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Crawfishman
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Crawfishman - TriathlonSprint
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 Swim
Comments: No real expectations on the swim. I always go out wanting to breathe every 3rd or 5th stroke like I practice, but without that blasted black line on the bottom, I realized during this race that breathing every other stroke is just how it's going to be for a while. Sucks because I could feel my butt sinking every time I breathed. I focused more on keeping my lead hand up as high as I could and not picking my head up as much and that helped. I got kicked once in the collarbone by some girl doing the back floating crawl thingy. About 2 minutes later, I see this same girl going about 45 degrees off course. I automatically holler at her and think to myself "Damn! What if she's in my AG?" I would have wanted her to do the same for me, so it was ok. The motto, if you will, for this race is "Spanish moss in my hand, turn me into Crawfishman!" Well, with about 100 yards left in the swim, I friggin turn into Crawfishman! There's this net-like grass surrounding me and I can't get out of it. Everyone else had the same problem, so at least I wasn't the only one picking that junk out of my shorts later on. Stood up a little too early and waded in about the last 30 feet. Overall, I've never felt better for a swim. I wasn't out of control with my breathing or strokes and I never had to stop and tread water to catch my breath, which is huge for me. What would you do differently?: More open water swim training to learn to navigate better.  Transition 1
Comments: If I had one complaint about the way this race was run, it would have been at T1. The mount/dismount area was in the grass. With the off and on rain we'd been having, the area was a soft, wet mess. It took me 2 tries to get enough of a pushoff to mount and get going. Then about 10 feet after mounting, there was a patch of loose gravel that I almost bit it in going out and coming back. Not too safe. What would you do differently?: Nothing. I wanted to run in and run out of transition and not use it as a cooling off point and I did just that.  Bike
Comments: Went out hard, maybe too hard because my left quad was cramping about 1/3 of the way through. I was being blown away by the 40-44 male AG with their Zipps. I could always tell they were coming by the "waw waw waw" of their wheels as they passed me by. Had a gu about halfway through and I didn't feel the caffiene kick in until just before T2 when I finally passed someone! I could see Chris (Rugbykid) about 100 yards ahead of me and I kept sending him good juju to stay strong and hammer away. I used chamois butter for the first time today and apparently I didn't use enough...'nuff said. What would you do differently?: I really need to work on my mental toughness on the bike. All I kept thinking about was how much I hate hills and how I still can't believe I survived Texas Tri and all those REAL hills. Just gotta gut it out better. Transition 2
Comments: Jumped off the bike and heard Joann (JoannH13) cheering me on! Woohoo! Got to my rack and curses!! No room on the rack. There wasn't even a chance I could shove someone over. Screw it. Laid Lil Bit on the ground next to the fence and hauled it out of there. On the way out I heard my dad yell, "Derek's only got you by 7 minutes!" I think I yelled back, "No shit!" and headed out with a smile! What would you do differently?: Nothing. I'm glad I kept my head on straight and just laid my bike down and out of the way rather than get flustered.  Run
Comments: Started out running about the 1st quarter mile and stopped to walk. My left hamstring and my right arch felt like knives were grinding into them. The hammie stopped after mile 1, but the foot got worse and worse. I kept the walking to a minimum...only on uphills. At the 1 1/2 mile mark my right foot started to fall asleep. Good! Now I won't feel the pain! Yeah, but try running with a numb foot! It felt like it was 3 feet thick and I had to keep looking at it to make sure I wouldn't trip. Didn't pass anyone, but had lots of encouragement along the way, including a smile and wave from Derek, who I could tell was not looking forward to losing our bet! I high-fived Chris and the last place runner and ran the last 1/2 mile since my foot decided THEN to regain feeling! Ugh. What would you do differently?: I know one of my goals was not to finish last in my age group, but when I looked at the other run splits, I was doomed from the start. They ranged from 6:25 to 9:36/mile. Looking at those makes me feel a little better about not reaching that goal. Looking back at my mini-brick 2 weeks ago, my splits were better today than 2 weeks before and I had about 10 minutes rest between bike and run then, so I am estatic about my times. Post race
Warm down: Grabbed my commemerative Crawfishman pint glass (much better than a finisher's medal!), got some water and talked about the race with Derek and the parents. Mom and Dad left soon after and we waited at the finish line for Chris. Is it possible to look strong but still look like you're gonna die? That was Chris! He had the biggest smile on his face when he crossed the line. He definitely left it all out there! Derek and I decided to have our own postrace party at the Abita Brewhouse nearby. Made it home and had the best nap ever! You know, I'm still waiting on Derek to pay up on the bet... What limited your ability to perform faster: Poor navigation swimming, being a wuss on the bike, numb foot. Event comments: Considering the venue changed completely from over 20 years of having it in one place, the race was extremely well put-together. I'd recommend it highly to anyone who wants a challenging, but manageable course. As for me, I absolutely love this sport! I don't know if it was having my dad there to see why we do what we do or because I had a good race day, but I just want to keep this up for as long as I can. I looked at my times for Abitaman last July. This race is about the best comparison I have to Crawfishman. My swim splits were virtually identical and the swim was longer this race. My bike splits were much faster and I was on hills this time. And my run splits were faster and the run was longer this time. I've been beaming ever since I found those old splits. HALLELUJAH!!! THIS TRAINING STUFF WORKS!!!!!!!! Last updated: 2006-04-21 12:00 AM
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 2006-05-09 7:43 PM |
Expert  950    McKinney, TX |  Subject: Crawfishman |
| 2006-05-09 8:23 PM in reply to: #419375 |
Expert 706 New Orleans | Subject: RE: Crawfishman EXCELLENT job Laurie! That's great about the improvement. Looks like you guys had a great race. Congratulations!
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| 2006-05-09 8:35 PM in reply to: #419375 |
Champion 8936   | Subject: RE: Crawfishman |
| 2006-05-09 8:46 PM in reply to: #419375 |
Master 2314 Gulf Shores, AL | Subject: RE: Crawfishman Someone should start an "I love Chamois Butter Thread". You can never use too much. But I digress. You really kicked butt. The swim and bike were both solid and your run is improving. Believe me, the run is the hardest to improve. You have come a long way in a short time. Congrats on winning the bet and congrats to Derek as well. |
| 2006-05-09 9:55 PM in reply to: #419375 |
| Expert 1085 New Orleans, LA | Subject: RE: Crawfishman great bike split!! and "waw waw waw" is the best description of that sound - i personally LOVE that sound - it motivates the hell out of me |
| 2006-05-09 11:17 PM in reply to: #419375 |
Queen BTich 12411 , | Subject: RE: Crawfishman "Derek's only got you by 7 minutes!" LOL! I'm so proud of you Laurie. You've come so far! I'm glad you are able to keep yourself in a good place mentally, it makes all the difference. Saddle sores...ouch. CONGRATS!!! |
I've never had that problem, so its hard for me to understand. I'll send you my bottle of Chamois butter since I never use it. | 2006-05-10 4:13 AM in reply to: #419496 |
Extreme Veteran 560 New Orleans, LA | Subject: RE: Crawfishman |
| 2006-05-10 6:12 AM in reply to: #419375 |
Expert 950 McKinney, TX | Subject: RE: Crawfishman |
| 2006-05-10 7:20 AM in reply to: #419375 |
Pro 4612 MA | Subject: RE: Crawfishman Great race and nice report. A bonus to have parents as spectators. Hope they enjoyed it. Better yet, you won the bet. Tri is additive. It's nice that you and Derek share the same interest. |
| 2006-05-10 12:59 PM in reply to: #419375 |
Pro 4292 Evanston, | Subject: RE: Crawfishman |
| General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
80F / 27C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 225/248
Age Group = F 25-29
Age Group Rank = 6/6
Got a hotel room in Covington the night before. It shaved off about 40 minutes of pre-race driving for us and about 2 hours of pre-race driving for my parents.
Went out to D'Angelo's for carbo-loading and lots of laughs. Note to self: Never get a pasta dish loaded with whole cloves of garlic the night before a race. I could benefit from jet-propulsion, but this was taking it a bit too far!
Woke up at 5:30 after waking up about every half hour all night. Got dressed, made lots of jokes about my new chamois butter, Asmaster, checked out and got on the road. Missed the turnoff by about 2 miles and had to double-back. Sky was really overcast and the showers that were supposed to have blown over Saturday still hadn't passed yet. Forgot the camera, but Mom and Dad saved the day and picked up a disposable one at Walgreens.
Got to the race site around 6:45 and had to walk about 1/4 mile to transition. Got body marked (I need to remember not to wear warmup pants so it doesn't look like I'm dropping my drawers to get marked!) and got to my rack to see that some numbnuts took my spot.
I had been very mellow all week long leading up to this race, but this really got to me. This guy should have been racked on the other side, so I started asking around for #87. After about 5 minutes and me starting to set up where he should have been, #87 shows up and I think I got a little snippy with him. He was really apologetic, said he was a rookie, but didn't move until I firmly but sweetly said, "ok, well move your $hit!" I hate when I'm like that, especially since I am BOP, but I'm going to take time off where I can.
Race warmup consisted of running to the portajohn, hugging Mom, waving to Dad, kissing Derek and getting in the water behind his wave.