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 Swim
Comments: This was an in-water start. Wade in up to waist level for the start line. I put myself in the second row, in the middle. Horn went off, and away we went. Some contact, but nothing bad. I was thrilled with my navigation -- straight down the bouy lines. Turns were tight, swim felt smooth, and overall was happy with it. Great start to the day. What would you do differently?: Maybe push the effort more. I was thinking I could do a sub-15 min swim on this, and when 16:05 showed on my watch when I hit the beach, I knew I could have been faster.  Transition 1
Comments: Transition was on a semi sandy/grassy area, and my feet were coated with sand, so I took a second to get that off before getting on my bike shoes. Ran with bike, and all seemed to go well, except I fubar'ed my first bike mount attemmpt, so I moved to the side, got on, and headed off What would you do differently?: Work on a good bike mount, I always seem to fumble on this.  Bike
Comments: I felt OK on this ride. The first half I did quite well, and passed lots of folks. One place I lost some time was on the turns. After my crash, I now go really slow when the course folks say "slow!". Learned that lesson! :). Don't know how the time is this high based on how I felt while riding. Thought I'd have come in more in the 36 min area, but guess not. What would you do differently?: Ride harder, but given the wet conditions, I didn't want to get too fancy. Saw a couple wipeouts so I took those as a sign of caution. Transition 2
Comments: Ran bike into transition, got to my rack, and there was a bike in my spot. wtf?? Why would someone do this??? Oh, wait, they didn't....I'm the next row over. D'oh! :)...Racked bike, shoes off, fumbled with socks on wet feet, shoes on, tied. Realize I still had my bike helmet on. Took that off, laughed about almost running out of T2 with it on, grabbed race belt, then headed out. What would you do differently?: Just about everything, lol. Don't know what was happening in my brain, but boy oh boy, what a mess this was.  Run
Comments: Went out of T2 feeling good. Went the first couple miles at a slow, but comfy pace. I was enjoying it quite a bit, as this was all part of my new 'have fun' attitude for the day. I've not run worth a darn the past 5 or 6 weeks, and wanted to just take it as it came on this one. I was moving at 9:30/40 pace which is pokey, even for me, but that was OK. Chatted with some folks along the way, thanked volunteers and police (everyone was enthusiastic and really positive). Somewhere around 2.5 miles I had my first right calf cramp. Stopped to stretch it out, then kept going. This would be a problem the rest of the race. At one point I stopped to stretch it, and it wouldn't release, so I just walked. During this time it occurred to me I had taken in nothing to drink at all all day. I had a coffee at breakfast, maybe some water, but after that, zippo, not even during the race. Not a good idea. Started running again, and could hear the finish in the distance, which is a nice motivator. Headed down a very croweded and enthusiastic finish chute, and crossed the finish line. Success! What would you do differently?: Run more, actually take in fluids at some point during the day. My run fitness is lousy, and I need to focus on it. Also, this was a bit of a ignoble run as I was DFL in my age group. A good motivator, no doubt. Post race
Warm down: Grabbed a water, then another. Was surprisingly thirsty. Had some fruit and grabbed some food at the expo. Found my coworked who had finished far faster than she expected, despite her nervousness. She said "Lets do this again, but next time an Oly!". :). She is also going bike shopping, too. What limited your ability to perform faster: Run fitness. If I'd been able to keep my normal 9:15 pace, and not cramp up, I'd have taken lots of minutes off this. Event comments: Overall it was a good day, as I stayed positive and met my primary goal of having fun. Feel like it changed my outlook on things, and gave me some confidence to get back at it. Glad I went and raced. Good times. Would do this race again, no doubt. Last updated: 2012-07-16 12:00 AM
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United States
Max Performance
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 285/505
Age Group = M45-49
Age Group Rank = 30/37
Up until 3 or 4 weeks ago, I hadn't thought about doing this race, but after a co-worked asked me to do it with her, I signed up. It was just my 3rd race of the year. I'd had a DNF (bike crash) at Patriot HIM in June, and while not obvious, I think it put me in a real tri funk for most of July. The whole "spend 5 months on something, and *poof* its gone in 3 seconds" thing. My training went to near zero, and I had hardly any motivation. So I went into this race with the attitue of just going out and doing it for fun, no expecations, just go enjoy myself. The distances on this were a bit of an odd-ball for a sprint, so I thought that would make it more interesting as well.
Up at 4. Dressed, breakfast, and chilled for a little bit before heading out on the 40 minute drive to the race. Had packed the car the night before knowing it may be raining on race morning. It was so I was happy about the pre-packing.
I was one of the first to arrive, and since it was raining, I sat in my car for a bit before needing to head over and pick up my packet, etc. The rain wasn't heavy, but a light steady rain which was enough to get everything quite wet. Rain stopped for good about 5 minutes before the race began
Did a bit of swimming, as the lake temp was 81 (!!) and I was going without a wetsuit. Felt good, and the water was like a bath.