Portage Lakes Triathlon
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Portage Lakes Triathlon - TriathlonSprint
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Swim
Comments: Bad, bad, bad...The time is not an indicator of how bad this swim was. Actually the time is pretty on target with the rest of my swims (without a wetsuit, but note I had one on). I totally screwed this up. Unfortunately, I let the modicum of success I have experienced this year go to my head and a certain amount of complacency entered my mind and I apparently thought I was some freaking elite triathlete and decided that I should start at the front of my wave. I positioned myself in the second row of my wave and that was the beginning of the disaster that was about to ensue. The sent us off and I went running in with the mass of my wave and took off - I was maybe 50 yards in when I felt totally out of breath and was surrounded by swimmers clawing at me like I was a cheap hooker on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. All I could think was that I needed to swim faster, that I needed to beat the girls in front of me, since when did Triathlon start being about beating other people, this has always been about me. Yeah so I totally started to panic and gulped a mouth full of lake water which only made it worse. What the !@&* was I doing in the middle of this mess? I started to panic so bad that I tried to doggie paddle - wtf am I 7 years old and even then I couldn't stop the panic so I flipped over on my back and actually started doing the back stroke so I could catch my breath, really? I was 75 yards in and out of breath and in a total panic what in blazes was wrong with me? I ended up doing the back stroke to the first bouy and tried to think of anything other then the rest of the distance I had to swim. When I got to the first bouy, I was feeling less anxious and flipped over and started to swim freestyle - ahh thank goodness it had passed. Yeah, until I was 20 yards passed the first bouy and I took a foot to the jaw (ouch) and got another mouthful of lake water, the panic started again so I flipped over on my back and started doing the backstroke again and remained that way for probably 300 meters, surprisingly though I was actually passing people while doing the back stroke, mostly some of the clyde guys from the wave before. I was finally able to flip back over and finally able to settle into a rhythm, but this swim was a mental mind f*cking in a serious way. What the heck was going on? Whatever, I got it done. What would you do differently?: I broke my cardinal rule of triathlon "My Race, My Pace" I was so caught up in the excitement of having done so well at the last race that I turned it into a competition of me versus others - the external competition and this just about sank me - literally. This is about me and beating me. not beating others. It has been a journey this year of re-shaping my competitive ideals and I let the old competitive ideal get the better of me as I started this race. While ultimately my swim time wasn't that bad, the mind f*cking I went through made this absolutely atrocious. Transition 1
Comments: Meh, my wetsuit got stuck on my left heal and I was still pretty rattled from the swim so I wasn't as fast as I would have liked to have been, not to mention this transition area was huge compared to most HFP races - guess there were over 850 people at this race. What would you do differently?: Well...would have been nice if I wouldn't have let my mind mess with me so much on the swim as that impacted my transition time. Bike
Comments: The bike was great, I actually had a great time on the bike and passed quite a few people. This hills seemed easy and I really didn't have any problems climbing. This was my first race wearing big girl shoes and I had a blast. I was amazed at how good I felt on the bike - then again this could have just been because I was so glad to be done with the swim. Really though, most of the time when I would glance quickly at the bike computer I was pushing 20+ which is much faster then usual. I guess all those long rides are paying off as I was able to maintain 20 or faster for most of the ride (excluding the climbs) and didn't feel tired at all. Within the first 5 minutes I caught up to Teresa and then we played leap frog. It was great because it reminded me of the training rides we have done together and she's pretty wicked fast on the bike. I finally got passed her and stayed ahead of her for 4-5 minutes or so when she came blowing past me and yelled come on girl get moving - I think I said quite audibly "Ahhh sh*t" and took off to try and catch her, I wasn't able to catch her until the last 100 yards heading into the dismount line and transition. What would you do differently?: Overall it was a great bike and considering the course I was very happy with the ride and it was actually fun. Ha ha I passed a couple of those super fancy bikes and wheels sets, I love it when that happens. I still haven't named my roadie, but I'm thinking I've got a name in mind for her. Transition 2
Comments: I was surprised that I was able to do this transition as quickly as I did, you know with having to change shoes and all - that was a first but it went smoothly. What would you do differently?: Nuttin. Run
Comments: Ha! Everyone said this run course was flat, bull-larkey - it was totally not flat, but, I can't complain, as this was a huge PR for me. I have never run a sub 8:00 mile. I had no idea I was moving this fast (well ok this fast for me). I ended up getting passed with a little less than a mile to go by a chick that I knew was in my AG, I tried to keep her in my sight but she was Gone with a capital G, Whatever, I was really happy with this run, although upon finishing I had no idea I had done the run as quickly as I had because I had no watch. What would you do differently?: Nada. Post race
Warm down: Gave Mike a big hug, waited and cheered for T, scarfed a PB&J and some water and then packed it in and headed to Columbus to meet Kate (K_Watzek) as she was my date to Alice (Ahohl) and David's (David Tri's) to celebrate Alice's FullRev. It was great and finally met Brue - Brue, if you're reading this, I was glad to be regailed with your's and Kate's tales of comic love. Kate you were the pefect date, thanks for going with me. What limited your ability to perform faster: My complacency - see the details of the swim section of the report. Last updated: 2010-08-25 12:00 AM
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2010-09-20 10:36 PM |
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2010-09-21 8:53 AM in reply to: #3109072 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
HFP Racing
Overall Rank = 90/405
Age Group = Chicas 25-29
Age Group Rank = 5/29
I stayed with the parental units as they agreed to watch my munchkin and deliver him to my in-laws where his Dad would later meet him, so I woke up at 4:15 and took a shower - yes, I took a shower - this was more about waking myself up for the hour and 40 minute drive then about getting clean. Racked my bike on the car and wouldn't you know, I finally have racking my bike down to a science, so much so that I was even able to do it in the dark. Left my parents house around 5ish and drove to Portage Lakes.
Got checked in and took my stuff to transition. Dang it, remembered everything but a towel and wouldn't you know it, it was starting to drizzle. Great my shiznit would be wet...luckily the triathlon parents found me and they had a spare towel. I got the towel and Mike checked and pumped up my tires as I continued to lay my stuff out. Milled around and talked with the Triathlon parents until they went to get ready. Ran into Todd (CincyTodd) and we put wetsuits on and walked down to the beach together. Todd zipped me into my wetsuit - Thanks Todd - and I zipped him into his. We took off in the water and went our seperate ways. They had reported the water temp as it being 73 - what the foshizzle ever - it was cold - even with a wetsuit. At least though, with a wetsuit I was able to hid the headlamps from everyone, thank you Triathlon parents (M&T) for the wetsuit, finally the world doesn't have to look at me and think I should be dancing around a pole because of the fripples. I love me a wetsuit.