Sprint race report

[Tri Girl]

I did another sprint this weekend- couldn't resist trying a pool swim and a super flat course. The best news: I finally broke the 1:30 barrier (1:28:35). Almost killed me, but I did it.
The swim was a 500m snake swim in a 50m pool (my legs were looking for the wall to push off of halfway down every lap). I was soooo nervous about doing a pool swim. Give me open water any day, where I'm free to move about and swim willy-nilly; but a pool swim scared me. Luckily the lanes were HUGE (double wide). Passing was not a problem, but I can see how in a regular pool lane that might be a tad impossible (look out head on collision ). I've figured out that I need to underestimate my time because I think other people do the same. I passed about 10 people on a short 500m swim- seems like a lot. I was dead-on guessing my time, but I suppose I'll shave a min or two off that for the next swim. Being stuck in a line of 5 swimmers that I had to pass all at once was NOT fun.
Out of the pool we had a long and gravely 200 yd run to T1 (I tried to get them to include that in the run portion, but they politely declined ). Transtion was loooong and narrow, so running in and out took a while. Made for long transition times.
The bike ride was a bit traffic-heavy, but the police at the intersections were VERY helpful and things went smoothly. 12.5 flat miles. Started to rain on the bike, and the cool water felt soooo good. I almost got taken out by a lawn-mowing crew as they pulled out directly in front of me as I'm going 20 mph. Wet roads don't make for quick stops... but then again it's not a real ride if you don't "almost" get taken out at least once. Avg. 16 mph. Not bad, but I know I can drop some serious time on the bike. I just have to learn how to get more power so I can have more speed...
T2 was another long run to re-rack then a short jaunt to hit the course. 2 loop 5K. First loop was uneventful. Rain got harder and it felt wonderful as it cooled me off. On lap 2 I got passed by a 79 year old man in a speedo. Getting passed by someone who is 45 years older than you who's not even breathing hard- kinda takes the wind out of your sails. Made fun chasing him the rest of the lap, tho (but I didn't look too close as his speedo gave me the heebie jeebies a little).
Good race overall. A sprint is a whole other animal from longer distances. I've said before that I'll take an oly or a HIM over a sprint any day. At least with the longer distances I can get in a rhythm and settle down. In a sprint I'm, well... sprinting (duh)- the whole way and that's soooo hard on me. I'm not speedy by nature. Glad I got a new kind of race under my belt, tho. I got 3rd in my AG (out of 10 this time instead of out of 3). Everytime I place in my AG it's a race that only recognizes the first 1 or 2 places. Dad-nabit. One day I'll actually win something...
Now I just have to figure out my next race...


So how did our other racers do this weekend??????