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 Swim
Comments: I am pretty slowish on all three sports but I can swim forever. The thing about open water is that it makes me feel like I am not even moving. Fortunately the water was clearish, so I could see that I was moving along with everyone else. I really was unable to see the buoys when I sited so I just followed everyone else. The course was a triangle and the water was a perfect temp. 65. It rained a bit as we were swimming and that was actually kinda cool. Glad there was no thunder and lightening. What would you do differently?: I'd like to improve my speed. Always. I started toward the back but wished I'd moved forward a bit. Prolly what I did was best overall. I had very little contact with others. I'd planned to pee in my wetsuit but forgot too..  Transition 1
Comments: The race director gave me a high five as I exited the water and that was cool. I used a stripper for the first time and that was fantastic. I'd heard about it on BT and was glad I knew about this service. A lot of people went running right past . What would you do differently?: Not much. I just threw on my biking stuff and off I went. It was warm enough that I didn't need to add any clothing.  Bike
Comments: My average speed on my Garmin showed me ave 16-17. I had to stop a few times. The first was on the side of the road to run behind a tree and pee... after about 5 miles. I had to go so bad and couldn't wait until mile 28. Then the bag behind my seat became loose and I had to stop to secure that. There was a lot of traffic and that made me a bit nervous so I road more cautiously. On the way back the sun came out and I could feel my shoulders starting to bake. i stopped at the 50 mile marker and put on some sunscreen. What would you do differently?: I am pretty new to biking long distances so I guess doing more and bike more intervals in order to increase my speed. Transition 2
Comments: I texted my husband when I got back to transition and that took a minute.. I also needed to used the bathroom. What would you do differently?: Not much.. I put on my running shoes and hat. I forgot to put on my race number. It's the first time I didn't do it during the bike portion. I am glad that they were more relaxed and didn't make me go back to transition to get it. At this race it didn't seem to matter. The officials were pretty relaxed.  Run
Comments: Dispite my really slow pace, I actually ran the whole thing. Really slow, but steady. I met up with an older man running as slow as I and we pretty much did the course together. Chatting with him helped the miles melt by. We stopped at all the transitions and took full advantage of them. I doused myself with water each time. By that time the heat had set in and I could feel my body baking. I ate some banana, oranges, and drank some Heet, along with water. My tummy felt pretty good throughout. I had enough in the tank to pick up speed at the end. My husband and son met me 7 tenths of a mile from the finish and ran with me. that felt really great :=) What would you do differently?: I am not sure what to do about my super slow running pace. I have problems with my knee and my feet. Maybe this summer I will work on speed, but even if I improve, I'll still be BOP. So I am not going to worry about it. I was happy that I could keep running and never walked. Post race
Warm down: They had a fantastic post-race dinner that I had no appetite for. I was really glad to have my family there because I felt really nauseous on the way home. It was good to get TLC. What limited your ability to perform faster: I need to work on speed. I guess. I walked away from this race injury free though.. So I'll take that. Event comments: I only paid 75 dollars for this race. It was pretty organized overall but didn't have a party atmosphere, which was fine for me. I'm not into hoopla and like a more quiet relaxed scene. There was a great playground area that kept my son very occupied while he and my husband waited for me to finish the run. If it continues to be reasonably priced, I would do this race again next year. Last updated: 2012-10-24 12:00 AM
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United States
HITS Triathlon Series
83F / 28C
Sunny
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We drove to Ocala on Saturday earlyish in the day and went to Silver Springs Park. My 10 year old son enjoyed the experience of the glass bottom boat and the animals.The place looked pretty run down though. Most of the attractions were closed. It was a nice diversion though. Then we headed to the packet pickup. I missed the time change of the meeting and arrived when it was half over. There was only a hundred people there. Some people were swimming in the lake but I just didn't feel like it. Because it was a lake I didn't feel like an open water practice was all that necessary. I've done pretty well in lakes.
After we got the packet we went and checked into the motel. I was looking at all of the stickers and figuring out where everything went. there were about 8 of them. One for my bag, on for my wrist, two for my swim cap , my bike number, large number, and the race number tats. I put my tats on before I went to bed.
Son and i went into the pool while my husband studied, and we used the Jacuzzi, which felt great.
I went to bed around 11 and slept pretty good until 2 a.m. I woke up and worried about the weather.. Must have fell back asleep because when the alarm went off at 4 I was having a weird dream. Fortunately I'd laid everything out the night before, so I threw my clothes on grabbed my bag and off we went.
The forecast was rain, so I made my husband stop at a Walgreens to get some garbage bags for transition. We arrived at the event site at around 5:30 a.m. My son was zonked asleep in the car, so we pulled up unloaded my stuff, I pumped up my tires and gave the tire pump back to him. He left and went back to the hotel.
The transition area was very nice. There were a lot of no shows. 450 people signed up for the Half distance but there were only 304 that showed up, according to race results. I set everything up and hung around chatting with the people near me. They were so funny I got distracted. I put my wetsuit on backwards. lol.
When I realized I'd done this I pulled it off, and just then it started raining. I quickly covered everything with my garbage bags and put my gear bag inside one of them. I was really thankful for making that last minute purchase. I also gave one to the guy on one side of me. He's from Chicago and was very surprised that it was raining in Florida. He's doing IMWI this year and I am a bit jealous. I am from Madison and doing that event is my dream.
After I pulled off the wetsuit, we were all kicked out of transition and as I left I saw a bunch of people standing under a covered area. They were packed together so tight it looked like sardines. I felt bad for them a bit. I was glad I sent my husband back to the hotel.
The rain dissipated and we had to delay the start of the race for a bit because of the cloud cover. It was a cool site watching all of the race participants walking down toward the water in the near dark.. It was a mass start and we all waded out into the water to wait for the gun. Then we were off. :=)