Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - Sprint Course
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Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - Sprint Course - Triathlon
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![]() Swim
Comments: I'd love to one day be able to say that I had a good swim! Today was not that day. I knew as soon as the horn sounded that I should have positioned myself a little better to the right because even though I was able to have almost a straight line around the buoy, by being on the left it meant that a lot of people were able to sneak by me on the right and then they didn't necessarily cut back to right to be in line with the next buoy. So not only was I way off to the left, but then I had to try and dodge the people that didn't turn back to swim towards the next marker. Oh well, lesson learned. I don't think it really mattered in the grand scheme of my swim anyways, I was just a bit ticked with myself for not starting in a better spot. My back was in spasm from the get-go again, but I did what I could to try and reach longer with my right arm to try and keep it from seizing up completely. I think I sited well, and I only got kicked once by a breast-stroker, so I'm going to call this swim an overall victory as I didn't die, I made it to swim out, and I was able to still pass a couple of people. What would you do differently?: Not get a cold, and find a way to get a back-i-otomy at some point. They have those, right? ![]() Transition 1
Comments: This really should have been much faster since I didn't have a wetsuit to take off, but the first 2 times I tried to put my right foot into my bike I crushed the heel inward with my foot which really didn't help at all with getting the shoe ON my foot. Third time was the charm, I grabbed George and off we went to the bike course! What would you do differently?: Not much other than try not to hop around like a broken penguin while trying to get the heel of my shoe un-crushed. ![]() Bike
Comments: I was really pretty happy with this ride, though I also know I could be faster. Right out of the water I was HUNGRY still from being up for over 5 hours already and only having a Cliff bar and part of an apple to eat since no one was counting on the 2 hour delay in getting us into the water, and we weren't allowed in transition. Made for a crappy time trying to keep my nutrition in check, but whatever. There was nothing I could do about it, so I was VERY happy to find that I had a leftover Gu in my bento box from who the hell knows how long ago. YAY! I devoured that and realized that I felt pretty good with my pace. Breathing was easy, I was passing people (and getting passed by some really speedy people), and generally enjoying the bike ride! There were 2 women early on who passed me like I was glued to the pavement and after seeing the age numbers on their calves (55 and 65 respectively), I couldn't help but be seriously impressed... and hope that if I ever grow up I can be speedy like them. :) They close the roads as much as they can for this race, so it's nice to know that you really do have tons of room to get around people. I had a few of the fast Oly race age group guys come whizzing past me and tried to give all of them encouragement, but I'm pretty sure most of them were too fast to hear what the crazy lady was saying. More thanking of all the volunteers, and cops/firefighters that were on the course, and though it seemed WAY too soon, there was the bike in! WOOOOOOT! What would you do differently?: Push it a little harder, I'm pretty sure I could have bumped up the effort level a little and still been fine for the run. ![]() Transition 2
Comments: I get back to the racking spot to find the jerk beside me has decided to drape his wetsuit across the bar where George is supposed to go. Remember how I said we were all like sardines on the rack? Well, there is a time and place where you might have enough real estate to be able to do that with your wetsuit, but this was NOT it. After a small stream of cursing, I tossed the wetsuit onto the guy's bike, racked George, off with the bike shoes, on with the running shoes, visor and race belt (which I actually remembered for this race - yay me) and then head out onto the run course! What would you do differently?: I don't think there's much that I could have done differently? I had to take a couple of extra moments to deal with the guy's wetsuit, but otherwise it was pretty smooth. ![]() Run
Comments: After last week and my glorious 9 minute mile pace, I had NO idea what the heck was in store for me today. I decided to just go out and go at a pace that my legs felt happy with and see what happened. Well holy crap, they were mostly fine. I hit the first mile marker way sooner than I thought I was going to, stopped briefly to get some water, hit the turn around... Lo and behold just as I made the turn around... there's Jen Schmit!! I'm SOOO happy that she did this race and so impressed that she's having such a great time with everything she's gone through over the last year. But... I also wanted to beat her (no offence Jen!) because I know she's a MUCH better runner than I am, so now I HAD to keep going... but after one last little stop for water. I don't wanna dehydrate out there! Crazy for me is that I was actually passing people as I was running! That NEVER happens to me. I mean, N.E.V.E.R. I'm the person out on the run that gets to make everyone else feel better because THEY have someone to pass. Well, maybe not anymore! I hit mile 2 and even though I could feel the blisters happening on my feet, they weren't going to stop me. Blisters will heal, this was a race, dammit! On I trudged and kept thinking with every step that Jen was going to catch me at some point... Argh, the legs are starting to get a little tired... SHUT UP LEGS! But my left calf is still twinging a bit from straining it 2 weeks ago... SHUT UP LEGS! And my left leg is... SHUT UP LEGS!! Okay, now that we've established I'm in control of my legs, holy sh!t! It's the finish line! Just 0.1 miles left to go! I saw both Bether and Jon Schmit as I was running down the chute, so raised my arms in victory a little early as the timing mat was still quite a ways ahead of me, but I didn't care - I actually RACED a race, rather than just finish. It felt good. What would you do differently?: Um... maybe try to love running more? Naaaaaaaaahhh. Running still sucks. ;) ![]() Post race
Warm down: Stand around with Bether waiting for Crowny to finish, then found out that I had finished 3rd in my AG! WOOOOOOT! If it wasn't a lie, it would be my first podium finish EVER at a tri (I missed it by 40 second in 2012) and it made me giddy. I danced, made Beth laugh at me, got some Gatorade and a banana, screamed my fool head off when David came running down the chute and then wondered if he was going to puke for a while (he didn't), and then waited for the awards ceremony where I got my first AG medal EVER!!! WOOOOOT! What limited your ability to perform faster: Mostly my stupid back and the fact that I'm just not all that fast. Aging up next year is going to SUCK as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place women ALL came in under 1:20:xx for this race. Last updated: 2014-06-13 12:00 AM
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General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
RecPlex
Overall Rank = 82/354
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 3/26
After getting caught in the torrential down pouring of rain I had a sore throat all day on Friday and Saturday, but I figured I would head out to Pleasant Prairie anyways as I'd already paid for the race and the hotel (twice, but that's because I'm an idiot and booked it for the previous weekend instead... whoooops!), and the Crowny's were going to be driving... so I might as well go, right?
I managed to get everything (or at least I hoped I grabbed everything) in about 3 minutes as I was late getting back on Saturday in time for the Crowny's to pick me up, so I threw race kit, running shoes, bike shoes, helmet, visor, sunglasses, etc., etc., etc. into my backpack thinking "I've done this before, I'm sure I've got everything!". Uh huh.
We got to the Expo, racked our bikes, picked up our packets & another long-sleeved tech tee that I probably won't wear, got my bright pink swim cap and got to find out that I was in.the.very.last.wave of the day. Wave 21. Sigh. Oh well, the good news is that I was in the wave with Jen Schmit, which meant that I would at least have company as I whinged about being in the last wave. :)
Out to dinner with the Crownys and to watch the end of the World Cup Game that was on, and then over to the ice cream store where they brought out a milkshake in a glass clearly made to hold the largest margarita you can envision. OMG it was deeeee-licious, but there was sooo much of it that we were only able to finish about 1/2 of it before conceding defeat.
Back to the hotel to try and catch some shut-eye before getting up at stupid o'clock for my ride over to the race site with David & Bether. Wake up the next morning to find that you pretty much can't see anything because of the fog. Seriously, nothing. Driving was terrible and you could barely see the lane markings. Parked the car and wandered over towards transition where we wondered where the hell the lake was. You couldn't see it at all because of the fog. We were all really hoping it would lift by the time the race was supposed to start.
It turns out that the way the numbering worked this year was alphabetical by last name. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever, but that's how it was done. David had real-estate to spare in his rack and there were FOUR racks behind the one I was on with NO ONE racked - meanwhile, we were packed in closer than sardines. Not happy. Oh well, what can you do? I opened up my backpack to put out my bike shoes, helmet on the bike with sunglasses, then running shoes with socks, visor, race-belt... um... where the hell is my wetsuit?? Oh for feck's sake, you've got to be kidding me? I forgot my wetsuit of all things?? Dear lord, I really should have been born blonde instead of having to dye it this colour. Eventually I realized that the water temp was going to be fine & I would be a-ok without the wetsuit, so just decided not to panic about it. I mean, what's the point? I'm fine with NOT wearing one, and if nothing else, it *should* make my transition time smoking fast! Always gotta look for the silver lining, people. :)
Sooooo... the race was supposed to start at 6:30am. Well, that came and went without anything happening because of the fog. 7am, 7:30am, 7:51am (my original start time), 8am, 8:30am... All of the athletes just standing around in the fog.. most with their wetsuits already on or half on, except for me. The idiot who has no wetsuit because she forgot it in the closet at home.
Somehow the fog lifted enough to get the para-athletes out (who are all kinds of impressive and inspiring), and then the elites before the fog rolls back in and the waves have to stop again. Oh wait.. another wave went! Annnnnd, stop. This went on for a while until the RD decided to change the Oly swim route to being 2 laps of the sprint swim course and so all waves were halted again as a buoy was dragged over from the Oly course to mark the new course. Ok, awesome... so... we can get going again, right??
I think it was around 9:30am when we FINALLY went off. Almost 2 full hours after we were supposed to, and my back had started to cramp up, muscles were stiff, and I was HUNGRY. So come ON already, let's get this thing started!! I find Jen Schmit before the race, and we chat a bit as we head towards the water and I make my way over to the left side as I know that we all get into the water and it's a really sharp right that tends to stop up a lot of people.
Waiting for the gun, and I see Crowny coming out of the water just as the horn blows and we start running in which put a HUGE smile on my face! :)
Short version of the above: ~ 2 hour delay in getting the race started = standing and shivering for a warm-up.