Alright gang, you know I have a horrible memory for race reports, so I'm just going to capture some of my thoughts and lessons learned on this post.
First of all, it was totally fun to do this one with Mollie, this being her first tri ever. Hooray! Pat this chick on the back,
she is now officially a triathlete! :) Amara came to be our cheering section (best cheering section
ever) and also to do some recon to decide if she wants to do a tri in the future.
Here are some photos for your enjoyment, stolen shamelessly from Lesley's facebook album (thanks, L!)
 |
| Available now: Tickets to the GUN SHOW!! |
 |
| Pre-race fun |
 |
| Lesley in the water, and possibly me somewhere in there kicking her by accident! |
 |
| Out of the water. |
 |
The dismount line marked off to the right (the "Stop Here" sign).
Amara counted lots of first-timers going over their handlebars from braking so hard
when they realized what they were supposed to do. Yikes! |
 |
| On the bike... getting ready to ride the EXACT same time as last year! |
 |
| Cory took this photo -- it turned out great!! |
 |
| Some post-race celebrating |
Overall, weather was great, people were awesome, and good times had by all. I think we ate a little too much Chick-Fil-A after the race, 'case my stomach's still angry! My lower back is extremely angry at me for having done this, but what else is new? Today the water in Eagle Creek was nearly bath water warm. It was great!! And yet it was wetsuit-legal at 78 degrees.... I think I might've been sweating when I got out of the water, haha. If open water's always like this, I might swim more often!!
Results-wise, I was about 3 minutes slower in this race than I was last year. (?!?!?!) I'm about enjoying this race, but I might as well add this "discussion" in.
In 2010:
Swim: 12:48.3 (161)
Transition1: 01:33.3 ( 66)
Bike: 0:33:41.8 (17.8 mph/ 85)
Transition2: 01:36.2 (179)
Run: 0:21:10.3 (07:03.4/ 7)
TOTAL: 1:10:50.0
In 2011:
Swim: 14:18.2 (254)
Transition1: 1:33.4 (100)
Bike: 0:33:47.1 (17.8 mph/ 96)
Transition2: 01:58.6 (258)
Run: 0:21:55.0 (07:18.3/ 11)
TOTAL: 1:13:32.3
I feel like I made a good, solid effort today so
I'm really happy with my race. It's crazy how T1 and the bike were nearly identical!! But, now I know I'm obviously capable of going faster in the swim and run than I did this morning! It's like that "dang it!" moment that comes after the "oh yay!". Today's still an "oh yay!" day, and it was awesome to be racing on home turf again. I should at least jot down what I can do to make this a better one next time around.....
- Basics: Get the sleep earlier, eat better the day before. I tossed and turned all last night, and skipped lunch yesterday because of my work schedule/traveling (ugh!). Bad ideas all around...
- Hydration & Gel! If this was a longer race, I would have crashed. Actually, I started to crash halfway through the run, and all I would have needed was some energy gel to get through it. I also felt like I could/should have drank more water than I did. When I got going on the bike, I was starting to wish I'd had some nice cold water! :)
- Swim the outside. I can't figure out why my swim was so much slower than last year! Two guesses: On Thursday I swam for the first time, and did something like 2+ miles in the pool, so I might just have been tired. Or... I swam close to the buoys this time, whereas last year I swam outside of the crowd. Maybe I lost some time in the traffic around each buoy. I was really disoriented going around buoy #3 and to the finish, confirmed by Leslie, who told me I almost DQ'ed myself by cutting off the buoy. Umm... what buoy? (point made.)
- Run more. How in the heck did I pull of a 21-minute 5k last year? Ahhh! I lost almost a full minute here. I think I'm just slower 'cause I haven't been doing much (quality) running.
- Bike racks/registration. Your bib number is assigned based on your reported swimming ability, so I was a high bib number being a slower-than-average swimmer. However... the transition area was a one-way zone for bikes, so having a higher bib number meant I had a longer distance to run with my bike. Notice my T2 time is much higher- I was doing nearly the whole thing with my bike in tow and in bike shoes!! I'd say that added about 15-20 seconds. Not sure what I can do about this one, it's mostly just unfortunate!
Other cool stuff I saw that I have to do in the future (more good tri tips)
- Sit on a bucket. I realized that people bring 5-gallon plastic buckets to tris now not just so store massive amounts of tri stuff, but to SIT ON while they're transitioning--- Genius!!! Since your legs are wobbly from the swim, having a lil' seat like a bucket is such a good idea... Leslie also says it's a good way to mark off your territory in the transition/bike rack area.
 |
| Lesley's bucket! |
- Mark your spot. At first I couldn't figure out why I was seeing weird chalk marks on the ground. Turns out, some people had brought chalk to mark their bike racks from the center area. As you're running by and tired from swimming, sometimes it's not always easy to remember your bib number or find your rack, so marking it with chalk is another genius idea!
- A couple of girls brought fun balloons to spot their bikes quicker!
Good lessons all around... so the half next, I guess?
Great race. I wouldn't worry about the difference in swim time. Too many factors can go into the difference, plus it's too hard to get the buoys in the exact location from year to year, so who knows, it could have been a much longer swim this year.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the swim. If your water fitness isn't significantly different from last year, it's probaby because the course was long or short. I've had issues wth the Eagle Creek tri swim courses being really inconsistent.
ReplyDeleteOverall, sounds like a good race though!! Congrats!