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 Swim
Comments: Official time is 34:55 but it includes running half way to transition. Since I prefer to know how long I am swimming not running I'm leaving the time alone. I think at least 3-4 passed me running from the water to the transition area...so not fair...timing mats should be at waters edge!!! timing SWIMMING not swimming and RUNNING. This swim was very congested. There were a lot of novices in the race and the waves were only 3 minutes apart. I looked at last years results and thought I might just do well. This was my first non-wetsuit oly length swim. Our wave had pretty bright pink caps so easy to spot. Positioned myself towards the front. By the first buoy started catching people from the wave in front of me. By the first turn was in the middle of the wave in front of me. Across the top of the triangle was catching lots of different color swim caps. Rounding the buoys was very congested. There was more contact on this swim than any of my other races. After the last turn there was a rainbow of swim caps. I could see maybe 5 pink caps in front of me so I picked it up a notch and tried to catch some of them. They were within maybe 25-50 yards. I think I passed maybe one of them. I felt good in the water. Looked at my watch and THOUGHT I hit the lap button but apparently not. It was 32 minutes and change which was slower than I was hoping for but I knew I was at the front of my wave so I didn't feel that bad about it. What would you do differently?: Nothing really. I am getting better at pacing myself in open water. I could have sighted a little better. I think I handled the contact well. There were lots of slow swimmers and breast strokers. At first I was trying to go around politely but there were so many of them I finally just got aggressive about it.  Transition 1
Comments: It was FAR FAR AWAY from the swim exit to transition. I messed up hitting my watch so I am not sure how long this took me. Once I got to my bike I was off in a flash What would you do differently?: Not do a race I have to run 1/2 mile to get to transition. I mean already KNOW I can't run  Bike
Comments: I grab my bike off the rack and my saddle bag came loose so I fixed that and off I went. The exit out of Fort Wilderness was VERY narrow so you really couldn't blast out of there. Once we got out of there I just started picking people off. I got passed by a few men and very few women. At about 12 miles I got passed by a group of people with 2 girls in my age group who were obviously drafting. I mean there was a pack of 10-12 people. CHEATERS!!! First time this has happened to me. Ate a gel about 15 minutes in. It was a flat fast course. I could tell there was some wind but it wasn't bad. I went to refill my drink bottle and dropped the squirt bottle....so much for that. Ran out of fluids. At 30 minutes in I had averaged 19.5 MPH...good for me. Since the course was advertised as 25 miles I was planing my nutrition accordingly. Took an enduralyte and one lava salt and did second gel at about 45 minutes fully expecting to be on the bike about 1:15-1:16....SURPRISE the bike is 5 miles SHORT. All of a sudden we are heading back into fort wildernes...I was like WTF? pluss back thru congestion and sharing the road with the runners...no room to pass. What would you do differently?: Not do this race? I was really pissed the bike was short. It was a good result for me but I was still pissed about it. If I had know it was short I would have tried to go sub 1 hour. Becasue of the congestion coming in there was no way to go fast or pass people. Not drop my water bottle Transition 2
Comments: Ran into transition and found my rack easily as it was under a huge tree. Just plopped myself down washed and dried my feet, shoes and socks on and took off. What would you do differently?: Nothing....I have a plan and it works for me Its not super fast but if my feet are unhappy on the run it is a bad thing. I cannot run without socks. The run is difficult enough for me without getting blisters too.  Run
Comments: Two words DEATH MARCH. This is probably one of my top 3 bad runs. The heat totally got me. The fact I ran out of fluids on the bike because I was a klutz and dropped my re-fill bottle probably didn't help. I had a side stitch almost immediately and could not get rid of it. The smartest thing I did in this race was to carry a water bottle with me because they only had I think 3 water stations..may have been 4 but not enough esp with as hot as it was. I would not have finished if I hadn't had my own bottle. EVERYONE was walking...a lot. It was just brutal hot. No shade. No mile markers. I was with my people in the BOP tho. We were OK with the struggle. I was kind of doing a run one minute walk 30 seconds thing for a while. Everyone basically looked like crap. It was my good samaritin day. There was a guy who was REALLY struggling. He was sweating buckets and bent over at the waist on the side of the road. A spectator gave him some salt and I stopped and shared my water with him. Lost a little time but it wan't like I was having the run of my life or anything. I started to be in big trouble with about 2 miles to go. I stopped sweating. Anyone who has ever raced or trained with me knows I am the sweat princess. I'm usually DRENCHED. My face was sweating a little but my arms and legs were not. Because of the stupid side stitch I was afraid to drink too much. Headache, dizzy, side stich, legs cramped, over heated, not sweating...not a good combo. There was an angel with a hose backside of the Mexico exhibit who was hosing people down. Saved my butt. Ran thru Epcot and there is another poor slop looking like he can barely put one foot in front of the other. I stopped to be sure he didn't need help and offered him some water. He had crashed off his bike and was a mess. I'm betting he has a radial head fracture. For like the last 1/2 mile people kept saying "its only 100 yards" LIARS. Finally came out of Epcot to see Janice, Sharon, Wendi, Beka and Renee cheering for me. THANKS GUYS What would you do differently?: No idea. I took the electrolytes like I was supposed to. The heat won today no doubt. My knee was somewhat sore but today it was the heat. Post race
Warm down: I went to the medical tent. TOTALLY NOT HELPFUL...I go in and tell them I am too hot and they look at me like I have 3 heads. So I just start asking for stuff...ice, water, a towel, they give me an ice sponge. They don't even offer to let me sit down. The finish was in a parking lot and the only shade was in the medical tent which was a big reason I went in there. Got some Ice and water and I just left since they were obviously were not going to help me. Grabbed more water and powerade and found everyone. Got in line for the bus back. Got some fluids and found the crew. Got in line for the bus to transition What limited your ability to perform faster: Heat. Bad legs. Event comments: Walt Disney should be rolling over in his grave. This was the least organized race I have ever done. They changed the swim start 3 times. They did not have enough volunteers. They were SELLING water at the start...like Disney didn't make enough money off this race from everyone staying there they can't put out a cooler with cups and water. The race packet sucked...for $100 and at Disney you would at least expect a water bottle or a gel...nothing just a t-shirt not even a pen. The race distances were not accurate, it was extremely HOT and they did not have eonough aid stations. The medical people would not help you and there was NO COVER in a parking lot in the hot hot sun at the finish. PUT UP A TENT for goodness sake. The food post race (not that I wanted to eat anything) was pitiful. Oranges, cut up bananas and cut up bagels. There was no good way to get your bike to and from transition as you were not allowed to park at the transition site so you had to ride your bike to and from. I was lucky as the hotel was close but I felt really bad for the people who had to ride all they way across the park after racing. The only good thing I can say about this race is that it was well marked. Lots of people fell off their bikes tho and I heard 2 people were hit by cars. They STILL have not posted race results and its the next day. If you are considering this race I would save your money unless you REALLY want to come to Disney. Last updated: 2006-08-05 12:00 AM
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United States
Walt Disney World Endurance
99F / 37C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 863/1149
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 45/77
Drove over on Friday and went shopping :) Picked up my packet and Sharons and drove Sharons packet over to her hotel. She was getting in late and her race was Saturday am. Janice came in and we went to dinner and did some damage at the Ann Taylor Outlet. Saturday we went to Discovery Cove (DC) and swam with the dolphins.....very cool.
This race was in general extremely unorganized. Disney should be ashamed. Rode my bike over to transition when we got back from DC. Took about 3 minutes to ride over and then I asked no less than 5 people where to get the bus back to the hotel and no one knew...took about 25 minutes to get bus back to hotel. Bob had similar problems. I'm VERY glad I got my stuff on Friday because people were saying it took 3 hours for packet pickup on Saturday
Met up with Sharon, Bob, Richard, Marcy and Steve for a nice dinner Saturday night. Went to bed early.
Home made banana bread for breakfast (THANKS JANICE) and we were going to take the bus over but there was a really annoying girl waiting for the bus so we walked over instead. Did the usual pre-race set up etc. Found a beach chair to sleep on. (OK so I'm just not a nervous racer)
So they changed the swim waves twice before the race. They announce swim waves BUT they are different time AND they do not announce my wave. SO I go over to ask what time my wave oges off. They treat me like I'm a freaking moron....oh honey just listen...DUH what is so freaking hard about telling me when my wave is...OK you are in the 9th wave....ok and WHEN would that be??? Well you just have to listen....more treating me like I'm and idiot....OK I wouldn't be ASKING if this was not the THIRD TIME you changed the freaking waves!!!
By now its getting extremely crowded and they start playing this obnoxious 100 year old country western music at about 500 decibels to the point you can't hear anyone. I have all the respect in the world for the TNT organization but it was a TNT circus. Noise makers and cow bells and clappers. WHO in their right mind hands a cow bell (a purple TNT cow bell) to a 13 year old boy? The kid was wacking it non-stop for like 30 minutes straight. Janice,Sharon, Steve and Marcy and I were trying to hang out...I had to get further from the speakers so I stepped back into the woods. It was so loud as they were sending the waves off you could barely hear the announcer or the air horn.
Walked over from the hotel...a little swim..tried not to go deaf from the stupid music and the cow bells and the clapper things.