Had the opportunity to swim the course that week with a small group just to check on the water and depths and such. Was fun and the water was a little chilly, but nothing that froze my face. I felt ok during the swim, not amazing, but not too bad. Hadn't spent any time biking those roads, or hardly outside at all actually, but figured I've been on them before, it would be fine (and it was).
So race day was nice because I live 10 minutes from Daybreak. I even woke up a little late that morning so hurried out to the car and parked over there but I got a spot way in the back and got set up and wasn't even scrambling at the end to be ready to race. Amazing for me. Even after 15 years I can sometimes still find myself hurrying to get everything set up, and I am a minimalist transition triathlete, as many more should be, no reason to put your bucket or bag under or around your bike. Too much stuff just takes up your time as you look over it in T1 and T2 wondering if you should grab it. Not to mention crowding other people. Put out the essentials and go.
- Set out a small towel that only goes under the front OR back half of your bike, not all of it, and stager front wheels. Your front wheel should be in-between to rear wheels for example. Set out bike shoes, helmet, sunglasses, run shoes, hat/visor, race belt and nutrition and you are set - seriously. If you need more space or a chair for some reason, move to the very side of the racks, but not in the isle.
But I digress, on to the race.
Swim - 26:50, #1 out of the water! That swim felt great! My old wetsuit wasn't squeezing my arms or legs like it has much of the past, my arms didn't get tired, the water was great temperature. I loved the swim!
T1 - 1:04, #2 Quick and dirty. Love the shoes attached to the bike as always
Bike - 1:05, #3. Surprised I held on to the lead from Sue Pope as long as I did. She didn't catch me until right before the turn around, but I held her close by (not drafting close of course) until the long downhill from Kennecot where she made up about 2.5 minutes on me. I didn't feel comfortable going into aero on a long downhill with so little time on the bike recently so I didn't. And that's fine. I did call a guy out hard after sucking down his gel and just throwing the wrapper on the ground. No slip out of his pocket, a deliberate littler. Ooooh that irks me!! There is NO reason for litter. If you got it out of a pocket, it can go back in one, or down your shorts. I don't care. Don't drop it.
T2 - :46, #1 In and out. Love running in barefoot, racking bike, helmet off, pull Altra 3Sum tri shoes on, grab race number and run out. Simple = happy
Run - 46:44, #2. Left in a hurry to go find Sue as I was confident I could hunt her down. Was Thanks Steve! Was still a little worried about being hunted down by someone till the end, but that last 1/2 mile was pretty great knowing I had held on for a win I DID NOT EXPECT.surprised when I saw how much ground she had on me but figured I'd just run hard and be patient. Nice thing about this course is there are many points you can see someone in front of you, start counting when they pass a particular point then stop when you get there. I would do that several times to track how much closer I was to her. Shortly after mile 2 I passed her and would have liked to slow down because it hurt to run 7:30 pace after all this ultra running, but I didn't trust that I could and kept running at probably 90%. Ran with a great guy I met on the course named Steve I believe that was a big motivator and help.
2:20.31, 1st woman, 12th among the men. 35 second ahead of the next woman who I never saw but was hauling on the run. The only one to run under 50 minutes with me. I really truly do not want to come across prideful, boastful or anything of the sort when I say I hadn't been training much and didn't expect to place or win, but did. I am very grateful for the muscle memory my body retained apparently, muscle memory I have worked hard for for more than 10 years. I can tell you that olympic distance was my limit, I wouldn't have had the same results in a longer tri, and that olympic wasn't easy at all. It felt uncoordinated a little on the bike and a little more on the run, but went fairly smooth. Definitely lit the tri flame a little and while I don't have any more planned for the year, I'd like to find one or two maybe, and while I'd love to get by on no training like I did before, I would actually like to train this time :)
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| 9 month tapers really work - Kidding!! Training is good :) |
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