Graniteman Triathlon - Triathlon

Didn't wear a wetsuit b/c I wanted to save time in transition, plus I haven't raced without one EVER so I wanted to see how it'd be different. I cna see, there is no denying the advantage you get from the buoyancy. The suit just makes it plain easier to swim. However, I really enjoyed not having to tkae it off in transition or fumble with it running from the water to T1.
My performance for the swim was nothing special. The start was a pain the butt b/c there were people climbing all over me. I should have elbowed my way to the front a little more aggressively before we started so I wouldn't have to climb over the women in front of me. My sighting wasn't that great either, despite it being a straight line out and back. But I kept good form with my stroke (when I wasn't trying to avoid the slow men that I caught up to). 7th woman overall for swim. A pretty mediocre showing.

Get a better starting postion. Swim in a straight line.

One of the fastest T1s ever! Due to no wetsuit I'm sure. A good thing about this series is since I'm doing so many races, I get good practice with transitions, and I feel comfortable trying new racing strategies.

Nada!

My fastest bike split ever! From the beginning to the end, I was working hard. I don't think I went completely "balls to the wall" but I really was working hard and pushing myself the entire way. I was only passed twice: by a guy with a disc wheel, and a mile from the finish by Lynette Bacon, who was in the last wave of swimmers and started 3 minutes behind me. I figured she'd get me on the bike, so as she passed me I said "I was wondering when you'd catch me!" And then she was gone and I was left to admire how friggin fast she is.
I experimented with nutrition for this race, instead of my normal gu and water on the bike, I brought a bottle of gu20 and no gu. Same amount of calories and less hassle. Worked just dandy.
I had trouble getting my feet out of my shoes on the bike. I had my left foot out and on top of the shoe and was coming up way too fast on the transition area and race volunteers were saying "dismount before the mat! dismount before the mat!" So I had a moment of panic thinking what the hell I needed to do... it was a weird feeling to have one foot free and the other clipped in and have to get off the bike right that minute and I had a vision of me totally wiping out in front of everyone. But then I thought "duh" and just unclipped my other foot. So I ran into T2 with one foot bare and the other with a shoe on. Haha, what a nerd!
5th fastest bike for women, not bad! At least that's more competitive than my normal bike.

Get both feet out in time, derrr. Besides that, nada! This ride was great for me.

I brought my pair of sneakers with regular laces b/c I need to change the speed laces on my other pair. So tying my shoes slowed me a bit. Kind of a regular T2.

Speed laces. And have both feet free before I get into T2.

I shot out of the transition area out of breath and running what felt like really hard. My stomach hurt and I was panting. Settled into a pace that I thought was moving along at a nice clip. Passed a lot of people but just knew that I wasn't going that fast. It was HOT out. Nothing kills me like the heat. I could see Lynette in front of me but just could not get my legs moving to start pulling her in. This run was actually pretty weak in terms of mental effort. Perhaps I set myself up for a bad run since I dismissed it even before the race, thinking "just focus on the bike." Oh well.
As I was leaving, the top men were coming in. Everyone looked like shit. Red in the face and miserable! But one thing I will thank the heat for is many of then men took their shirts off. Nothing like a fit man in only tight little spandex to cheer a girl up!
Saw David coming in and he yelled "You're 3 or 4, go get em!!" which was a great pick me up and refocused me on the run.
At the turn around they had a water station. I actually stopped to walk so that I could drink a whole cup, and then dumped another on my head because I was H-O-T! That felt like heaven. Got going again and was able to see who was behind me. Sarah Foley, 36 and in the heat behind me, was gaining ground and really MOVING on the run. Wooo eee she was trucking. So I tried to pick it up after seeing her b/c getting passed on the run would have sucked.
My head was feeling swollen and really hot by the end, but with a quarter mile to go I tried to pick it up a little more. I just thought of how nice it would be to be done and dump more water on my head. Sarah didn't catch me, thank goodness, and I finished as strong as I could muster.

I don't know... I am okay with having such a slow run because I met my goal of a great biking split. I think the slowness can mostly be attributed to the heat, but the bike played a role too. I would love to repeat this race on a cool day and see if I can go any faster when I don't feel like my head is going to explode.

They were handing bottles of water out in the finishing chute and I immediately dumped almost all of it on my head. It felt SO GOOD.
I picked up my bike and went back to my car to grab my camelbak b/c I sure felt dehydrated. I also grabbed my folding chair so I could sit and wait for awards. Boy was that chair nice. Sitting felt awesome. I met nathane, good job out there dude! And then- dun dun dunnnn- Lynette Bacon came up and started talking to me! It was great to finally talk to her- she kicks ass. We talked about my move to MN, how I like it here, our relative strengths and weaknesses, yada yada. She gave me props for getting into the sport so young and said I'd only get faster with time. I felt felt so cool having her talk to me! She's 39! I hope when I'm that age I am in great shape like that. All three women who beat me in this race were in their 30s. Mad props to them. Gotta respect your elders in this sport.
The awards ceremony took sooooo long to get started. And since the age groups were by 10s instead of 5s, they awarded the top 6, and it seemed to take quite awhile. But I got a really nice granite plaque for winning my age group. It seems like there were a lot more good looking guys at this race, so that was nice to kick back and admire the AG winners. I'm starting to recognize a few people from other races, so I talked to some of them. This was actually a very social race for me, I got to talk to and meet lots of people! I should try to be more outgoing at races from now on.


Weak legs from the bike, HEAT.


I liked the course for this race. Having an out and back run is great because you can see who is ahead of and behind you. The biking course kept you alert because there were a lot of turns and hardly any flat stretches. This was a good race, had a fun vibe, and I'd totally do it again. Although next year I'd request the temp to be at least 25 degrees cooler.