Burrito Union 10 Hour Triathlon - TriathlonOther

The swims were good. I love this lake for swimming and felt good in the water. Both times I started, I was about 20m behind someone and made it my goal to pass them before the first buoy. Then I just concentrated on catching the next person in front of me, then the next one in front of that, etc. It's so nice not to do the mass start! Love that.

Nothing. Navigation was good, breathing was relaxed, I felt strong.

These were longer than in a normal tri since every second does not really count in this format (at least not for our team). I got the wetsuit off, shoes and socks on, and then dressed. The first time I wore a windbreaker, gloves, and knee warmers. The second time was arm warmers in lieu of the jacket, and no knee warmers.

Nothing

I just totally suck on this bike course. I admit I was mentally predisposed to poor performance because I did not like this course last year, and it was the same course this year. I went in with a bad attitude about it, so I cursed myself from the beginning.

Both times the ride was ok until about the last three-ish miles. Then it's false flats followed by the steep hill into the park. I simply don't have the mental wherewithal to handle false flats. Period. I can handle obvious hills ok, but not false flats. I guess when it *looks* like I should be descending, but I'm actually only going 11 mph, I get too discouraged. I don't know how else to explain it.

Oh, at the start of the second ride, there was about a two minute window where it just POURED rain. It was so weird. It didn't rain in the park, but just outside of it, maybe a mile or two into the bike course, it was pouring. And then it was gone! Just enough to soak us.

At the end of the second ride, my low back was absolutely screaming. I don't know what the issue was, but it was hurting bad.

Not get my hopes up that the bike course would be different. There was some talk on the race web site that construction might force a change in the bike route this year, and I guess I was mentally hitching my horse to that wagon. When it turned out to be the same, I was disappointed and let it fester into a spectacularly crappy attitude.

These were fine--bike gear off, runs shoes on, race number and sunglasses and off!

Nothing

I was actually looking forward to running, for once in my life. :) The trails are so scenic, especially the run over the bridge and along the river. Very nice. I was slow, dog slow, but it was still nice. The kids at the water station at the turn around were cracking me up, so I spent way too much time there. They were asking 20 questions about the race and how it worked, and if it was a fundraiser or what, so I lost a lot of time there, but didn't care a whole lot. They were fun to hang around with for a couple minutes.

I walked more than I should have on the second lap, but my low back was NOT happy and I every step reminded me of that. Also on that lap I walked with #204 for a while. She was limping/walking and crying on the trail to of course I asked her if she was ok and if I could do anything to help. She was having severe knee pain and was just in tears, poor thing. I walked with her for a while to make sure she didn't slip down the wood steps, and then she told me to run along and asked me to deliver a message to her teammmate/husband that she was coming as fast as she could. Another huge time suck but I don't care.

Run more. Run faster.

I crossed the finisheline to find Autumn back in her street clothes so I knew we were done for the day. That was fine with me. Walked back over to the tent drank some water. I'm a big baby, though, so I start bawling and apologizing for being a crappy teammate this year, and for my general poor attitude. She of course told me to knock it off, but I felt that I was the big wet blanket of the day.

We packed up our stuff and hit the road. It was only about 3 pm, and the race would go on until at least 5:30, but we didn't stick around.


All my normal factors were contributors--slow running, excessive weight--but more than anything today it was attitude. Mine sucked! I was just not feeling it this year. I was very undertrained and very under-rested in the weeks leading up to this, so that didn't help either.


Despite my Negative Nelly race report, this is still an awesome event. The RD is great, there was free food for all (including spectators), a DJ and karaoke, a hot tub on site, and other nice goodies. The park is gorgeous, and it's nice to have an event that is a little out of the ordinary. I highly recommend this race to anyone, and I will be back again next year!