Loggerhead Triathloon - Triathlon

The water was beautiful! Nice and clear and perfect temperature! The tide was coming in, so there was some chop, but not too bad.
Garmin put the distance at about 810 yards rather than the 660 advertised. Maybe something was not right with my watch, but comparing everyone's times from last year to this, I can believe it was long. Everyone was significantly slower this year and I don't remember there being a super helpful current last year. Too bad I didn't realize this before I left the race site or I would have asked others if they were registering a longer swim. It doesn't really matter, but it would be nice to know!

I really need to get at least a half way decent swim! So, maybe I should swim more :)

It's a pretty long run up the beach and through a picnic area to get to transition. Luckily, my rack was very close to the entry.

My wave was 2d to last and I am a slow swimmer, so the course was crowded when I finally got there! I hadn't been on the bike for over 2 weeks prior to the race, but I don't think that made much of a difference.
The course is 2 laps on a 2 lane road. So, there are 3 very tight u-turns that require everyone to slow way down. That causes some slower than normal speeds, but it is the same for everyone. As this is a sprint, my goal was just to ride as hard as I could and see what that meant. Turns out it meant a fairly decent pace.

bike more!

I'm always slow in transition, so this is no surprise!

The run is where I can usually make myself competitive. I start moving up with the bike and then on the run I am usually one of the fastest, if not fastest. So, if my pathetic swim hasn't put me too far in the hole, I make a run (ha!) for an AG placement.
When I ran out of t-2 this time I knew I did not have my speed. I've been nursing a pulled glute muscle and the thought of making things worse held me a bit in check, but even so, I don't think I could have run much faster on the day. Still, I found myself passing a number of people including those in my AG. Of course, I had no idea where I was in relation to anyone, so all I knew is that I would not be last! Don't be last is one of my goals in any race!! It comes shortly after don't drown :)

This race brings in a lot of tri teams all wearing the similar kits, so it felt like I was passing the same woman over and over again! It was really kind of odd. In addition, there was at least one coach out on the run course (there were some on the bike course too), yelling instructions and updates to his athletes. They've been there in past years, but this year it seemed more overt and right in the middle of the action!
As I was passing some of this one particular coach's athletes, I heard him yelling warnings! ha! Guess I messed things up for his plan to dominate the AGs :)
I thought I passed about 4 woman in my AG as I headed for the home stretch and saw another. At about .30 to go I passed her. She stayed right behind me. I knew that was a bad sign. My glute was really barking at me, so I did not think it would be wise to pick up the pace. I could only hope that staying with me would be too much for her and she'd fade at the end.

Not so much. With about .10-.15 to go she went around me in an all out sprint. I didn't even try to match her. I don't like to be passed like that without even trying to respond, but I just didn't feel like I could without causing myself more injury. Plus, to be honest, I don't know that I could have even if I decided to chance it!
She ended up beating me by 9 seconds. After we crossed, she introduced herself and said that 1 person was ahead of us, so we podium-ed. She knew that because it was a teammate -i think. That person beat me by 55 seconds, so the top 3 were inside a minute of each other!! That really surprised me as this has been the one race that I've never even sniffed the podium. Last year I was 6th which was a pretty typical for this race finish for me.

Shortly after finishing another woman came up to me and told me that I am an awesome runner. She said I blew past her in the Singer Island race in June too. I thanked her for the kind words and we discussed that this run seemed harder than Singer Island. Which is weird as Singer Island has a causeway that you have to cross 2x and this run is flat. In any event, she was very nice, as was the 2d place woman. I think they were on the same team, but can't be sure as all the team kits looked so similar to me! Whether same team or not, they were both very nice and I take back all the mean things I thought about the teams ;)

Looking at my pace made me rather depressed. This was the slowest pace I've run in a sprint. I know my glute was ouchie, but felt that couldn't be all. Then I realized that I was having difficulty swallowing. My throat was seriously inflammed! I should have realized something was up when I was eating my bagel and felt like it was stuck in my throat! Ha, what an idiot!! Guess I was sick. Hopefully, that explains my slowness!

Looking at my placements I was 13th in the swim, 3d on the bike and 1st on the run. It's a real puzzlement as to where there's room for improvement!!

Not be injured or sick!

Showered under the beach side showers, got changed and then got beer!


I've done this race a number of years now. It's really well organized and a fun race. I may not do it next year though as I am thinking of doing a HIM that same weekend. Maybe.