Ok, so I'm just going to do a quick report on the race from Sunday. There really isn't a whole lot to tell. It was fairly uneventful, which I suppose is a good thing. Greyt and I went to the race venue on Saturday morning to do a little pre-race brick workout and we were greeted with this:
Yes, that is the beach, but where is the water you ask? Good question. It's SOMEWHERE out there. We just weren't sure where. So we walked down to the water's edge, to see if there was any chance of swimming that morning. We thought if we could see the swim buoys, we could do it. Can you see the buoy?
It's there, I promise. Look again. Here, I'll help:
See! I told you it was there! After spending about 5 minutes staring into the grey abyss and deciding we really weren't much into playing a game of "Marco? Polo?" out there, we gave up. Luckily race morning was NOTHING like this.
Race morning went pretty well. Got there plenty early, set up in a sweet transition spot, got in a couple good trips to the porta potty, warmed up (See, Jen, I do follow orders!!), and was ready to go.
Swim went ok, about 1/2 way out I got a cramp in my right calf. I stopped briefly to try and stretch it out, then got back to swimming. Tried once again to stretch it out at the turnaround, but that didn't help either. Greyt happened to be swimming by me and stopped to see if I was ok. After telling her she needed to get swimming instead of worrying about me, she told me to stop kicking and then took off. So, I took her advice and swam the rest of the way in with a dead right leg.
Bike went well. I was trying out some new wheels for the race, and could feel a difference in the way I was riding. I was riding fast speeds and felt really light on the hills. How can you not feel fast when your bike looks like this:
After the race, when I saw the initial results, I was even more impressed by the wheels. They had me at an average of 22mph. BUT, after doing a few calculations a day later, I realized they were using the wrong distance for the average calculation. But even after the correction, I posted a strong bike split. Fastest in my age group. That felt good.
The run was typical, although, unlike at Hickory Grove, no female runners passed me. I had a girl in my sights from the beginning of the run and managed to reel her in with about half a mile left. As I passed she said, "It's about time! I was waiting for you to pass me so I didn't have to sprint you to the end." Nice. She did try to pull a little sprint out at the end and pass me, but it didn't happen. I held her off by about 4 seconds. That always feels good.
After a couple of hours of waiting around for the race officials to figure out all the timing issues they had, the awards were finally presented. The good news is that I managed another 2nd place AG finish. The bad news is that the same girl who beat me at Hickory Grove, beat me again here. Darn it! Next season, my friend...next season.
So to wrap up my post, here's a picture of me, Greyt and another TRI friend, Vick. Don't we all look so happy to be done??
1 comment:
Congrats on your 2nd place finishes. After finding and reading peoples' blogs, I realize I need to quit commenting in the races because they end up in blogs. I am the one you passed at the end of the race and believe me I was not going to try to catch you at the end. You are awesome. Great season and good luck in the Irongirl!!!
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