Pre-Race -
I didn't get as much sleep as I normally would. I left a work conference I was at and met my family at my inlaws. We went to my nephews drama play and didn't get home until 11pm. It was difficult to get to sleep even after I finally got into bed. Normally I would be in bed by 8pm. Alarm went off at 4:30am; got myself ready and woke up my husband and son. We packed up the car and we were ahead of schedule. We stopped for coffee and I sipped on my Skratch on the 30 minute drive. I drank about 6oz of Skratch and 1/4 up of coffee by the time we got to the race. I had a banana about an hour before the race and a cliff gel about 15 minutes before the race.
SWIM-
This was a seeded start meaning that you had to tell them how fast you *think* you would finish the 400 yards. I had seeded myself at the 10 minute mark. I was #105 into the water. They start a new person every 5 seconds. I had a difficult time finding a breathing rhythm and wound up breathing on every stroke for most of the swim. Although I did better than last years swim, I am still slow as molasses.I had much less anxiety though which is good.
| 00:10:08 | 400 yards | 02m 30s / 100yards | ||||||
| Age Group: | 11/27 | |||||
| Overall: | 75/135 (pathetic) | |||||
What would I do differently?
Figure out how to swim faster or become a duathlete. (Not kidding!)
BIKE -
This was supposed to be an 8 mile course. Garmin measured it as 7.21 miles. It was 2 loops with 9 hairpin turns. As soon as you got up to speed, you were forced to slow down and do a 180. The wind was terrible and there was a head or crosswind for about 80%. There was one section where I had a tail wind which allowed me to get going pretty fast. I felt like my shifting was very effective to try and maintain an even cadence and not power through the wind. I was VERY happy with the fact that not a single person passed me on the bike (or the run). I was able to track everyone down within eyeshot. My bike split was 6th fastest out of 135.Given the wind and all the hairpin turns, my average was only 16.2mph.
| 00:26:36 | 07.21 miles | 16.26 mile/hr | |||
| Age Group: | 1/27 (Woohoo!!) | ||
| Overall: | 6/135 (Woohoo!) - See SIDENOTE below! | ||
What would I do differently?:
Try to drink on the bike. I was parched by the end.
There was a headwind or crosswind with gusts until the last 1/2 mile. I thought I was running much faster than I was. Definitely felt it pick up once the wind was at my back! Again, Garmin measured 1.82 miles, it was supposed to be 2 miles.
| 00:16:01 | 01.82 miles | 08m 48s min/mile | |||
| Age Group: | 2/27 | ||
| Overall: | 20/135 | ||
Practice running faster more.
I was happiest with my bike performance! I feel like I have made a lot of gains in the bike! Sidenote: The top two bike finishers I highly suspect cut the course. I am not sure if it was on purpose or not, but they had times 3-5 minutes faster than anyone else this year or last. They also started their swim after me therefore with their bike times, they should have passed me - they didn't. So unofficially (and my coach agrees with this), I had the 4th fastest bike split!!
Next race.....EAGLEMAN!!!
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