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I am pleased to report that the hydration pack was a success.  Yes, my husband would probably say it was also successful in making me look like a dork, and yes, he’s probably right.  I think though he might be a little biased due to the fact that I filled the “bladder,” yeah it does sound gross, halfway with water and shoved the whole backpack in the freezer the night before the race.  Probably being greeted with a frozen backpack is a little bit of a shock when you’re hunting for ice cream.  Explaining that there’s a frozen bladder in the freezer doesn’t go a long way towards enlighting the ice cream hunter on why said bladder is in there in the first place.  The good news is that I finally found a spot to hide the hydration pack where my kids couldn’t find it.  They were very intrigued by the whole thing.

Dork or not, I could not get over how easy it was to grab a sip of water as I went through the bike course of my triathlon last week. Seriously it made a huge difference.  The biking course was easier than I anticipated, and I think it’s because unlike the last race (or when I bike around town) I wasn’t parched by the end.  Not only was it easier to drink, but it was impossible to accidentally lose my water supply during the race.  As I went down the giant hill at 30 mph with <s>slight</s> brakes applied (Lance Amstrong I am not) I noticed a bunch of water bottles that had literally hit the dust.  I don’t know if gravity pulled them out of others’ bikes or if they slipped through sweaty fingers, but it was one less thing for me to worry about.

Instead of worrying about water, I was worried about trees.  The announcer at the beginning of the race warned us to be careful when taking the very sharp right hand turn at the bottom of the hill.  Apparently many people in past races have gone too fast to make the turn and ended up “flying off into the woods.”  That explains why I was gripping my handbrakes as I descended.  Who had time for worrying about a water bottle when you’re in danger of being wrapped around a tree?

In all seriousness though, the whole event was a lot of fun.  The swimming was fantastic.  I really enjoyed swimming in the lake with my fellow Orcas…I mean triathletes in wetsuits, and yes just about everyone had a wetsuit.  Yes, I highly recommend them.  The bike course was much better than I had thought it would be, and I wasn’t even aware of scaling the big scary hill that I had been dreading because based on people’s reactions I was picturing it to be like Mt. Everest, or at least the closest you can get to Mt. Everest in Central Massachusetts.  Even the steep turn was not bad, if only because of my careful braking.  The running went well too. Not too much to report there except that while I was still glad for my hydration pack and the water that it provided, it did slow me down, so next time I might not take it.  Then maybe again I will.  A bit more speed and lukewarm water compared to a full bladder of ice cold water.  Hmmm…as unappealing and weird as it may sound to say this,  I think I might just have to go with a full bladder.

by Alex Elliot

Photo graciously provided by 96dpi, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved