This weekend I did another local sprint race I did last year - it's called Race the River, a novel name indicating that you actually swim in the river. It's kind of cheating because it's basically right where the lake outlets into the river so it's not fast moving or anything. ;)
Last year this was a friend's first race (ever) and she hoped to do it this year, but vacation and sprained ankle interrupted, so I was on my own (no big deal, that's how it usually is). As I am not racing Athena, my goal was to improve on last year's time (and get under 1:20) and see how far up the age group I could move. This year, anyone projected to finish under 1:10 got dumped into an "elite" category, which helped in some of the age groups. They had an "expo" at packet pick-up, which was really a handful of local vendors - hopefully more will show up next year. I did get one of those handy tiny sample bottles of Aquaphor, which is perfect for a travel bag and lasts forever.
This race has a mandatory meeting at 6:20 and transition closes at 7. They had opened up 200 more slots, capping off at 700 registered, which made transition crowded. It's a mixed-gender race and has a fair amount of novice triathletes, which makes for a mess when people start setting stuff up wrong and you come in late. Thankfully, I don't have a lot of stuff, and am good at adapting. ;) I decided to race in the VFFs again, running shoes be damned (at this point I don't even know where my running shoes are). The transition area is also not on grass, so it's kind of dirt with some rocks and some grass, I went to the outside where there was grass (and easier to find my bike). That was a good idea, as I was able to take off my wetsuit in the grass and not risk damage.
For this race, you walk to the swim start from transition, so it's 1/2 mile on pavement barefoot. I decided to swim in my wetsuit, so I put it halfway on and walked down. First the elites started, then ALL the men (down to clydesdales), then the youngest women on down to Athenas, with my age group being the second womens group to start. I'm not sure why they don't start alternating genders/ages, I guess this works. It's an in-water start, and the lady at the swim start is always super awesome. She guided a group "I'm sorry" for all the abuse we'd give each other during the swim (as I kicked someone treading water, oops, sorry) and we counted down to the start. As a note here, one of the things I do practice in the pool is starting from a stop. If I need to tread water, if someone kicks me hard enough to mess up my stroke completely, if I can't sight, if a buoy turn is tight/crowded, or if it's an in-water start, being good at re-orienting your body from a head out of water dead stop to swimming again (without breaststroking) is handy.
Since the swim is point-to-point, it actually seems very isolated and longer than it really is. It in fact felt like forever, but I remember this feeling from last year. I much prefer the triangle or out and back swim courses, I feel like I am making more progress. I was pretty sure one girl was ahead of me and about 1/2 through the swim someone in a yellow cap (same as mine) passed me, so I totally cheated, caught her draft, and let her sight for the both of us. As it turns out, I would chase her on the bike, too, and this was the SAME girl that chased ME on the bike 2 weeks ago. Nemesis or future training buddy? ;) As I got out of the water I heard someone say "here come yellow caps", so I knew there could not be many, if any, ahead of me, from the results it look like I must have been 4th from the moment I stepped out of the water and just held my ground.
T1, wetsuit came off MUCH easier, sunglasses were not on the ground, I spaced strapping my shoes but it just took a second. The bike being backward from your standard transition rack orientation did confuse me for a sec, but there was only one way to get her down.
On to the bike, it's three loops, which I admit is not my favorite course. Two loops? Not so bad. Three loops? Higher ARGH factor. I saw my rabbit ahead and proceeded to chase her for two loops. I could best her on all the uphills, keep even on the downhills/flats, so I knew eventually I'd get her. On the third loop, I did, and I told her I'd been chasing her all 3 loops - she said "dammit!" and I laughed. She caught back up on the downhill, determined to not let me get ahead, and I returned the expletive as she went by. ;) One way was semi-downhill on nicely paved road, the return was slightly uphill on crappily paved road with a light headwind. I ate once, forgot to eat again, didn't drink enough, but I knew the race was short enough it wasn't a huge deal. We each had top 3 bike times (2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th, it's 3 loops so you really can't tell who is ahead of you - some people passing were on their 2nd and 3rd loops and not in my AG).
Into T2, I knew she'd beat me out of transition, she scored a sweet spot (note to self, get up earlier? nah). She's also a faster runner than I am. I had no idea how many people were ahead of us, so I dropped my bike off (I actually left it in the grass, semi-securely up against the transition fence, where I left my bike shoes and wetsuit too) took off the helmet and shoes, wriggled my toesies into my sprints (they went in easier this time), and headed off to the hot, hot run.
Pavement. 3.1 miles of sun exposed asphalt. The temperature got to 95 degrees on Sunday, by this time (about 8:30) it already felt warm. Last year I had a HARD effort on the run but it was also 10-20 degrees cooler and cloudy, so I just wanted to go faster than that considering the huge difference in conditions. I have been wearing my HRM for the last couple of races to maintain my effort at a "hard effort" for the entire time, so that's what I did. I know it was not my best, but I suck at running in the heat. One advantage to the earlier morning run was that the pavement wasn't yet so hot that my feet felt too hot in the VFFs, but I did dump water on myself at both aid stations and took in a little HEED (my glasses took in some HEED too). I felt fast even if I wasn't moving as fast, the first mile I felt hot, the second mile you have a hill, the third mile was downhill to the finish (so the first mile must have been slightly uphill too!) but you have to circle the park which makes you say ARGH again. SO close!!
Happy to finish and get some water, I reached the end and the time said 2:10 - so I figured I did make it under 1:20. Here I ran into my nemesis/future training buddy who said I really pushed her on the bike again, and I said I was just trying to catch her by the 3rd loop. Always a pleasure running into the same people again and again. They posted results about 15-20 minutes later, and I was 4th by 2 minutes. 4th! ARGH! She finished 2nd, but had a 3 minute faster run. I wasn't watching legs except on the "back" of the out and back when I was thinking "holy crap, better keep running, they may catch you" as people started to look my age. I had a 15th place run but had bought myself so much time on the bike/swim that nobody caught me.
When they did the awards, I discovered that the age group before and after mine had winners 2 minutes slower than my age group, furthering my theory that not only do I live in a competitive area, I live in a competitive area with a lot of competitive women in my category. I either need to move, get younger, or get older and hope they are all older than I am by 2-3 years. ;)
.5 mi swim: 0:15:32 (includes long run to transition)
11 mi bike: 0:32:20 (20.4mph)
3.1 mi run: 0:28:08 (9:04 min/mile, toasted, I guess)
Overall: 1:18:52. 4/46 W30-34 AG, 111/616 men+women, 29/365 women.
Last year:
0:16:30 swim
0:34:35 bike (19.1mph)
0:29:14 run (9:26 min/mi).
Overall 1:23:40. 3/21 Athena, 110/429 men+women, 30/283 women.
Hoping to add distance back to my repertoire this week. :) Getting my dog a cooling vest so she can join me.
