Waterman's International - TriathlonOlympic

I'm trying to remember if it was a long walk from the pier to the timing mat. I really thought I got out in under 40 minutes. Since the pier was wood and I was barefoot, there was absolutely no running happening here to protect the ankle.
There was more plant matter than I remember from last year, but it was still a nice swim. Easy to site off the buoys, slightly salty, not too crowded. I didn't push it at all, just kind of leisurely swam the whole thing.

I probably could have kicked a bit more, or even just swam harder. I always say that.

2 weeks out from a sprained ankle, so I walked every single step of transition through the grass. Getting my wetsuit off the bad ankle was pretty painful, but once it was done it was all systems go.
Lost a solid minute at the mount line because once again I couldn't clip in.

I don't think there's time to change pedals before Miami, but over the winter I'm ditching the speedplays. Even when freshly cleaned and greased I still can't clip in. Standing with full weight on a pedal and nada. Beyond frustrating.

First seven miles were lovely. Then it started to get windy, and it was getting tougher to race my own race as people continued to pass me. But I soldiered on, never going into zone 4. There was a hill that I seemed to have blotted from my memory of last year's race, but it wasn't too bad. The last stretch along the road back into Rock Hall was windy and not pleasant since there was consistent traffic.
I kept telling myself "I can do this all day" to remind myself to take it easy. I had 44 ounces with 4 scoops of Skratch in my hydration pack, and I went through nearly all of it.

Should I have gone for some solid food? I was disappointed with my overall time, but the wind made a big impact, so not sure I even should have done anything different.

Carefully walking through the grass, swapping out shoes, saying hi to J since I had a spot right near the fence, and then getting a bit of jog on once I got out of the grass. I grabbed my Skratch chews and opened them up and had two straight away.

Nothing. Had to be careful to protect that ankle.

Immediately started in on one minute run, one minute walk, and kept it up the whole way. I stayed super positive during the first lap, cheering on teammates and strangers, giving out high fives, thanking the volunteers, etc. Every mile I had a couple chews with some water. Because there was the half going on at the same time, there were plenty of aid stations.
There was a lot of loose gravel on the road, so I was so intent on watching where I put my feet. I was straight up terrified of turning my ankle.
The first loop seemed to go pretty quickly, but the second loop was a bit darker. It felt like the same people kept passing me over and over, and I started to wonder if there were multiple sets of twins on the course, or if they were really that fast and lapping me that much, or if I was just confused.
The final two miles were so hard. I skipped two different run segments because I just felt exhausted. I started to get some pain in my right foot in my 5th metatarsal, and I just didn't want to think about what that could mean. For the last 1.5 I could hear them announcing the podium. As I reached the last bit of road before the finisher's chute, I saw J. I told him I had missed the cutoff (4 hours) and he said yeah, but you made it. You're going to finish. I made the turn to the finish chute and carefully made my way across the grass. Crossed the line, they took my chip and handed me a bottle of water, an icy cold towel, and a medal. I was a finisher!

Not sprain my ankle three weeks before the race.
I was on an epic role in training. August was my best training month of my entire life. September was all about rehab. I still can't believe I bounced back enough to participate.

As soon as I got out of the finish area, I made my way over to the podium, since they were still announcing people and several of my teammates were placing. It was so nice to see everyone do so well!
I thought there might be an outside change I would place purely due to number of participants, but alas there were 4 in my division. The third place girl was 45 minutes ahead of me, so clearly even if I were healthy nothing would have been different.
As I turned to move back to the Team Z tent, I realized how badly my right foot was hurting. I could hardly put any weight on it, and bending it was not happening. Oh no! Fast forward to Monday at the PT's office, and all is well. Definitely some 5th met irritation, but nothing fractured. I just need some different shoes.


Still working on fitness. Ankle, knee, etc.


Last year I had commented that the volunteers at Waterman's seemed a little lackluster. That is the case again this year. Or maybe uneducated is the better term. I was handed the wrong items twice during check in. There were no volunteers directing parking. You really had to know the course, because the signage was small and there were few volunteers out on the bike course. I watched a girl come in from the half bike course past the cutoff, and be told by a volunteer that the run had "been cancelled." She didn't understand (neither did I) until someone else said that she hadn't made the cutoff. Just not the right way to handle that, you know?
I know a lot of people really adore Kinetic races. I've done three this season. They.....were fine. I will do some next season because they do a lot of the local races, but given the choice I prefer Rev3.
Overall thoughts...this is the first Oly I've done since 2017. My third. Also my slowest, on arguably the easiest course. I wish I weren't so slow. But at the same time....I totally raced my race, and bounced back faster than ever. Yes I needed naps, but I wasn't wrecked for days like the last times. Progress!