Female rank: 20/131

I got in and the water was freaking cold! It woke me right up! I did a couple quick out and backs in the warm-up pool to get my HR up. I started the swim inside the lane lines. I'd seen lots of swimmers starting on the outside and going under when they were told "Go". I'd never seen that before and didn't like it. Then I saw somebody a couple people in front of me start inside and realized it was personal preference, not a new rule, so that's how I started.

I was seeded in the 5:38 swim group rather than the 5' group, which I think was a blessing and I should remember to thank Rob for giving them the "wrong" time. I think I would have been passed too many times otherwise and that would have sucked. But this swim wasn't great because I had to pass I think 4 people. The first 2 were pretty easy, but the last 2 were more complicated because the pool got busy and there was somebody behind me wanting to pass me as I was trying to pass the person in front of me. It was quite a traffic jam. I was sucking air pretty hard when I finished, so I gave it my best effort.

One thing I won't do again is try to lift my butt out of the pool at the end. I will use the ladder! It would have been a great funniest home videos take of me trying to lift myself up. Let's just say it was not one of my most graceful moments!

Maybe seed myself a little bit further up the line. A 5:15 pace might have worked out better so I wouldn't have had to worry about passing people. Definitely use the ladder from now on. My arms were toast and my breathing was too labored to get enough oompf to lift myself.
Plus, any amount of swim training time would be a good thing!

I tried getting my shoes on while standing. That didn't work so I sat down. I didn't wear socks for the bike. I purposely tried to slow myself down in the transitions since I really was trying to NOT race! All I had to do was get my shoes on and clip my helmet on> I unracked my bike easily and trotted off for the mount line.

This is where things went to CRAP! Couldn't clip in to save my life. I usually start with the left foot then push off with my right. Sometimes it takes me a couple of tries to get the right in, but, I usually can do it fairly quickly. First I missed the left, so then I tried the right first. That didn't work, so I got the pedals set to try again, still didn't work. I think I did the left/right dance a good 4 times. I was flustered and could not straighten out my brain. UGH!!! Major mental flop. But a good learning experience I guess.

Get my brain in order so I can clip in. I should practice clipping in while winded and wet and cold.

This didn't take time from my transition, though. All this extra time was added to my bike time. I figure I lost about 43 seconds to clip in.

Female rank: 13/131
I won't rehash the clipping in fiasco.
I was winded from the start and the short part up Thornell Road at the very beginning of the ride always sucks for me. It doesn't look like much of an incline, but it's long and ever so gradual and my legs always struggle with it.

I passed quite a few people on this ride. And I didn't get passed by that many. Mostly men. I didn't count, but it wasn't like it sometimes is where they just keep coming. And I PASSED a few too! Maybe even more than a few. Strange.

But there was one girl after about 2 or 3 miles who passed me but never got too far ahead of me. She and I kept passing each other. Sometimes she'd pass me and get far enough ahead where I'd just think "Well, go on ahead then. I'm not racing anyway...." :) Then before I knew it I'd be on her tail and easily passing her. But she was a competitor. I'd think I'd lost her and then she'd be passing me again. It went like this the entire time!! I noticed that when I passed her on the hills it was most assuredly because I had clipless pedals and she didn't. I was able to pull the pedals with my hammies to get me up.

Anyway, at the turn off of Thornell road, going left to get back to transition, she didn't know the route very well and started to go straight with 2 cyclists not in the race. I passed her for good at that point. I was like "HA HA HA HA HA GOT YOU NOW!!!" :) Well, all I truly accomplished with that move was to make sure my legs were completely toasted for the run. I just totally wasted them on this 15 mile jaunt. Oh well, it was a great ride!

I need to TRAIN MORE!!! Plus, maybe it's not a good idea to go 'all balls' the last mile or two before the run.
And, I really should have taken a gel with me on the ride. At mile 10 or so I was needing something other than water.

My socks were giving me some difficulties but I got my shoes on ok. Racked bike just fine. Took a gel with me and a water bottle. Sucked the gel down as I was running through the parking lot and then took some big swigs of water and threw down the bottle with the girls at the 1st water stop and told them I'd come back for it.

Just wished I'd taken the gel on the bike so I didn't have to take the stuff with me on the run. I purposely tried to slow my transitions down for this race so I could gather myself a bit better. Not sure that extra few seconds helped much though.

Through the parking lot the girl I'd been playing tag with on the bike came up to me, said something like "nice job" and then TOOK OFF on the run! All I could think was "I used to be able to do that...." :(
I remember her race # and looked at her age - 22. So I guess that's part of my excuse. A girl 12 years younger than me should be running faster than me. I guess.

Anyway, my legs and feet felt baaaaaaaad. I didn't have my Garmin on so I really don't know what my pace was, but it felt like I was barely running and I couldn't will my legs to go any faster. This was the point where I realized the impact of my lack of training. ugh. I just kept telling myself it was just a training run, and it was good for me, and it certainly wasn't a marathon distance so it was a piece of cake and it would be over in no time. Don't you just love my self talk?? :)

At about the 11 minute mark I noticed improvements and was able to pick up the pace. A couple minutes after that I could hear this loud guy behind me just talking away. I instinctively looked behind me just because he was so LOUD. I just wanted to see who was barreling through. He said something to me like "Don't worry, I'm not passing you." I guess I started trying to make sure that was true. When we came upon the last hill he was talking about it and I said "I love hills" and he said "Well then take me up this one." He didn't know what he'd just done. :) When we sailed up that I was in my groove and was really pushing the last, long straightaway. This is where I think marathon training has really improved my mental toughness. Nothing seems too long any more. It's really remarkable how that's changed for me. I love it.

I finished strong and ended up having had a great race!! :)

Just need to train, train, train. Do lots of BRICKS!!

Drank 2 cups of water right away, Jackie came up to me right away and said I looked like I'd hardly worked, or something like that. ha ha. :) I heard my name announced that I was the 5th female finisher. That lasted all of 5 minutes, if that. But 10th isn't too bad, either!

I got my stuff out of transition pretty quickly and brought back my lawn chairs for some nice relaxing!


Lack of training.
If I could only lose these 10 lbs.....


This is a great local race! I'll keep doing it as long as they keep holding it.