Barb's Race - Triathlon

My time was about what I expected. They said that the current usually adds a minute or two onto your time.

I am not good at swimming in groups, I kept getting kicked in the face and crashing into people. I need to get better at this, because I certainly could have swam faster if I weren't spending so much time trying to navigate around people!

I did well getting dried off and into my shoes, but I also wanted to eat a little bit of solid food here, so I took my time eating a pretzel roll as I walked my bike up the hill to start and I think this was helpful for me. It only added on about a minute, but it was a nice treat for me.

Nothing, I enjoyed taking my time a bit here and getting some solid food in me.

I felt great about my bike pacing and nutrition. It's a beautiful hilly course and I enjoyed the whole ride!

I'm not sure that I would have done anything differently, though as the ride was ending the temps were really climbing and I could feel my body temp rising -- I don't know if there's anything that can be done to lower body temp while on a bike in the mid-day sun, but being able to get that lower would have certainly helped me out when I started the run.

This was super slow on account of being overheated and not able to run AT ALL out of the very long transition area. I walked slowly to my rack, went to the wrong rack, eventually grabbed all I needed and put on sunblock and then walked slowly to the run start. I needed some ice or something here!

I don't know that I could have done anything differently. The heat was really taking its toll at this point, It would have been amazing if the transition area had been under some shade to help with recovery because the blazing sun was really kicking my booty!

Holy hell, so hot! My legs wanted to run but I was so overheated that I felt dizzy or like I would throw up if I started running. Had to walk most of the first 2 miles. The ice at the first aid stop began to help with cooling me down -- I was drinking as much ice water and gatorade as I could and pouring in on me to try to cool down but it was not happening. It wasn't until the angels at aid stop 3 with their miraculous garden hose doused me that I began to feel any relief. Having that water 4 times during the race allowed me to pick up my pace at least around that stop. I ended up walking up most of the hills and running down as much of the hills as I could. I've never experienced such heat!! I was able to get my body temp under control by about mile 9 through lots of hydration and even more ice. I was able to run most of the last 3-4 miles though I still needed to walk a handful of times. My usual run pace is a 9:20-9:40, so this was rough for me!

I don't know, maybe pick a race in March? It was brutal -- there were so many DNFs, maybe spend a little more time at mile 1 just getting acquainted with ice? I feel happy that I was just able to finish!

My husband was waiting for me at the finish line and partners aren't allowed in the finishers corral with the food, so I was eager to leave that area. Also, I just wanted to get to my air conditioned car stat! So I grabbed some watermelon, water, and a banana and walked over to grab my race bag and bike. Then we headed home for the 1.5 hour drive. I started to get a little bit of foot cramping on the ride home, but not too horrible. I think the banana and water helped stave that off.


The blazing sun!!!


The volunteers were all amazing, it was a well organized race, it's just so damned hot!!