I Love the Tavern - TriathlonSprint

I have had a tremendous anxiety about this swim for the past few weeks. My OW swims are rarely good and we have had such a rainy spring that tri club has had to cancel almost all the OW practices.

A week ago I did a preride at the course and the river was still really high and nasty looking with strong current. Posted at over 7 feet--flood stage is 12 feet and they require life jackets over 5 feet for most people. I debated about withdrawing from the race because of the river conditions but decided to take a wait and see approach with the weather. If we had no more rain the river could fall. Plus there was discussion about shortening the swim in a variety of ways.

All this to say that I made up my mind on Friday to stick with the race no matter what. Finally had an OW practice which wasn't perfect, but I was able to swim without freaking out and kept a comfortable pace. Yeah, I know my swim is SLOW...but I'm working on conquering the demons of OWS and just getting in there is a major victory for me.

So the discussions all week were how is she (RD) going to handle the swim? We did a preswim Friday night and things were looking good to do the full distance. Then it stormed like hell Friday night and the river was up another 6 or 8 inches from the preswim level. Race was delayed so they could pull out a couple bouys and shorten the course.

I'm on the shore with my friend Lesa and we're watching the early waves head out. She is getting into panic mode watching them. Lots of folks having problems. The kayaks were sagging with all the people hanging on them. My husband said the kayaks were coming back in with 5 or more people hanging off them at a time.

I kept trying to calm Lesa down. ME, the CHICKEN SH*T of OWS trying to calm someone else down preswim!! "Just get in and swim, doesn't have to be fast...just get in and find your rhythm" She evidently chickened out, got wet and waited until the rest of the wave got out of the water to head to the bike.

I was doing okay, knew I was slow and not making a lot of headway in the current but I knew if I hung in there I would feel better about my race and swimming in general. Somewhere along the line I started to tangle with a man from wave 1 who kept breast stroking. This man kept kicking me or I'd grab him...It was freaking ridiculous. I'd try to move away and we'd still be entangled!

Hit a bouy and there were about 8 of us trying to get around. Ummmm, a whole lot of a$$ grabbing going on. They got around. I think that was the area when I sighted that I got pushed back about 7 feet by the current (my husband told me after the race that I did that) Next thing I knew I was chasing the last bouy to turn. Literally. I would sight for it, think I was there and sonfab*tch if it was the same distance away from me next time I looked. Finally realized the canoe guy was taking the stupid thing OUT. Made my turn towards the final bouy and got entangled in the freaking rope. I was so glad to hit that dock!!!

Nope, it wasn't pretty, not in the least....BUT I SWAM THE WHOLE THING and NEVER PANICKED!! My husband estimated 25-30% of people got out of the river without fiishing it. WOW, I am really proud of finishing that swim!

Our friend Francois, the nationally ranked duathlete got to he site. Set up transition. Walked over to the river and headed back to pack up his gear to go home.

Not much I could do given the conditions we have had this year.
I do need to work on sighting more and finding a way to deal with breastrokeer from hell dude....

Uneventful. I had kind of a tunnel vision thing from one eye coming out from the river, thought I had lost a contact lens with goggle leakage and figured it would be a challenge but I had to keep moving. Thankfully it slipped back into place and I had full vision...

This is a challenging course. Some false flats heading out of the park and relatively flat along Hugenot Trail, one roller that I don't like but it's nothing compared to what's heading along the remainder of the course.

Once you make the left turn onto Mannakin Ferry there's very little traffic but it's pure rollers. Not too bad until just before the turn around point. THE MONSTER of all hills....usually referred to as Hill MOFO....

Last year I could not ride this hill at all. I had to walk it every time I did the loop. I faced this ride a couple times in practice and beat it both times. Mentally that is a huge victory. I know I can take Hill MOFO and keep moving. I just have to watch my mouth cause I usually refer to it as the Mother F*ker it is and I don't want to get penalties for cursing like that....

NO ONE PASSED ME HERE. I got out onto Hugenot Trail and started picking off riders. Loved saying "on your left" all day. Passed one guy on a mountain bike and commented to him that I gave him credit for doing this course on that bike. He was cool, said "it sucks but I do this for fun"

Just before the MOFO hill I started to give myself the mental pep talk that I knew I had ridden this hill twice this year and could do it. I did have to get out of the saddle to climb up the hill but I got up (and NO CURSING) I was wheezing at the crest of MOFO. Kind of scary, especially since I didn't even have a rescue inhaler back in transition.... (OOPS!) Breathing settled down when I got done climbing though, no worries.

Loved the down hill....AWESOME zooming down :) Was glad to hit the park.

Not much, this was the highlight of the race for me.

Uneventful. I let my daughter throw water on me on the way out of transition.

The run couse on this race is always a blast. It's kind of a warped figure 8 thing through the woods so it's a trail run and really well shaded. My daughter and her best friend were volunteering on the run course with Jen (Artemis) so it was nice to have a few freindly faces out there.

Headed out of transition and my daughter is stationed with her best friend at that water stop right there. She cheere me on and I let her throw a cup of water on me. Should have gotten something to drink but didn't.

My back was tight for the first 1/4-1/2 mile but I kept running. The trail winds down along the river edge, very shady and a pretty run. It's a challenge to run trails after running roads so much. The subtle things like roots, rocks and litle elevation changes make it difficult . Started picking off runners here and there.

The trail ends into a neighbohood and you have to go through the neighborhood to the turnaround, in all it's less than a mile on pavement but it's not fun after the coolness of the trail. Got through that area--still picking off runners, cheered Lesa on--she was still headed to the turn and I was going home....

Hit the woods again. Just picking runners off here and there. Jen was out on the course cheering me on, that was nice. Picked off the last 2 runners about 1/4 mile from the finish line.

Learn to run faster

My husband handed me a bottle of gatorade when they were cutting off my chip. Had some of that and an orange. Chatted with Mark and Scott from swim class. Mark opted out of the swim, he was bummed. Scott had done Bumpass with me and could tell I was a lot happier after this race than Bumpass.

Grabbed some bbq pork and rested...

I found the RD and thanked her. I think given all the weather conditions she did an excellent job communicating decisions about the swim and course. She ususlly gets a lot of flack for poor communication so I wanted to make sure she got some positive feedback for a change.


Lack of OWS due to the rainy season we've had. River had a strong current.


This is a local race, usually a good race too--challenging for a sprint but not impossible.