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Comments: Wave #8 and started around 7:30. Nestled my way towards the front of the group because that is where I like to start. I am not a fast swimmer, but I never really have people swimming over me, so I must be just fast enough to prevent that. Jumped in at the horn, swam like crazy. Not a ton of guys...maybe 30 in this wave, so there was very little contact and it made for a good swim. After seeing the results, I am kind of indifferent about this swim. I knew I might be a little slower than expected because I didn't wear a wetsuit, but also knew I'd save time in t1 because of it. However, I swam very hard, sighted perfectly and thought I would have had a much better time. In fact, based on my effort level, I knew I should have had a better time. Looking at some other people's times in the sprint, I don't see a lot of speed, so perhaps the course was long? Kinda strange. What would you do differently?: Swim even harder?  Transition 1
Comments: Bike was about 4 rows off the bike out which was outstanding. After being about a mile from bike out at Racine last week, this was a pleasant treat. I definitely wanted a fast transition so I made a concerted effort to be quick and efficient. Biggest time waster was putting on socks and bike shoes, but I am not one to have the shoes pre-clipped into pedals. So overall I am happy with my time.  Bike
Comments: In honor of both the final day of the Tour De France and the one year anniversary of me breaking my elbow from a fall from my bike, I dedicated this ride to both those events. My plan was to really give myself a good showing on the bike and be proud of the time. Went out like a bat of hell and was average mid 20's right out the gate. Almost immediately, I get passed by two guys in my age group and I am thinking, geeeeez....I suck. Didn't let that bother me too much as I focused on hammering as much as I could and tried not to let up. Did play cat-and-mouse with one guy in my AG for most of the ride. He would pass me and then 5 minutes later I would pass him. Must have done that a dozen times. It got old quickly, but I think I might have finished ahead of him towards the end when he seemed to slow down a bit. What would you do differently?: Not much. Very happy with my performance on the bike. Did not feel as worn out as I thought I would at this pace and it shows a real upside to my cycling progress that I knew was waiting to come out. Transition 2
Comments: Got off my bike at dismount and a very short run to my rack. That was nice. Biggest slowdown was getting my Garmin off the bike and onto my wrist. Thought about not taking the Garmin bc I still was wearing my regular watch (which I wore for the swim). What would you do differently?: Consider not taking the Garmin??  Run
Comments: Starting to get hot and was glad I wasn't doing the Oly distance today. A rather uneventful run in which I felt like I didn't put enough pain on myself. I finished comfortably, but there is still so much room for improvement in my runs. I was hoping for 7:30's today, but got 7:50's instead. Think I could have gotten 7:30's had I focused and pushed more, but things didn't work out that way. What would you do differently?: Push harder & run faster! Post race
Warm down: Great post-race spread. Had a fresh, huge turkey sandwich, pickles, pretzels, cookies, cola, beer (Delafield Brewery Amber...pretty good), and Gatorade Perform. After the food, jumped back in the lake to cool down. That was the best feeling ever. What limited your ability to perform faster: Overall, I am happy with this race and really proud of my bike time. We had to leave the race early, but I checked the results and saw I had a 1:18:35 which is a PR for me! In addition, I was shocked to see I finished 4th in AG. I left the race feeling really good about my performance. So proud of myself I bragged a little on FB about it. I also found out through FB from my good Donkey friend, KimK that one of the top 3 in my AG was wearing a wetsuit so he could not collect his place on the podium. You know what that means? I got my first (and probably only) podium finish. I am bummed that I wasn't there to enjoy it! Do you actually stand on a podium? MAN I would have eaten that up! Just very excited to say I finished on the podium! Thanks Kim for the great news and THANKS for picking up my hardware. I've never gotten hardware before! Event comments: I really liked this race and the venue. I do think the run route could/should be improved. If they could at least remove the weird, wooded trail area, that would be great. Last updated: 2011-07-06 12:00 AM
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United States
Race Day Events, LLC
85F / 29C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 32/
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 4/16
Up @ 4am with coffee, full bagel & one bananna. Was a little concerned about weather because it was lightning and raining pretty hard at home at 4am. Still loaded up the the car and headed out at 5am.
Transition hours are 6-6:45. I had not picked up my packet, so I also had to do this which was 5:30-6:30. We arrived at around 5:45 and they parked us in some remote lot in a field which was about a mile away. Was not expecting a mile walk with my bike and gear because last year the parking was very near the race.
Got to the race site to check in and get race packet and they told me I needed my drivers license. Realized I forgot my license back at the car because it is typically not something I carry to a race. At this point it is about 6:15 and I knew going back to the car to get the license would be cutting it close to race time, so I begged and pleaded with the race director without any luck.
Dug through my gear bag, found my bike shoes, jumped on bike & rode to car to get said license. Raced back to race site to find all the lines for packet pickup and check-in were dozens of people long. Waited in line and finally got packet, but no shirt because they had run out of larges. So I ask for xl, but they ran out of those as well. Got marked up, and got into transition right as it was closing (6:45).
I did discover that setting up your bike and gear in transition when you are the only one there is kind of nice. Plenty of room to move around. Very nice. Set everything up quickly and got out of there before the transition Nazi's physically removed me.
After finishing up in transition I discovered I was in a later wave, which was great because I needed some time to settle down. I heard that wetsuits were not being allowed for this race for those who wanted to place for awards. I did bring my wetsuit, but I had no intent on wearing it because I knew the water was going to be warm and I didn't want to waste time in t1 fighting to take the damn thing off. Just to clarify, the reason I did not wear a wetsuit had NOTHING to do with me wanting to insure I collect a top 3 AG finisher prize.
Finally settled down where I ran into my friend Leslie & her husband Jim. We talked for a while and Leslie had to go bc she was in an early wave. Also ran into swimmer-extrordinaire, Janet and we talked a bit. This was all good to help me relax from that annoying & hassled start.