My third tri. First one this year. Prepare for Racine!
Race distance:
400 yard swim
16 mile bike
3.1 mile run
On Saturday I did not do any working out, just rest. I had my favorite pre-race meal with a friend - Buca! I was home in bed ready for sleep around 9:30 as I had decided to get up at 5:30 (the race started at 8:30). I slept pretty well and got up in the morning without much trouble. I ate my normal pre-race breakfast of PB&J, got ready, and loaded up the bike. My nerves were a complete mess! It was a good thing I didn't have the HR monitor turned on, I'm afraid to see how high my HR was this morning!! Fortunately I have some great friends who were up early and giving me advice on how to calm down!!
Ok, time to go! I had never been to the park in Shelbyville so I left really early in case I got lost! I got there about a quarter after seven and went inside to figure out where everything was supposed to be set up for the day. I grabbed my race #, timing chip, and did the body markings in no time. Headed out and drove around to the other lot and set up the bike in the transition area. Wow! It's been awhile since I've done this and I had a hard time deciding where to put everything! This would be my first race with my new bike! I got everything set up, found my friends, moved my car, and headed back indoors with no issues other than being cold. It was in the low 40s and the grass was wet so my feet were wet and cold!
It didn't seem to take too long before we were lining up to get in the pool. One person every 10 seconds. I was #116 so I had awhile! My friends were faster swimmers than me so they were ahead of me in line. So I talked to the people around me trying to keep my nerves in check. I didn't do too bad :) Feet in water - COLD! Off I went down the lane. I was pretty sure the guy behind me in line would catch me so I started off too fast. I could feel my heart rate getting too high and my breathing getting a little crazy (all before I reached the end of the first lane!). So I took my friends advice and started breathing on every stroke until I got into a better rhythm. Ok, not so bad, the guy behind me did catch me and swam right passed me. Only one other person passed me in the pool so I felt pretty good about that! I however, kept hitting the legs of the girl in front of me, but I wasn't quite fast enough to pass her without using a LOT of energy and she wouldn't let me by on the turns. Oh well, although I did almost take her out (on accident!) trying to get out of the pool as we were both at the end at the same time. So, I thought it would take me about 10 minutes and my garmin said 9:35! Wow! Much faster than I thought.
We had to run outside and down the hill (in the wet grass) to reach the bike transition area. Did I mention that it was COLD??!! So, I ran down the hill and found my bike, dried off my feet, put on my socks and shoes, put on my extra shirts, race belt, sunglasses, helmet and grabbed the bike and off I went. T1 2:45
The bike seemed really hard for the first 5-6 miles. I felt tired and could not get my breathing under control. I was shooting for 4 min/mile and so far I was clocking off a lot of 3:40s! Then came some hills, which slowed me down some but helped me get my breathing under control. I drank some powerade and was starting to feel better. So, I just kept going as hard as I could! Somewhere around 10 miles, 2 guys passed me, well somewhere around mile 14 I passed them! I just kept feeling stronger so that was good. But, I was worried about how my legs would feel on the run. The bike was over before I knew it and per my garmin I did the bike in 55:20 - that's 3:27 per mile average! Over 17 mph! Woohoo! Feeling good now!
Got off my bike (no falling!!) and into transition. Racked the bike, changed my shoes, took off one of my shirts I had layered, grabbed my headband and off I went. T2 1:18
The run was mostly on a paved path through the park - start was uphill of course! But not for long as when I looked back at my garmin most of the first mile was downhill. Mile 1 - 8:17. Somewhere in that mile one of my friends passed me as he was headed to the finish so that gave me some motivation to keep pushing. Mile two was mostly flat but some bad terrain - some gravel and then a weird narrow bridge thing! There was water at the halfway point where we turned around so I took a cup of water, but I managed to run through it with no walking and only splashed a little water on my face! I did have to stop once to loosen the chip timer around my ankle, it was way too tight and cut my ankle, I'll have to remember next time to make sure it isn't too tight! Saw my other friend before I hit the turn around on his way back so again some motivation! Mile 2 - 8:26. Mile 3 - well if mile one was downhill, mile 3 was uphill pretty much the whole way except for about the last .1! So this mile was slower for me as my legs were getting really tired. Mile 3 8:56. Then I saw the finished line and it was downhill so I sprinted in the last bit of the race, crossed the finish line and whew I was done! Run time per my garmin was 26:05 (not bad considering my 5k PR not in a triathlon is 24:05).
We stayed to listen to the awards. I missed 3rd in my age group by less than a minute! Woohoo! So in the end I think my time was about 1:35:01, which was quite a bit faster than I expected so I was thrilled! This was a great race with a very pretty (and somewhat hilly) bike course. I didn't love the run course but for 5k it wasn't a big deal. As for my bike - I LOVE IT! It was fantastic!!!
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