Today I did the Valley Girl Sprint Tri in my hometown. This is a great all-womens event for beginners and seasoned ladies alike. It's pretty well-ran, the people who run it are super friendly, and the volunteers and spectators are great. The loot includes a nice technical shirt (for volunteers, too!) and a raffle at the end for all participants (including aero helmets, wetsuits, boxes of gels, etc; I got a 3 month Cricket broadband subscription and some Castelli socks... had one person been ahead of me I'd have got a sweet HRM). The awards are top 5 (except relay, top 3) and it's a cool medal in the shape of a star.
This year, there was a new bike course, which was about a mile longer than previous years (maybe 1.5 miles), but I liked much better. There were a couple of short hills, and there was a little bit of a headwind but not very bad at all. The run course is net uphill - the finish is higher than the start. The swim was in a 72-73 degree lake - very comfortable in a tri suit.
I had decided to race Athena to see how I'd compare. I did pretty well - came in 3rd. I probably could have caught the girl who came in first on the bike, but she would have beat me on the run by 4 minutes anyway. The girl who came in second caught up to me with a quarter mile to go :( to the finish. She was over 6 feet tall and there was no way my 5'4" legs could catch up no matter how fast I ran! The winner was also quite tall - certainly taller than my 5'11" husband. Because of the proximity to Ironman (about a month), I didn't really "train" but just tried to maintain fitness.
I was second out of the water, had the fastest Athena bike split, and 4th Athena run split. Could I have made up 30 seconds (to get to 2nd)? MAYBE. I turned around the buoy too soon and had to backtrack a little (dumb mistake, maybe cost me 5 seconds, though), then on the bike some jerk was driving their car at 15mph through the bike traffic - and it was two-way bike traffic so no way could we go around. That would have got me another 30-45 seconds (seriously. he drove in front of us for about 3-4 minutes and I was going 22+mph at this point - it was DOWN HILL). Could I have made up 5 minutes? I would have to be faster on the swim and mostly on the run. Or grow 6". ;)
I felt like I had good lines on the swim and navigated through the end of the waves in front of me well, minus my stupid buoy tricks. I either breathed on a 2 pattern or a 3-2 pattern depending on where I was. Transitions were pretty good for me, too. T1 was a little ways to the bike start and a little ways to my stuff from the swim exit, but I didn't put on any socks or do any toweling off or anything. Aside from the dude in the car, I felt like it was a solid bike. I was able to take in gels - a little after 30 minutes total, a little just before I got off so I didn't have to stop on the run. T2 I did wimp out and put on socks to go with my running shoes, but otherwise couldn't have gone much faster and be safe with people around me. On the run, I just felt hot. I am not a very good hot runner. I poured most of the water over my head at the aid stations and that felt good (thankfully there was one every mile).
Swim - 1/3 mile - 00:12:43.920
T1 (long way to get to the bike start) - 00:02:11.676
Bike - 12 miles - 00:37:16.914
T2 (again a long round trip, also put on socks) - 00:02:06.572
Run - 3 miles - 00:29:20.479
Total / Time behind 1st place - 01:23:39.5 / 00:05:09.500
Had I gone age group, I'd have been 16th of 80. Top 10 swim, top 7 bike, and you know what that means for the run. ;) Respectable. The winner came in at 1:08. Overall, I was 79 of 491, bike times near the top (certainly top 25), swim times near the same top 25 area, and the run once again.... not so great. ;)
Guess I really do need to work on my running. :cries:
Oh. I got rear ended on Monday, spun around on the freeway going about 25-30mph by someone going too fast approaching a slowdown in wet conditions. My neck and shoulder have been giving me serious problems all week - I've been in to the chiropractor 3x and felt good Friday but definitely had pain last night and this morning. It made the bike uncomfortable and I probably paid for it on the swim and later on the run to a lesser degree.
