Cranberry Country Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Comfortable swim - this is my strongest event. Having swam the course yesterday helped a lot. First couple hundred yards were messy as usual, being kicked and poked by people. Sighting was good, didn't really get off course. Many times I was poking other people's butts. Saw a girl swimming to a kayak shortly after the start. kind of feel bad. Saw a couple green caps struggling. Tried to encourage them. Checked time at 3rd bouy and it was about 8 min - consistent with yesterday's practice. Swimmers spreaded out after a while and I was minding my own business in the calm water, keeping a staight line from bouys to bouys (there are some 10 bouys on the course). All of a sudden I felt some commotion, water got choppy. Looked around and found I was surrounded by white caps, swimming like sharks. OMG... I thought I was doing well! Started to get nervous: am I too slow? Maybe I should push harder. A small voice told me "save energy. You have over 3 hrs of physical torture ahead of you. Swim at your comfortable pace. Save energy for your bike and run". I listened to the little voice, and continued my swim. Relatively uneventful and soon the end approached.

My goggles leaked a bit but it was ok. Guess I had it on a crooked position. Seems to pushed into my eye sockets too much and was squeezing my eyeballs out. Very grateful that I don't wear contacts anymore.

Looks like I haven't been improving much on the swim lately. Should work on the base.

Continued to crawled until my hand touched the lake bottom. Got up and started jogging. Wetsuit peeled down from upper body. Found my TA and took off wetsuit pretty easily. My technique of putting the leg of the wetsuit over the timing chip works. That I didn't have to worry about timming chip get loose (like in Lowell), or it get caught when removing wetsuit.
Partially dried feet, socks on, bike shoes on, helpmet on, sunglasses on. Took ~10 sec to drink gatorade/water. Popped a gel block in my mouth and grabbed bike to the mount area.

The bike portion went by quicker than anticipated. Didn't cranked right away. I knew it'll take me some 1.5 hr to ride the course. Mounted well - I'm getting better at mounting now, though still no jump start.
Most of the time I was enjoying the scene, checking out bikes and cars as they passed. Got passed by too many people. Amused myself by looking at the traffic signs - "speed limit 45" - year right. There were signs saying "Do Not Pass". Heard people said "on your left". I replied "but the sign said 'do not pass'". :)

Ate a gel block every 20 min. Washed down with water or gatorade. Boyfriend lent me his cage so that I can put 2 bottles on my bike. So not use this the one right under my saddle. Was holding the water bottle for almost a mile before I could properly put it back to the cage. A guy dropped his water bottle, which almost hit my front wheel.

Mile 2.5: TypeAGirlPilot overtook me
Mile 5: Sue7013 over took me
Mile 22: a familiar voice from behind "are we done yet?". It was akabak, when she passed me. I overtook her few min later, saying "I thought this course was supposed to be FLAT!". Then she passed me again.
Back toward TA. Saw Capt Jack and Sue starting the run. Cheered for them. Mrs. Jack and Sue's parents, as well as BODonut's dad were cheering for me as I ride toward the TA.

Work on speed/hills

Bike shoes off, slipped my feet into the sneakers, helmet off, grabbed baseball cap and race belt. Off! Saw EmilyG and Nick. Got water from them.

Nothing. Love my yankz!

Legs tired, but not too rubbery. I knew I was slow. Saw Sue ~ mile 1.5. Glad to know her knee's holding up. Somehow my bib number, which I wore at the back, dropped shortly after I passed the 2nd water stop. Some guys told me about it. Went back 6 steps to retrieve it. At that point I so wanted to walk. Said it out loud. Some runners encouraged me to keep running. One of those was a Trifurian. :)

Drank at every water station, both gatorade and water at the first 3, then water only.

Right azz tightened ~ mile 2.5. Shortened my stride. At mile 3.5, right knee started to sore. Slowed down a whole lot. Negotiated with my legs: if you can get me running to the next water stop, I'd let you walk while I drink water. Knees heated up - felt like swelling. Estimated my split to be 11 min/mile. Started to count down. 20 min to go. Distracted myself by drafting up my race report in my head, going through the interesting events in the past couple hours. 15 min to go. Mile 5 marker approached. Walked the water stop and took my time drinking. 10 min to go. 8 min. Man that 8 min was so damn long. At that point I was hoping to make 3:10:00. Was happy to see that I was faster than my goal time of 3:15:00. Didn't think I had the energy to sprint the last 200 yard to the finish line. I'll look like a sick person crawling to finish.

Right turn to finish area. Wow... I'm there. Heard cheering and smell BBQ. Volunteer said "4-10th to finish". Cheering got louder. I so wanted to stop running. AdCo and em73 were at the entracce of the run end and gave me hi-5s. Ok... if I get there faster, I'd stop sooner. Legs, you understand that concept? Now get moving. Legs agreed. Saw spectators on both sides. I'm so relief. Heard my name - oh there are the BTers by finish line cheering for me. Wow... I'm finishing an Oly! Got carried away and instead of heading straight to the finish arc, I side-tracted to hi-5 all the BTers. Few more steps toward the arc. I FINISHED AN OLY!!!!

Train on longer distance run.

Eat a banana and 1/2 orange. Drank. Got hugs from BTers. Dealt with PITA by stretching out right hamstring. Waited for other BTers.

Saw PollyC coming in. Then Glen. Hey, Glen got is name announced as he come to the finish "approaching the finish line is number XXX Gleeeennnnn Rogerrrrrs". How come I didn't get my name announced? ;)


Don't know. This is my first oly.


It was a fun day. I viewed it a BT outing that started with a swim/bike/run event.
Oh yeah, TriMom217 present me (and OnTheRun) a "Tough Cookie" award. Heh... I'm one tough cookie! Thanks!!!