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 Swim
Comments: Daaaaang. I made a total rookie mistake here. Note to self - when your gut says, "hm...I'm thinking this is a bad place to seed myself," MOVE. The first 100 meters was a total meat grinder for me. I got boxed in between two other women. There was a woman behind me that was stroking down onto the backs of my legs, and pushing them under with every stroke. Ugh. I actually breast-stroked around the first buouy, which let me use that as a chance to get OUT of the meat grinder. I got to the shore-side edge of the pack and finally started to get comfortable. Hugged the edge fairly closely, rounded the final buouy and had a great part of the swim. Got some drafting off of someone in front of me, registered the fact that there was nothing on shore to sight off of, so trusted the person in front of me to be sighting off the people in front of her, put my head down and swam. That helped get my already jacked heart rate under control a bit. What would you do differently?: Seed myself on the outside. Or the inside. Anywhere other than the second row of the middle of the pack.  Transition 1
Comments: Fastest. In. Age. Group. What would you do differently?: Seriously - I think I have this transition thing figured out.  Bike
Comments: Considering the conditions, I'm really happy with this ride. It was pouring through most of the ride. Consequently, the turns and cornering were slow, slow, slow. About half way through the ride I realized that shifting was becoming somewhat cumbersome. And, picking up my water bottle was also becoming a bit of a chore. Oh yah, that's right - it's cause my fingers were frozen. And numb. Feet were, too - but more about that later. I kept waiting for AmyJo to catch me. At the turn around (which is where there were about 5 miles left) I saw that she was pretty close behind me. Fuck! So, I hammered a little harder. (I so didn't want her to catch me.) I passed a few people that had passed me earlier. Yay! I turned the corner back to the park and saw my hubbie and the Craigster and his friend. Got an EEeaaaww and that gave me a little boost for the finish. I realized that with how wet and slippery it was, and how numb my feet were there was no way that I was going to be able to dismount and run in bike shoes. So, I used the final downhill to get my feet out of the shoes and pedal on top of the shoes. I managed a flying dismount and only felt a little bizarre running on bare feet that I couldn't feel. What would you do differently?: Not much. I don't ride hard very often. If I spent more time riding hard I might actually get faster on the bike. But, this is probably all I can hope for. Oh, and my heart rate was jacked through this whole ride. Normally, I'd say I should avoid that next time. But, it seemed to work for me this race.... Transition 2
Comments: Fastest. In. Age. Group. (Third fastest woman overall.) So, remember how cold that ride was? I do. And, my hands and feet did about at this point. They were both numb. Getting my helmet unclipped was a bit...interesting. I knew that getting socks on numb, soaking wet feet, with numb, soaking wet hands was really not going to work. So, I said, screw it and just pulled on the shoes, grabbed the race belt and ran. Someone was telling me they loved the donkey as I was crossing the timing mat. No clue who that was. Various donkai gave me shout outs as I started the run. I know I heard Tracy and Davey and I think maybe Peter? Not entirely sure. I was focused. What would you do differently?: I would magically make the race the perfect temperature. Yep, that's what Id' do.  Run
Comments: Fastest. 5k. Ever. Seriously, this blew my freakin' mind. It also happened to be the fastest in my age group, though I find that less amazing because I know that lots of women can do a 5k faster than this, just apparently not today. I was breathing hard through the whole thing. I saw Pam and Webs coming back. I managed to get an Eeeaaww out to each of them. Normally, on the run, I'm giving lots of the slow folks encouragement. But, not today. I could barely get a word out at a time. Heart rate was jacked, and I was leaving it all out there. I realized I was gaining on BunnyT at about the 1/2 point. I stalked him for a few hundred yards and then passed him, encouraging him to follow the carrot. At some point I looked at my watch and it vaguely registered that I might be doing sub-8's. But, I hadn't gone anaerobic, so I just kept pushing. I thought, I'm not going to have any kick left. But, as I came down the hill and headed for home, there was a serious donkai party going on. Screaming, flag-waving, eeeaaawing, and perhaps even some bull horn action - and I somehow found another gear. I kicked it in to the end. I'm SURE any finish line pics are gonna be ugly. But, who cares. What would you do differently?: Socks would have been helpful. When all was said and done, I realized my shoe was all bloody. Yum. Blister-ville on the back of my ankle. But, I'll heal, and now I can say I'm truly donkey - racing with an injury, right? Oh, and more of that magic from above would be helpful. My feet were so frozen that I swore I'd left one of my socks in my shoe. I hadn't - but apparently running on frozen feet makes it feel that way. Yeeeuch. Post race
Warm down: I grabbed a bottle of water and headed over to the donkai crowd. I got a hug from my hubby, slammed some water, and then ran back to run in AmyJo and Jen. I don't think AmyJo appreciated it, at least I wasn't able to get that donkey butt of hers to move any faster - at least until Jen decided to try to beat her. Turns out they tied. I got my stuff from Tracy (thanks!) and got out of my bloody shoes and threw on some more clothes. I grabbed my burrito, inhaled it, and bailed. I had other stuff to get to. Sorry I didn't stick around for lots o' good byes and such. What limited your ability to perform faster: Bad swim and general lack of bike fitness still. If I could get my biking up a little more, I could do something at this sprint distance tri stuff.... Event comments: As usual, this race was loads of fun. It's becoming a true donkey tradition. Oh yah. Last updated: 2009-05-08 12:00 AM
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United States
Lake Mills Triathlon
55F / 13C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 233/595
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 7/20
As per usual, I got next to no sleep. I checked the clock over and over. I finally gave up on the sleep at about 4:20. My parents were sleeping over, on a mattress in the living room... so I tried to be very very quiet while I ate a bowl of shredded wheat and checked the weather. Of course, I managed to drop a water bottle, make a door squeak, and generally be a "bull in a china shop" (in my Dad's words). Finally got everything together, got a "good luck" from the folks, and hit the road at about 4:55.
Pulled into the parking lot next to SGoehner. Gave him an Eeeaawwww, got my stuff together (waaaaay faster than he did....hm....foreshadowing for transitions?), and rode down to transition. Racked my bike by the handlebars in the sweet end spot, while some other chica got a racking lesson from a volunteer across from me. He was telling her that you are supposed to rack by the seat. She kind of looked at me, and I said, "I'm turning it around - I just have my hands full at the moment." I set down all my crap, pick up my bike to turn it around and she slides her bike under mine into the end spot while I'm turning mine around. Holy crap - what a way to start the day. I gave her a little Karmic curse and moved my bike down to the next spot and got set up.
I spent the rest of the pre-race time chatting with other donkai. Thanks so much to Tracy for becoming my sherpa. I got to wear clothes over my wetsuit right up until warm up time.
Finally stripped down to the wetsuit and got into the water. It was definitely chilly. But, once I got my face in, I was fine. So, I swam around a bit trying to get loose after far too much shivering. Stayed in the water until I had to be "on-deck" for my wave.