Sue Hill, Kim Bowers, Mike Statz and my fellow “Super Foxes," Kitty and Trixie (aka Kathy Dilingham and Kaaren Smith).

Our hotel was directly across the street from transition. How amazing is that?! Once we checked in, we made our way down to the expo. It was a pretty cold day…overcast and windy…with the same expected for Sunday. By that time, I was getting pretty nervous.That ocean swim was scaring the beejeebers out of me. So we headed down to put our feet in the water and check out the temp. Hmmm…not as bad as I was expecting. Folsom actually felt colder! I relaxed....just a little.

Race day dawned crazy early; our wake-up call was before 5 a.m. Pamela and I headed over a bit after 5 thinking we were going to be one of the first ones there. Wrong! Most of the closest racks were already taken. Sharley and Chuck were already there, already set up.  Holy cow…were we late??! We racked our bikes and headed back to the hotel to eat breakfast and gather our gear. It was nice to be able to go back and forth…especially to use the hotel bathroom and put on our wetsuits. Back at the bikes, I was so excited to see Kathy and Kaaren. They were in the newbie group with me last year, and it meant so much to me that they appeared in T1 with their beaming smiles and cheers way before the butt crack of dawn, on a Sunday morning, for my first Half IM. There were a few tears…..

Before we knew it, we were down at the water and our wave was about to take off. At this point, something really strange happened. I wasn’t nervous anymore. I felt strangely calm. I was ready to race. All I wanted to do was finish in less than 7 hours, if possible. I just wanted to finish and know that I gave it my all. 

The gun sounded. I quickly realized that I was swimming side-by-side with Pamela. We made eye contact and, in my mind, I smiled.  What a neat feeling to be swimming next to my “teacher,” my mentor and our newbie coach from last year. After what seemed like forever I made the turn around at the end of the pier and finally made it to shore in 44:09. I had conquered my first ocean swim, the mass of clysdesdales that started behind me, and a few unfortunate zigzags. One event down, two to go!

For someone who couldn’t swim a stroke a little over a year ago, I was thrilled...even though I couldn’t feel my hands—they were numb from the cold. They were so cold, I pushed the wrong button on my Garmin and tried to fiddle with it during the long run to T1. Once I got to my bike and I tried taking my wetsuit off, I realized just how dysfunctional my hands were. They literally would not work. T1 took 9 minutes. Pitiful. But, there was no way I could move faster so I didn’t worry about it. 

At that point, Pamela and I were there together and when she decided to just go with arm warmers, I followed suit. We figured it had to warm up on the bike and we didn’t want to mess with our jackets. I also decided to not wear my gloves because it would have taken way too long to get them on with wet, numb hands. Those decisions would come back to bite me very soon!  It felt really good to get out on my bike. It is my favorite/best event and I always look forward to it. As I was riding, I started trying to fix my Garmin. Not an easy task when you can’t feel your fingers. They were still so numb that I couldn’t even reset the stupid thing. It took me about 3 or 4 miles to get it reset and operating again.That really bummed me out because I would never really know where I was on the course or how long I had been riding, or even my overall time. Oh well…just keep riding. But, here’s where the “no jacket and no gloves” decision came back to haunt me. The day was not warming up, in fact it was drizzling. I was still wet and freezing and I still couldn’t feel my fingers. We were getting to the rollers out on the highway and I needed to be able to shift. No dice. I had to shift with the opposite hand which didn’t work very well and it really slowed me down. I just couldn’t go through the gears like I needed to because my hands were so cold. Oh well…it will get better soon I kept telling myself…mile after mile after mile. I think it was around mile 40 that I finally started to warm up and the feeling slowly returned to my fingers.

In the meantime, I kept waiting for the ride to get easier. Both Chuck and Glenn had mentioned that it was a tough ride on the way out but the wind will be at our backs for the return and we would be able to “scream” on the way in. I kept waiting for the “screaming” to begin but it never did. What a cruel joke! The wind just happened to be blowing in the opposite direction that day. I finished the ride in 3:16. Two events down, one to go. 

T2 was much better than T1…only took me about 3 minutes to get ready to run. Kaaren, Kathy and Stella’s familiar faces were there, cheering on the way out of transition and gave me a huge boost. I was so happy to be out running!  I’d only run 13.1 miles once before so I knew the run would push me to my limit.  But, I’d survived the swim and the bike and, all things considered, felt surprisingly good!  At every mile, I started counting down…only 12 more…only 11…10. Then I started seeing my teammates on their way back in…Sharley, Chuck, Glenn, Kim…one by one, they ran by.  It was great to see friendly faces and red FoMo kits all along the course. By the time I got to the giant Tiki at the turn around point, I knew I was going to be able to finish. I finished the run (which was 13.5 miles by the way…that was cruel, too!) in 2:15…a 10 minute mile pace. Not bad for a first half marathon!

As I crossed the finish line, I was so incredibly happy and proud of myself. I had done something that not too many 52 year old women can do. Wow!  My entire crew of teammates was all at the finish line to congratulate me. My emotions got the best of me and the tears just wouldn’t stop. I had actually just finished a Half Ironman!!!!  I had no idea what my time was or where I finished.  But I didn’t care. It wasn’t until the next day that I found out my time: 6:27:57. Good enough for 4th in my age group, 101st woman out of 206. I’ll take it! I guess Pamela and Sharley were right. I was ready. They tell me I’m not a newbie anymore. That’s okay…triathlete has a nice ring to it!