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 Swim
Comments: Outside of the black sludge making it so I could hardly see anything even my hands as they went into the water the swim actually went well. It seemed like it took a while to get to the first buoy and I did have some decent contact in the first couple hundred yards but then I found some open water and was able to settle in and find a rhythm. At one point on the way out to the first turn buoy Dory popped into my head and told me "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" nothing like a little finding nemo character to make you want to keep moving. Once I hit the first turn buoy the water became a tad more clear and I felt like I was moving along well. As I was almost finished with the backside stretch I realized that I had to pee and bad, it's a lake so I have no problems peeing in it, but I can't pee while actually doing something so after I rounded the the last buoy I stopped and treaded water and I was able to pee - huge relief. The last piece into the beach flew by. Next thing I knew I was walking out of the water. What would you do differently?: I really can't complain - my swim training has been minimal in the last 3-4 months due to life obligations, changing circumstances etc. and while I haven't had a lot of swim training this time is consistent with last year's half time so apparently I have a pretty good base.  Transition 1
Comments: Ha! WTH was I doing? OK in fairness it was a long run from the beach into transition. I didn't feel like a stripper so I skipped it - this was more about the whole lying down on the sandy mats and getting sand in places where I really didn't want sand so I skipped the strippers - maybe I shouldn't have. When I got to my rack I apparently took my sweet time. I looked up and saw Bananatoes and yelled "Way to go Bananatoes" Thanks for the cheesy grin and salute - it made me laugh. What would you do differently?: Go faster duh.  Bike
Comments: The bike course aside from some rough roads in and out of the park was actually pretty nice. I know some people had some bad experiences with traffic cops not stopping traffic but luckily that didn't happen to me. I headed out of the park and I had to pee within the first couple miles (go figure) I was flying for the first 15 miles so I could get to the porta potty at the first aid station. I know that it is apparently acceptable in the sport to pee on the bike but eewwww that ain't happening. Even if I wanted to I never would have been able to. Once I was able to relieve my bladder the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. The first 30 miles flew and it was perfect biking conditions. Not too hot, not too cool. I talked to everyone that passed me and everyone that I passed and just made a day of it. I was not really excited about the bike portion heading into the race because let's face it I am WAY DOWN on bike volume for the year. I basically had five sprint tris, a couple of spin classes, 2 20 mile rides and one 45 mile ride under my belt this year so I was actually dreading this ride. In the end though, I was actually very surprised that it was not painful and actually seemed to go by pretty quickly. My split was only 9 minutes slower than my split last year and the split included a 2.5 minute stop at the porta potty at mile 15 (I had to wait in line). I have nothing to complain about and actually am relatively pleased with my performance given my lack of preparation for this. What would you do differently?: I dunno, maybe try biking more. Transition 2
Comments: Uh, yeah, what was I doing here. Oh yeah, I had to take time to put socks on, I bike sockless but for a run longer than a 10K I need socks (I learned that lesson the hard way last summer), oh and I had to pee again - have we notices a theme yet? What would you do differently?: Go Faster.  Run
Comments: And this is where I blew up. Actually, it wasn't so much that I blew up, it's just it is what it is right now. In the last two months I have really lost my running mojo and have had a hard time holding anything sub 10 minute miles - this was no different. I got out of the park and made a friend, she and I chatted for a while until I caught up with Aysel at mile 4 who I tried to drag along with me but she was experiencing knee issues and said she had to walk. I went on ahead and was able to maintain my strategy of run the course, walk the aid stations until around mile 8, then I sort of lost it mentally, I was ready to be done and I was getting extremely annoyed with having to run up and down the streets that served as fingers to the loop. When I hit the third finger, I was thinking are you freaking kidding me? After mile 8 I started to walk in between aid stations, not a whole lot, but enough that I was disappointed in myself. The thing is, I walked because of my head, I didn't have the mental equipment on this run that I needed, my body was tired but I had plenty of gas left to finish it running it was just like I didn't want it bad enough - that was kind of disappointing. What would you do differently?: I don't know what's going on between me and the run right now, like I said it's been this way for the last couple of months, I don't know if it is my mental resolve and being terrified of running my first full marathon at the end of October or what - ehh whatever, because this was a new course, it is a course PR and one that I think I could probably beat with a little more work next year. Post race
Warm down: After running through the chute and getting my swag I saw DT and bananatoes and talked with them for a few minutes. I ended up sitting with B-toes in the food pavilion with an eye on the finishing chute so I could watch and cheer Kate and Runningflyr as the finished. I met Runningflyr at the finishers chute and picked up a muscle milk and headed over to the food pavilion with him - I got food but took only two bites, I really wasn't hungry and the food was Eww Blech. What limited your ability to perform faster: Life mitigating my training time - so LACK OF TRAINING. Overall though, I am pretty pleased with this result given the fact that I was way less prepared for this distance this year as opposed to last year. it's nice to know that I can still do it, my base is there and should I be able to dedicate more time to training over the winter and next season I'll be back to where I was in no time. Event comments: Rev3 is a great company - what they did to honor 9/11 was awesome and their coordination with RWB was phenomenal. The bike course roads in and out of the park sucked - but that's not their fault. Everything they did was great except for the post race food - that was BAD. But really everything else was great. Last updated: 2011-08-14 12:00 AM
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United States
REVOLUTION3 Triathlon
70sF / 0C
Sunny
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = Chicks 30-34
Age Group Rank = 0/
Runningflyr and I left the Burg on Friday night and drove to Gambier with my fraggle in toe since he would be staying with Grammy and Papa for the weekend while we went and raced. We got on the road to Sandusky by 9:15ish Saturday morning and after a stop for breakfast at our favorite joint in the Vern ended up arriving at CP a little after noon. We went straight to the Breakers and got checked in, hauled all our gear into the room and then decided to head over to check in. To our surprise and my great dismay the boardwalk did not take us all the way down to the expo/check-in area so we had to carry our bikes across the sand for a nice little distance (read: I was not happy). We got checked in and then headed to the expo and met Brittany (TexasMPGal) and Hayley (Comet) at the Team RWB booth. It was great to meet both of them. We tooled around at the expo, got in the Team RWB team pic and then attended the athlete meeting. Post meeting we met up with Aysel and DT aka Mr Cyclist and Bananatoes. We left the expo and all headed to dinner where we had to wait an ungodly amount of time but the dinner was good and we even ran into Robin (sungirl919).
Woke up around 6:15ish, downed two frosted strawberry poptarts and a cliff bar and then headed over to transition. Got to transition with plenty of time, got everything set up. Bananatoes found us and asked if we had sunscreen - that was funny - and then walked with Runningflyr to the swim start area. I was trying to avoid a warm up swim as the warm-up area was laiden with black sludge that came up to me knees, I have a comment for what it looked and smelled like but I shall refrain, in any case I couldn't avoid it because I really needed to warm up my wetsuit. You should notice that I have made no comments or references to that sacred pre-race poo that boys always talk about - that's because girls don't poo, just sayin. Anyway, got though the sludge and actually swam a few strokes, the water was cooler than what I had anticipated so I was glad that I had the chance to get in and wait a few strokes. After the warm up swim I stood on the beach with everyone until it was time to go.