![]() Swim
Comments: This swim really sucked for me. Last year, I swam without a wet suit and was about 3 minutes faster. WTF?? I started out okay. Got right in the middle of the mash and duked it out for positon. Thought I was hanging in pretty good at the beginning. My right google filled with water almost immediately upon hitting the water so I as thrashing around a bit blindly. Got out to the last buoy on the right side and felt like it was already taking too damned long. Made it across to the left side okay, but some freak was hanging on the buoy blocking the way around. WTF??!! Wearing a black cap…?? Why are you here? Are you even in the race? Swimming in, some lady decides she is gonna criss-cross in front of me. I put my hand on her back and suggested she do otherwise ;). In the last few hundred yards I attempted to breathe bilaterally as I have been doing this exclusively in my last few swim workouts pretty successfully. I immediately felt the benefit of this and wanted to continue doing it but was just not confident enough to do it in the race environment. This is something I will have to work on. What would you do differently?: Not suck at swimming. ![]() Transition 1
Comments: Those stairs were pretty tricky coming out of the water. I felt pretty uncoordinated trying to get up them without tripping and breaking my face. Long run to T1. Had trouble getting my wet suit off of my left ankle forgetting the damned chip. What would you do differently?: Not forget the damned chip. ![]() Bike
Comments: Had a fantastic time on the bike. Out of T1 I put it in the small ring to let my legs come back to me with some easy spinning. Quickly stuck it back in the big ring to get some speed going. Passed all the white caps who had just swum over me. About 13 minutes into the ride, I got stung by a bee on my thumb. OUchy!! This was a huge distraction. It hurt like hell and is still burning today! I thnk it made me a little angry which helped me to go faster! Came a upon a huge cluster of women all riding in a big pack. Annoying!! Goal was to get around them and leave them all behind to chat and gaggle. I did and had some good open road for a bit. Then played leap frog with a couple of women on road bikes who kept passing me on the little up hills, but then just sat in on the flat and down hill. We went back and forth a few times until I decided I didnt want to play the game anymore and made and effort to leave them far behind. Drank one aero bottle of GE and some more water/gatorade. Ate on GU, one endurolyte and one shot block. Should have eaten more on the bike i think. Came into the park and two or three women all riding out to the left. I was fed up with this by this time and kinda yelled some expletives at them. What is so hard about riding to the right!!? What would you do differently?: Eat more on the bike. Otherwise, very happy with the split. ![]() Transition 2
Comments: This could always be faster. Had a whole crowd of peeps yelling at me for this transition. Dave and C and Cappy. Cappy…?? WTF?? Isis and KathyG were heading out on the run. All kinds of pressure to catch up. I was pretty quick, but could have prob been quicker. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Just go faster. ![]() Run
Comments: The run was really tough. You could really feel the heat at this point. Running out of transition, I didnt have the same feeling I had last year. Felt kind of spent and knew it was gonna be a long run. Tried to slow down and find a comfortable pace to go the distance with but it was just tougher than it should have been. I was thirsty right from the getgo and also really regretting not have eaten a bit more on the bike. I tried to just keep looking forward toward the finish. Mental toughness comes into play here and its something I need to work on. Had Isis in my sights for the first 3 miles, but eventually lost her. Ailene went running by and encouraged me to keep going. I had her in my sights for a while too, but couldnt keep up. Played leap frog with some people for the last 3 miles and we all just encouraged each to keep working hard. I was very tuned into my watch and the fact that I wanted very much to beat 2:53:00. This was my motivation for the second half of the run and I made several deals with myself to try and come in under that time. But I kept giving myself slack here and there and really had to did deep in the last .2 to get in under my previous time. I pulled a pretty good sprint out of my back pocket for the finish to keep it under 2:53:00 What would you do differently?: Try to run a more even pace rather than walk run. Carry fluids to accomodate the heat and humidity. ![]() Post race
Warm down: I felt pretty bad at the finish. Was kind of hyper-ventilating and feeling quite light-headed. The lady made me sit down and chill before leaving me out of the finish area. Had a cool washcloth placed on the back of my neck and just tryed to catch my breath til I felt like I could get up and walk to the BT tent. Went for a nice cool dip in the pond with Joanne and Kathy and some others — this was freakin' nervana! Drank some coke and then a gingerale and finally ate some chicken and stuff. What limited your ability to perform faster: The heat made it all seem more difficult than it should have been. My swim has gone downhill since Mooseman—not sure why…?? Event comments: This is a great event made better by the number of BTers that participate. I will definately do it again although maybe not next year as not sure I'll have the energy after LP and I will be sending my oldest son off to college. Last updated: 2007-05-23 12:00 AM
|
|
United States
Sun Multisport Events
90F / 32C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 332/584
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 21/40
Up at 5:30. Got dressed. Mixed my GE for the bike. Took a bunch of stuff down to the car. Drank some Gatorade. Drank an Ensure—this is becoming standard pre-race fare for me. Went down to breakfast in the hotel lobby. Ate English Muffin with PB, a little bit of nasty OJ and some nasty coffee. Went back up to grab the bike and check out. Got to the race venue around 6:45. Set up transition and set out to find BT peeps.
No warmup to speak of—just a light jog out to the far portolets to take care of some business. There was no TP, but a lady had a roll in her bag. I begged her to give me some. She was reluctant but eventually gave in.
Went back to TA to check on my stuff. Just before the NA, a couple of elite type women were getting all snitty about their TA areas. The one gal was afraid that the other gals bike was going to tip over and knock over her bike. It wasn't very secure on the rack the way she had it hanging by the seat. I was just afraid that I'd be the one to knock it over and piss them both off. The women made one of the officials come over and re-rack it. The lady_whose bike it was—caught the official touching her bike and had a hissy fit. At this point the anthem was playing so i just put my hand over my heart and pretended i didnt know what was going on :). They both had those pointy aero helmets—i wasnt gonna get in either's way. I left TA again to go chat, but had to go back one more time to make sure they didnt pop my tires or something.