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| Super cute awards: Martini glasses filled with chocolate! |
This was a super sprint tri: 300 meter pool swim at the University of New Orleans, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run. It would be FAST- all out for 45-50 minutes. Since I've been focusing on the shorter distance,
I felt like I could have a good race and earn a little redemption. The entry fee was only $50, and the top 5 finishers won prize money (I have to confess, I expected to at least pay off the entry fee at this one). I verified with the RD that the time trial start WOULD be based on swim times, not order of registration (which seems to be a fad in the MS/LA region...), registered, and convinced fellow Timex Factory Team member and training buddy Ginger Spansel to join me in the season opener! It was going to be a fun Girl's trip!
We left Hattiesburg EARLY the morning of the race. Actually, 4 a.m. is feeling less and less grueling. You would think between collegiate rowing and all these early morning training sessions I would be used to it. I'm getting there slowly but surely. We arrived at the race site by 6a.m. among the few other early birds. We picked up our packets and guess what our numbers were?! 17 (Ginger) and 18 (me)! We were both relieved to have low numbers.
I have a defined routine that I like to go through before every race, starting with being on site when transition opens, then packet pick-up, bike prep, transition set up, inspection of transition area, inspection of pool, run warm-up & dynamic stretches, re-examination of transition space post late arrivals, potty breaks, etc, ending with a warm up swim. What a relief that Ginger is the same way! We were practically attached at the hip going through our pre-race routines. It was definitely de-stressing to have someone there to just talk to about everything, especially an experienced vet!
In the online race instructions, we were informed there would be no warm-ups allowed at the UNO pool. We checked on the outdoor pool to see if we could sneak a warm-up in that, but it was locked. After our run warm-up, we went over to the indoor pool and discovered people in the pool WARMING UP! We definitely needed that, but we were running short on time. We jumped in and did a 300 warm up with a couple of 50 builds before being called out.
As we got out and tried to locate our starting order, the RD announced that this would be a "seed yourself start, so talk to the ladies around you and figure out what order you need to be in". This turned into a fiasco. Can someone explain what the point is of asking for predicted times if you aren't going to use them? At least if a handful of people lie on their registration forms it KIND OF keeps things under control on race day- I mean, they get swam over, but that's their problem. You ask people on race day, and all of a sudden their brains turn to mush and they think they're Janet Evans. I predicted it would REALISTICALLY take me about 4:30 to complete the swim, which is not slow, and there were a FEW dozen girls claiming to go under 4. We jumped in line in that "under 4" group and asked the girls behind us what they planned to swim the 300 in, their response: "I think I can do it in under 4.... What pace is that?" Ummmm, NO. If you don't know what pace you need to be swimming to go under 4, you're not going under 4. Period. The end.
SWIM: 4:46 1:27/yd
I have to admit that I was a little anxious for the swim. The ladies in front of us actually looked like swimmers, but the 20 people behind us all going under 4 made me nervous. We held our ground and ended up starting at about where we would have been to begin with. The swim started on the left side of the pool and we snaked to the other end. The first and last lengths were double wide to allow for passing and congestion. I was surprised to not run into ANY of that. The swim was super smooth- I didn't catch the lady ahead of me, and no one caught up to us. I was happy we spend a new extra minutes after masters practicing our flip turns under the ropes, because that would have slowed me down a bit more than it actually did.
T1: 1:19
The run from swim to transition was long, but that was nice because it helped me get my bearings. I passed a TON of ladies in transition because I think I was #4 heading out on the bike.
BIKE: 27:03 22.2mph
I guess in a normal triathlon there're always a few people ahead of me to follow- MEN. This was weird... I'm not used to being in the lead and not having anyone in sight to follow. There was a point early in the ride that I was on a ramp that circle around and opened up to a fork. There were 2 cars up ahead chatting, BUT NO ONE TO DIRECT ME WHERE TO GO AND NO CONES OR ARROWS!!! I hit my brakes almost came to a complete stop and screamed "Where do I go?!" I saw a rider moving off in the distance and committed to the left. There were a lot of places on the course like this- lots of traffic circles and windy roads with splits and not really clear direction of where to go. Next year it would be nice if there were volunteers on the course, or perhaps some of the drivers of those cars blocking off traffic could get out and direct racers...? Seems like a good/ obvious idea...
I had a pretty good bike, considering the conditions. Going into the race I had a goal of averaging close to 23mph. Before the start, however, we were informed the wind had JUST picked up and we would be dealing with an 18mph headwind from the north with gusts of 25mph. Heading out (north) I was pushing pretty hard and hovering between 18-20, but coming back (WITH the wind) my speed settled around 25. I saw Ginger right after the turn around- she was still right behind me. Not too bad after a long winter break... the lady's tough. I passed one person on the bike, putting me in 3rd at the start of the run.
T2: 0:38
RUN: 14:11 7:06min/mile
The run was painful. It always is. Before the race, Kyle told me to not go crazy from the get-go, but3rd overall finisher on the spot!to take about a quarter mile to loosen my legs up and get into a rhythm. That took a conscious effort, but I'm glad I did. I think the whole time I was beating myself up about how weak my running is and how much more of a focus it needs to be in the coming months. After the halfway point, I started to pick it up a bit, and finally found my legs with the last 1/2 mile- I think I was just happy to almost be done! I heard my name on the loud speakers coming in the last turn, and it was pretty cool being announced as the
FINISH: 47:55
As a whole, I was very pleased with my performance. It's always easy to look back at the results and pick at ways you should have shaved more time, but I think I have a strong, solid foundation going into the season, and I've come a LONG way over the winter. If anything, this was exactly what I needed to stay in gear and move forward. ALSO, I'm stoked to have won $300- my race season is now funded!
Thanks Ginger for the companionship at this
one, and a super big thanks to fellow Timex Factory Team Member Patrick Lewis for stepping in as our personal paparazzi!
Congratulations on taking 3rd!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! WAY TO GO!!!!
ReplyDelete