Swim
Comments: The race director said the water was too cold - which was BS - it was about 54 degrees which is fine in a wetsuit. I even went in the day before without a wetsuit! The elite race still held the swim - I tried to get into that race instead, but the RD said it was too late. Bummer - I would have most likely qualified for my elite card. Oh well. Transition 1
Comments: All this was was running over the timing mat with my bike shoes and helmet already on and running to my bike. Unfortunately I forgot to turn my Garmin on before the start so missed the first few minutes of data and lost a couple of seconds fiddling with that while on the bike. What would you do differently?: Turn on my Garmin before the race Bike
Comments: Since they cancelled the swim I decided to treat this race like a bike TT with a 5 mile run tacked onto the end. My legs were sore from doing water entry/exits yesterday -why did I think that was a good idea at the time? But, once I got moving I felt OK, but a little flat. They had the women go last and I started towards the front of the women's pack. I quickly passed most of the women right out of transition and a few men having trouble getting on their bikes. I got into a good groove and by the first U-turn I could see that I had about a 20 sec gap on the next female. By the second U turn I had built the lead up to about 30 sec. On the second lap I pushed the first 2/3rds then after the last U-turn took it easy going downhill and into T2 to set up for the run. I tried to take a couple of sips of water every 5 min on the bike. What would you do differently?: Not much Transition 2
Comments: Loosened my shoes before hoping off the bike, but kept them on while I ran into transition. Popped them off, took off my helmet and got my shoes on. Grabbed my hat and headed out of transition. What would you do differently?: re-learn how to get on/off the bike with shoes on the bike. Run
Comments: When I got off the bike my calves felt like they were going to explode since they were tight from all the water exit/entry drills from yesterday. It didn't help that the first 1/2 mile was in sand either. Luckily they started to loosen up by the time I hit the dirt trail but my gait still didn't feel as good as it should. Breathing was good - no asthma issues. I do remember thinking there should have been more water stops - I think there were only 2 which didn't seem like a lot. There were a fair amount of people who actually brought water bottles with them on the run - though that was a bit much but would have liked at least 1 more water stop. I also felt like I held back a little too much on the run - I had too much left at the finish. What would you do differently?: Go a little harder and not do something that makes me sore the day before a race. Post race
Warm down: Chatted with people - the gal who was just behind me on the bike...she passed me on the run was really nice - turns out she is really speedy - just over 10 hours at IMAZ! What limited your ability to perform faster: Still gaining confidence on the run. Having the swim would have been nice too. While I liked the trail/sand run course I would have gone faster on pavement. Event comments: I was not that impressed with the organization of this race. 1 - they should have held the swim. 2. There should have been more water stations. 3. There was supposed to be an elite wave and a prize purse and there wasn't. 4. They didn't allow people to transfer to the elite race in the afternoon. 5. Awards and results were messed up at first. I would do this race again if I was heading down to FLA for a training camp during the same time period, however I don't think I would just come down for the race. I wanted to go to race against elites and see how I matched up against them on the swim and the bike and unfortunately that did not happen. Last updated: 2010-02-23 12:00 AM
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United States
NTC
65F / 18C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 4/
Age Group = W30-34
Age Group Rank = 1/
Woke up at 6 AM. Ate a banana, eggs and some oatmeal and OJ. Then went back to bed till 7:30. Had some tea before I left the hotel around 8:15. Got to the race site about 8:30, checked in, set up then did my WU.
10 min WU run on the first section of the run coarse which was very sandy. Then did about a 20 min bike on a portion of the course. Had about 15 -20 min before I started the race