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 Swim
Comments: Trudy was sending everyone off in 10 second intervals and this was the absolute best idea ever! Running into the water worked really well, and right from the first couple of strokes, the swim felt great. The water was the perfect temperature, I was feeling strong, my stroke was feeling smooth, and it seemed like I was passing a bunch of people ahead of me! Wheeee! What would you do differently?: Nothing really, it felt awesome!  Transition 1
Comments: 2 minutes? What the heck was I DOING in there? I didn't even have a wetsuit to try and struggle out of! What would you do differently?: Figure out what the heck I was doing in there for 2 minutes? People getting out of wetsuits were faster than I was for Pete's sake!  Bike
Comments: I don't have a whole lot to say here, other than I really need to ride more. And ride more hills. I do this every single time... go too hard, cook myself and have nothing left for the run. The problem is that I just have so much fun on the bike! I say hi to everyone that passes me (there were a lot) or that I pass (not nearly as many), I thank all of the volunteers that I come across, I thank all of the police officers for their traffic control work, I say hi to anyone spectating and wave at the kids that wave at me... I told one couple that I was jealous of their coffee, which was so insanely true at that moment. I really like bike riding, but I really need to put more effort into my training rides, otherwise I'm just not going to get any better. FYI - downhills are so much fun! The wind flying by you, the thought that you can go as fast as the wind, and the safety to snot rocket and hopefully not hit yourself. :) What would you do differently?: Two things... one is that I definitely didn't drink enough water on this ride. I've found that if I don't have an aero bottle on the bike, I tend not to drink enough - for some reason I forget that I have a bottle on the down tube. How do I do that? Anyways, the other thing I probably should have done since I had no breakfast and nothing right before the swim was to make sure that there was something in my bento box, but I knew that I had had my last Gu on the last long ride that I did and just forgot to put anything else in there. DUMB! Transition 2
Comments: I'm not so unhappy with this, but I still don't know what's taking me so long in transition. Actually, by the time that I got my bike to T2, the bike racks were collapsing and it took my brain a moment to realize that I was going to have to kind of wedge my bike in there. So, my foggy brain needed a moment to figure that out. What would you do differently?: Meh, not much.  Run
Comments: OMG I HATE RUNNING!!! Okay, I've got that out of my system. So, I get out onto the run and start gettin' my slow-ass run on and I just can't get my breathing to get into any sort of rhythm, or to get my heart rate to come down to something reasonable. Bah! Before the race I had decided to stick with my usual run method of 4min run/1min walk... and I couldn't wait for that first walk break. The second run comes along and before I'm finished I see the sign for 1 mile! Right on! I've made it one mile! Oh crap. That means I've got 3 more to go. Blargh. This is where my vastus medialus muscles on BOTH legs start to cramp. This has been an ongoing problem for me for years, and I was hoping that because I had really been trying to run more and follow my training plan that it wouldn't happen this time. Nope, not so much. So, I walked more and not *too* much after my 4th walk break I saw the marker for mile 2. YAY! I'm half way! Aw f**k. I'm only half way. Mile 2 had an uphill to the turn around and there was a water stop where I grabbed 2 waters, drank one and poured the other one on me and started down the hill. I have a few moments where I'm not sure I'm going to keep even water down, but I keep going, cuz all I really have to do is keep going and eventually I'll get to the finish line, right? Ugh - this is just getting more and more painful, but somehow I still manage to put one foot in front of the other, and some of the steps were more than a shuffling walk! Just as get to the little space between miles 2 and 3 I see Whizzz! Oh what a boost of happiness! I raise my arms in salute and we run into the middle of the road and give each other a great big sweaty hug. That was such great timing on her part! Just after the 3 mile mark was another water stop and the kids were just chucking cups of water on people - AWESOME! It put a huge smile on the kids' faces to know that they could throw water on people and not get in trouble. The final turn to the finish line and I can FINALLY hear the announcer... almost there! I just keep trudging along and looking at my watch, I realize that I can finish the 4 miles in under 40 minutes! Not much under 40 minutes, but I didn't care! Lookit me go! What would you do differently?: Run more? Get leg transplants? Hire someone super fast and strong to piggy-back me? Fine, fine... I know I need to run more. Even if running is clearly the devil's handiwork. ;) Post race
Warm down: Got stretched by the massage people on-hand, which was awesome - also used the stick on myself while I was waiting for Laura and Tony. Grabbed a 1/2 a sandwich from Jimmy Johns, some grapes, a couple of strawberries and stood around waiting for the awards. Once those were done, we went to go grab our bikes and bags. I notice that the seat on my bike is somehow loose and as I'm looking in my bento box for the allan key that usually fits everything... I find a Gu. Seriously? I love being smart, it's fantastic. What limited your ability to perform faster: In general, the fact that I'm not faster. Event comments: I had such a great time at this race! I'll definitely do it again next year. And hopefully be faster. :) Last updated: 2013-05-30 12:00 AM
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United States
Lake in the Hills Parks & Recreation Dept.
24C / 75F
Sunny
Overall Rank = 180/308
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 8/17
Tony and I picked up the Zipcar (Chevy Volt - which we thought was pretty cool and that we were going to be doing our part to be all environmentally friendly and shit until he picked it up at 4pm and... there was no charge. So no only could we not be environmentally friendly and shit, we were actually going to use MORE gas because of having no battery, and no way to charge it - awesome) and got on the road by about 4:30pm after playing tetris with the bikes and bags and such and started the drive to St. Charles to go stay with Chris (CoreDump) and Laura (the one and only Whizzz) the night before the race.
The drive was supremely uneventful though I must say that I'm an awesome navigator and we didn't get lost once. Thank you, Google maps!
We got to the CoreWhizzzes (WhizzzCores?) and though Chris really wanted to cook, it was soon discovered that the amount of food available probably wasn't going to cut it, so off to a local restaurant we go! (Well, off we went AFTER having a glass or two of wine. Okay, it was two.) The waitress was so nice, and kept telling us what great choices we had made... believe me, this is an important piece of information later on. So I had the crab cakes which were amazing (and I should have stopped eating after 2, but there was a third one sitting there, just LOOKING at me and so I had to eat it. Along with the homemade corn bread. We were done. Completely done... and THEN the seemingly innocent and nice waitress comes back and mentions things like beignets and chocolate lava cake. And says in her nice voice, would you like A beignet? They're so good - and my favourite! Well, Tony's a chocoholic so went for the lava cake while the other 3 of us thought a beignet? Sounds delish! Well... let me tell you... that "innocent", "nice" waitress was entirely evil!! It wasn't just A beignet per order... there were FOUR! Covered in yummy caramel sauce! And delicious ice cream! And whipped cream! And they were LOOKING at me so I HAD to eat all of them! Oh dear God I wish I had worn stretchy pants.
We eventually came down off the sugar high and realized that we should go to bed as 4am was going to come around VERY quickly. Which it did.
Up at 4am and somehow wedged myself into the bottom half of my onesie (gimme a break, I haven't done laundry all week and this was the ONLY thing I had left with any sort of bike pad to give some measure of comfort to the important bits), put on the stretchy pants, long-sleeved shirt and wandered out into the kitchen to see the Parkers had made coffee. I LOVE THE PARKERS!! Funny enough, I had absolutely NO desire to eat anything, but was seriously hoping that the coffee would help move things along, if you know what I mean. Sadly, the coffee didn't do much and Chris was chomping at the bit to get going which is understandable as we had a 45 minute drive ahead of us, we still needed to pick up race packets, and he was in the first wave at 6:30am.
Off we go following the Parkers and got to the Costco parking lot (after a pit stop at a gas station to pick up a 5hr Energy and try to "move" out some of last night's dinner... still with no love... oh and I had forgotten my sunglasses at home (smacks forehead) so picked up an awesome pair of $8.00 specials) with a fair amount of time to not completely panic. According to the race email, the packet pick-up was also supposed to be in the Costco parking lot, but we didn't see it and needed to get going as we had to ride to T2 (about a mile away? Psh - I have no idea, I don't know miles!), drop off our running gear and then ride to T1 (also a mile away?) to drop off our bikes and get into the water.. Chris took off on his bike as he was in the first wave, leaving the 3 of us to finish getting ready.
Moment of truth... would the onesie actually fit after not wearing it for over a year... and after that monstrous dinner the night before (damn waitress!)? After a deep breath and a minor struggle of which I won't get into too much description as it involved hopping around like a deranged bunny, I got the zipper up! It was a tad *ahem* snug in places we also won't mention, but as that was my only option, it's what I had to go with.
We mount our trusty steeds and get going to T2 to start the process and we're more than 3/4 there when we see Chris coming towards us and he does NOT look happy. Packet pick-up was indeed back at the parking lot, we just missed it. UGH!!! Okay, so we turn around and ride BACK to the parking lot, get our packets, then have to ride back to T2, then to T1, and set up transition. It took me what felt like the longest time to set up my transition because I couldn't find my bike shoes!!! Oh crap... where the HELL are my bike shoes??? Oh, they're on my feet. :)
I will consider the above bike riding to be my warm-up as by the time we got to the lake all I had time to do was dip my feet into the water to confirm what Laura told me - you don't need no stinkin' wet suit - and then it was time to line up!
Time for my first race of the year! WOOT!