Heart O' Dixie Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

They changed the swim course this year. Instead of swimming across the lake, we started and finished in the bike transition area, swimming straight out and then following the same buoy line back in. This is a time trial start with 5 seconds between each swimmer. You don't have the initial mosh pit like in a wave start, but it can get crowded as swimmers catch up. Even without a warmup, I felt like I had a good, strong swim. No calf cramping either. I managed to do quite a bit of drafting and passed several people. Not too much contact. I did get off the buoy line and then kind of missed the "bear right" part to the finish. When I finally stood up in the muck, my watch said 15:4x. I could hardly believe it since my time was in the 18:00 range last year. When a friend right behind me asked if I thought the course was short, I said, "I hope not. That was a good swim for me."

Follow the buoy line more closely.

Darn. I thought this was a better transition time. I felt efficient and quick. How in the world do people get out of there so fast?

Figure out how to beat the time warp.

I believe this is where I began to feel my lack of hydration. I started out okay. I knew that the first several hills would feel tough but that I would find a rhythm as I got about 5 or so miles into the race. At least, that's what I thought I knew. That's how it worked last year. But from the beginning, the effort just felt too hard. The only easy parts where the downhills. My HR monitor wasn't working (I think my strap slipped during the swim), so I didn't know what my HR was doing, but the effort just felt too hard. I had it in my mind, though, that I needed to do this course averaging nearly 20mph because I averaged 19.5mph last year. Well, it was a lot hotter this year. I was probably dehydrated already since I didn't drink enough the day before, and we had a bit of a headwind the last several miles this year. Initially, I was doing pretty good and holding it steady. The only people passing me were guys, mostly a lot younger. When I hit mile 20, though, the wheels came off. The last 7.5 miles were a struggle. I crept up the hills, went backward in the wind, and tons of people started passing me. By the time I reached transition, I was pissed. The funny thing, though? I still managed to average nearly 18.6mph...something I was only dreaming of doing a few years ago.

Drink more fluids the day before. Not get so pissy for feeling crappy.

Yeah. I came in to T2 totally hot and angry. Then, I had to deal with the new bike racks, and I had myself a nice little hissy fit. We had "fancy" racks this year that you stick your rear tire in, but me in my klutzy inability to line stuff up struggled with getting my bike in. When I finally got it in, I couldn't get to the bag that my shoes were in. Dammit! So, I unracked my bike, tossed my helmet, struggled to keep my bike upright while I stretched to grab the shoe bag, threw that, rammed my bike back into the rack, and then leisurely put on my running shoes because I just wasn't sure I was going to finish this stupid race.

Not lose my temper.

So, grabbed water, headed out, and just contemplated whether I even wanted to do this thing. I was hot; I was thirsty; I was mad; and I didn't want to run. I tried a few steps. Immediately went back to walking. I turned around and looked back at transition and wondered if I should just walk back and call it a day. But I would still have to get my chip to the finish line somehow. My friend, Becky, ran up..."C'mon, girl, let's do this thing!" "I'm not sure I'm finishing, you go ahead," I told her. I kept walking. Richard drove by, I waved him on. I took my number belt off. I kept walking. I put my number belt back on. Mile 1 finally arrived. Shortly after that, aid station number 1. I took water and Gatorade. Drank all of it. About then, a guy came up behind me asking if they had gels at the aid station. They said they didn't, so I offered him mine, and when I turned around, I noticed he didn't have any shoes on. His shoes and stuff didn't make it to T2. They fell of the truck. Was he in a bad mood? Not at all. He was running in his sock feet. Someone had found his shoes and they were bringing them to him. He was smiling as he trotted past me (I was still walking). A little later, I saw him in the back of a truck putting his shoes on, and then, there I was at mile 2. It had taken me over 30 minutes. "Well," I thought, "at this rate, it's gonna' take a looong time to go 7 miles." It was time to stop being a baby, HTFU, and finish the race. I devised a strategy. I knew I was dehydrated (my calves may not have cramped on the swim, but they had started cramping on the bike and run). So, drink water and Gatorade at every aid station. As much as I can. Set the interval timer to 5/1 and run/walk. Encourage everyone. Thank the volunteers. The miles finally started to click by, and I started to finally feel better (my stomach got bloated and sloshy, but it was necessary). I even managed to run up most of the hills. The next 5 miles took about 50 minutes, and as I made my way around the horse track, I found myself catching up to a 70-year old athlete who was wearing a Marine Corps jersey. We had passed each other back and forth on the bike before he passed me for good right before the finish. Now, he was struggling and had started to walk even though we only had about 200 meters left to the finish line. When I got up to pass him, I put my hand on his back and said, "Ooh-rah, Marine, let's do this thing." He said, "That was exactly the inspiration I needed," and he started running. We ran together, I stuttered stepped at the finish so he could cross in front of me, but I think he had the same idea, so we crossed the line together. I was in a much better mood.

Just HTFU and run.

It was way too hot. There was no warming down. I grabbed water and a soda.


My own stinking attitude.


Despite the abysmal performance...I got 3rd in my AG (actually 4th, but 1st moved up to Masters, so everyone moved up). I was 16 minutes slower than last year, but I guess the weather took its toll on everyone. We left before the awards, so a friend got mine. I can't wait to see it.