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 Swim
Comments: Finally, time to swim. Couple puffs from my inhaler, in the water, seeded myself towards the buoy line and about ½ way up - different than my normal back and outside, but I know there are a lots of really weak swimmers and I had hoped to get myself reasonably clear. Yeah, that didn't work. Swam more than half of the first leg out to the buoy with my head up watching for obstacles and breaststroke kicks. Made the turn, found some clear water, and focused on hauling butt. Stayed reasonably clear the rest of the way, got in the zone and had a great swim. I don't think the distance was accurate as there's no way I swim 1:40's for 100's. My typical pool pace is closer to 2:05/100 cruising… so, yet another short swim course for FIRM/Danskin What would you do differently?: seed myself farther forward and sprint like hell for the first 100 or so, then cruise when I have a little more room.  Transition 1
Comments: Actually ran. They moved transition slightly closer to the water than they had it at the June race, but I did move along way faster than normal 632/2468 OA.  Bike
Comments: Spent the first mile getting in my groove, eating a couple of shot bloks, putting on my gloves, and navigating the more crowded early stretch. Had my camera in my bento box so I took some pictures of the early parts, and just took it relatively easy. I somehow managed to drop my camera after taking a picture coming up to the base of the big hill, so I lost a minute or so going back to grab it and stick the battery back in. That put me at a dead stop at the bottom of the biggest hill on the course, so I just stood up and hammered it about halfway up, then sat and spun the rest of the way. Managed the second part of the big hill pretty well, weenied the big downhill (still too wet to risk going fast), then stuck to my plan the rest of the way (weenie the bike, take pictures, have fun). Noticed some chalk on the ground on the last bit, but couldn't read it. Time includes dropped camera pickup. What would you do differently?: not a thing (except not drop the camera). raced according to plan. Transition 2
Comments: Not sure what happened here. I may have fallen asleep briefly. I did have a conversation with the woman racked next to me, who was stretching. 1757 OA. What would you do differently?: move faster.  Run
Comments: Best way ever to distract yourself from dead legs? Take pictures of the crowd and the other racers. Also notice that there are things chalked on the ground that are very, very funny to you and probably no one else. Apparently that's what AdCo was doing while I was racing. I have pictures of some of them. But he marked the peak of the first hill with the word "top", and he left me running instructions - "left right repeat". Ran the entire out, walked the short little lollipop turnaround, then ran the entire back except for the last 25 - 50 feet of the uphills. Very happy with my run. Came in towards the finish feeling really good, tried to get the people in the chute to cheer louder, stopped just shy of the finish line and took a picture of myself with Sally Edwards. I'm happy considering there's probably a full 90 seconds lost to pictures in that. What would you do differently?: nothing, for a change (except train more) Post race
Warm down: grabbed water, found AdCo, left. Event comments: Haiku: raced with my camera cheered for everyone I saw faster than last time Last updated: 2008-02-07 12:00 AM
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United States
FIRM
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 1549/2468
Age Group = 30-34F
Age Group Rank = 1052/212
woke up to colossal, unpredicted thunderstorms at 4 AM. Got up, got ready, threw my stuff in the car. AdCo was coming along to support and spectate as usual. We made the call to bring the dog with us (although they are not allowed at the race site) mostly because thunderstorms freak him out and leaving a loudly barking dog alone at 4:30 AM was not going to win us points with the neighbors (and my mother, who lives upstairs). Got out the door at 4:45 (later than we wanted), stopped at dunk's (mostly for AdCo), drove down to Webster in a monsoon with major thunder and lightning all around.
Got decent parking (the reason we left so early - with 2500 racers, parking is a nightmare and I didn't want to end up at a shuttle lot), slopped off in the rain to stake out a transition spot. Found a lovely end spot in a reasonable place, dropped my stuff in garbage bags and hung out for a while. My normal pre-race routine was all thrown off as I didn't want to set up until the rain stopped, so I just wandered around, ran into a few people I knew, finally got bodymarked and set up once the rain stopped. It was still only 6:40 or so at this point, and while the race was scheduled to start at 7, I was in wave 16. Meanwhile, AdCo was hanging out with the dog and plotting.
went for a little warmup swim - the water was much warmer than the air so I didn't want to get out. Ran into Cheryl, who was swim-angel-ing. Found AdCo again, ran through my race plan during the national anthem (hit the swim hard, weenie the bike (thanks, Thor!), run as much of the run as possible, and HAVE FUN. Also take as many pictures as possible. Said goodbye to him once they'd sent off a few waves, then hung out with my age group and talked a few newbies down from their ledges. Race was delayed about 30 - 45 minutes as there was a serious accident on the highway nearby (4 cars and a tractor-trailer) and the EMS crews had to leave for a while.