login
 Swim
Comments: i completely and totally choked on the swim. I could NOT seem to remain calm while putting my head in the water to do what i've been practicing all the past 6 mos.. I'd done 2 OWS prior to this date and had overcome any -this is not clear pool water- anxieties... but today... whoa... i just couldn't get over it at ALL. the water was choppy too, so when I made the attempts and came up for air i was catching water and coughing... in the interest of time i gave up my freestyle attempt and did some whacko version of freestyle with my head out of the water 98% of the time. I did a little breaststroke 2x to allow my body to recover from the whackjob stroke i was doing. I swam the buoy great and my siting was excellent. this was just shy of a nightmare. What would you do differently?: Only do a tri w/ a pool swim? hahaha, jk No breastroke at all.. it wasn't necessary, i don't know why i tried it. I went from beating the rabbit to a 10 sec delay behind her. Several more OWS drills/practices. brown water and pool water are two completely different animals.  Transition 1
Comments: everything was laid out ready to go-- not sure why this transition took me so long. Nothing in particular stalled me except nerves & chatting w/ my neighbors... also felt like it was taking me forever to catch my breath from the horrendus swim. Consumed 1 accelerade gel -- tangy orange. the exit to mount area seemed like a long way to me. it was cool to see my family near the corner of the mount line What would you do differently?: really watch my time like a hawk and run faster w/ the bike to the mounting line. ie, no lolligagging. DRINK MORE WATER IN TRANSITION. DRINK MORE WATER IN PRE-RACE. -um not chat w/ some guy on my rack about how horrendus my swim was for oh say 30 seconds. dur wear a one piece tri suit. I wasted a lot of time in putting on a shirt and cycling shorts over my suit. Get used to my cycling shoes and use them.  Bike
Comments: Welcome to the world of dehydration. This is where my real trouble began. As soon as I was about 1/4 of the way up evans rd. (this = perhaps 1.5 to 2mi into the course) I started feeling like i was going to hurl, then COLD chills all over my arms, and slightly disorientation... a light breeze was making me cold but my face felt hotter than hot. Luckily a neon sign went on in my head that screamed out ... "DRINK and drink A LOT of water ASAP or your ass will be in the EMS truck on the corner". Thus, I drank... which probably saved me from heat stroke/exhaustion...etc. For the rest of the bike I alternated between feeling like i wanted to hurl.. and then .... praying that I wouldn't because I needed the fluid... I was amused that the USAT official watched me for i guess possible drafting? at not one, but two pts in the bike course. As IF! hehehe I had quite a variety of thoughts on the bike course. You vets will appreciate (giggle @) the following.... a summary of my bike course thoughts/stmts: "i'm going to vomit.. oh god.. no.... no no .... why did i drink that stupid orange juice this morning?... i can't die on evans rd ....who signs up for this sh*t? Oh wait... i signed up for this... remember you wanted to do this.. ok.. it's not that bad...i can do this... how much further... okay... _x_ more hills until this part is over and it's all downhill... don't overanalyze the course ... damn she passed me again! that b*t*h ... when did she pass me? ... ok it's me against me... forget about her...i can catch her if i just drill this hill... slow and steady wins the race...okay hammer time... oh god the breeze feels chilly again... i hope this downhill is over soon so i don't freeze. # of times the Lords Prayer was recited during the bike ??? = 3 . I heard some friends cheer when i dismounted but i was so focused and/or out of it i didn't have a clue who it was. lol. I passed some poor guy about 1 minute before the dismount line- greedy eh? lol. I needed to pass someone! haha What would you do differently?: Never..ever EVER ... drink OJ the morning of a tri. No braking the turns. drink only water on the bike not protein shake mixes More hill work goto the gym's cycling classes !regularly don't smile at the course photographer. yes i'm a dork! Transition 2
Comments: Okay. I had to pause for 3 ****** race participants who were finished....to get the ******** ****** out of my **** ******* way as I tried to begin my run. One of whom had her bike and was just casually walking it across the pathway. I think she should have been given a 2 min penalty for not getting the hell out of the way the first time the course volunteer yelled at her. This was not cool at all... and I too yelled at her to "Get the **** out of my way" ... along w/ the course official. She wasn't doing it intentionally, but was just not paying any attn. to what she was doing... and kind of ignored the course person. This alone sucked up 30 seconds on my T2 time.GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! What would you do differently?: remember this isn't break time, only change time guzzled some water wear a tri suit -um not chat w/ some guy on my rack about my bike segment for oh say 30 seconds. dur  Run
Comments: When starting the run I had a nasty cramp deep on the right side... all i could think of was the stupid mt. dew or oj i'd had earlier as a cause.. or else it was just another dehydration thing. Needless to say i didn't much start the run out running. I (somewhat) ran from transition to the road and then wlkd it out. I tried to limit the walk to 1 min but my body said.. "keep walking this out". About 2min in my fellow newbie pal Danijela breezed by and waved @ me to run with her but i just couldn't--the tank was near E and i was crampy. i wish i could have because the rabbit i'd been chasing the entire race would have been behind me! Wow so, at this stage of the race I was watching my watch like a hawk, hoping i could finish in a reasonable pd of time ... and/or that they wouldn't pull me from the course. i did a LOT of walking. Probably 10min worth at least. the funny part: about mi 1.75, I thought I heard a familiar voice yell to me... "pick up your legs... you can do it "... but I didn't actually see my run coach, so I asked the course guy "was that ________ ?yelling at me?".. he said "who?"...and I said.. "was there a nigerian man back there yelling at me or am I hallucinating?". Luckily he said yes.. lol. My run coach appeared and fussed me into a better pace for the last 2 loops. I'm so glad he was there. I drank a lot of water on the run course because I had to... would be better to drink more on the bike in the future so I don't *have to* next time. I'm so ashamed of my time... it's nothing short of pathetic. Worst 5k time ever. It won't happen again! I'm proud of sticking it out. The run course seemed to fly by in my mind... like i was wlkg/running on air after the cramp wore off. I really got into the endurance part of the event @ this stage... much positive self talk. I busted a smile before i rounded the last corner to the finish line; i wanted to cry tears of joy when i saw the finish line, but i was too dehydrated to bust out a single tear ... hmm.. just like childbirth! :) What would you do differently?: No walking; or if i had to for recovery purposes limit any walking to 1 min. max caught that rabbit and made her eat my dust... train w/ more hills train more outdoors- make treadmill training a rarity Post race
Warm down: As if? ... Standing still under the tent & talking while rehydrating? 1/2 mi walk to the car; walk... after that some stretching at the car for about 15 min. rest for 10.... then more stretching. Tried for a massage but they were booked til end time.. + exhausted from the heat What limited your ability to perform faster: LACK OF FLUIDS LACK OF GETTING ENOUGH REST THE DAY BEFORE Lack of: OWS practice, TIMED transition practice, consistently good- disciplined- nutrition all year. extra weight! :( Event comments: I think the hot and humid temps thwarted anything that Setup could have sched'd as a post-race activity. Most people were hitting the road as they or their loved one was finished. I APPLAUD the volunteers and course officials. They were excellent!!! In just having made the transition from tri-enthusiast to triathlete...i had underestimated the importance of volunteer-cheers for the psyche during an endurance event... they really kept me going sometimes !!! :) also having my family & friends supporting me on the course to cheer me on was priceless! XOXOXO. Overall, what a ride. 3mos base training, 3mos. real training, plagued by Mono, childcare woes, the loss of my job, and the loss of my grandmother. Under the circumstances I should of had a nervous breakdown, but instead the stress and/or grief was funnelled into training. I'm so happy I had tri-training to turn to instead of a negative outlet. I'm proud that I completed the course and maybe a moderate course was a bit of an agressive pursuit for a beginner to select as a first race, but what the heck... that's me! I'm a little bummed out about the times, and where I placed, but under the circumstances I think I did okay for a first race. Nothing to do but improve from here. Profile Album Last updated: 2007-04-25 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
Set-Up, Inc.
91F / 33C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 213/215
Age Group = novice women
Age Group Rank = 0/27
(NOTICE! i'm chatty, this is my first tri, & first rr...it's long, but it's funny with a happy ending if you read it all--it's guaranteed to make you :) please excuse the foul language too)
AKA: where i truly went wrong.
Alarm set for 4:45, snoozed it until 5:20. This was a dumb move. Should have gotten up and out the door EARLIER! Put stuff and bike in the Jeep. Actually left arnd 6:10. No clue why it took me this long!
Hugged my mom-thanked her for helping me out and kissed my bebe-kins goodbye.
Consumed 8oz. of mt dew for the caffeine and sugar to get things going; sipped 10oz of 1/2 oj-1/2 water during the drive to the race site; ate 1 365 blueberry/oatmeal brkfst bar & 1 small banana (thanks mom). I had two bars i wanted to eat, but was too nervous to eat more than one.
**************************************************
*Geez... what's missing here... oh yeah... water.*
**************************************************
BLASTED a few fave songs extra LOUD on the drive in (Jane's addiction-"Just Because", some song on a gospel station that seemed lively and had positive lyrics, Maroon 5 "Makes Me Wonder", & some other stuff i can't remember.
Required: singing along loudly, open windows, yelling "WOOOO" or WooooHOOOO" a lot, in-seat dancing, & yelling out random positive self talk/encouraging quotes. One HOOTY HOOOO was yelled, just for the heck of it. sounds pretty sacreligious eh? lol.
Saw Keith/kapinto @ bodymarking--who said to me "It's a great day to *become* a triathlete"... this made me smile and the positive phrase echoed in my mind throughout the race! Thanks Keith!!!! :)
Saw Wade/Nuthouse, prerace ... he had the game face going early!
Saw Ed/Ellasdad-somewhere on the run course i think? lol. thanks for the cheers!
Bike walk-in, 1/2 mi.--realizing along the way it was a pretty muggy hot day, but there was a light breeze. dumped things in bike transition spot; walked over to pick up my timing chip--accidentally got in the potty line thinking it was the line for chip pick up--durr! wasting about 5-10 min. Returned to bike transition to lay out my things-- realized my bike was on the wrg side of the rack--changed everything arnd again. Luckily no one showed up on either side of my rack slot so I had a lot of space for my stuff -- OR perhaps they moved their bikes somewhere closer to the exit to save time...anyways I did not realize they would kick everyone out of the bike transition area at 7:20...(they should warn newbies about these things)! yikes... so i crammed big time to get outta there; in fact the officials were walking arnd yelling to all ... "it's 7:22 now... no one should be in here except relay racers, we've already let you stay late, now GO".. how lovely, good morning to you too.
At this point I remembered i needed to pee... so off I went to stand in the super long port-o-potty line. I then was forced to do the unthinkable... enter a port-o-potty...gulp, BAREFOOT!.. EWWWWWWW. Luckily it looked clean-- i tried HARD not to think about the cooties that may be arnd me. I am a hand-sanitizer carrying chick... this was so so so nasty to me! I did not want to go into that thing shoeless. Whaddeva, I made deposits to chkg and savings and got outta there.
I then stood ashore watching a few groups do their swim while talking to a new friend for several min??? I was super nervous and this kind of calmed me... I guess I should have um been warming up... but I was taking in the logistics of the swim. Noted that finishing on the far left was bad news... as the water was super shallow there and people got stuck walking/dolphining back to ctr so they could actually exit the water in the right place. I was under the impression i should conserve all the energy i could? so kept my warmup quite brief-- did a 2min super slow swim in the waiting area of the water...i could tell then i was having a little dark-water panic... and the water was choppy. I sure as he** should have been drinking water all of this time.