A blog about my experiences and adventures of becoming or being an endurance athlete.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Kerr Lake Olympic Distance Triathlon 2010
(taking a drink at one of the small shady spots on the run course)
(Kim running like the Wind)
(Second bike back, I was so ready to be off my bike)
( Transition 1 - sitting down to put my bike shoes on)
(Getting ready before the swim)
We arrived at the campsite after picking up our packets at the YMCA. We had bad directions to the Y from the GPS...it tried to take us to a retirement center. We used our heads though and found Packet Pickup without the GPS. The campsite was pretty nice, a little hilly but not to bad. Kim and I set up the Taj Mahal (huge tent), that 3 of us were sleeping in (there was room for 5+ people. By the end of setting up the tent we were sweating up a storm. It wasn't that hard to set up the tent...but it was a very hot and humid day. The rest of the crew started to show up and we hung out for a little bit. Kim and I took our bikes out for a quick little spin to make sure the gears were shifting. We rode over to the transition area that was being set up. We talked to some of the race officials, they were very nice and happy to chat with us for a minute or two. We went back to the campsite and cooked up an AWESOME dinner on the propane stove of grilled chicken, new potatoes with garlic butter, bread with spread-y cheese, salad with blue cheese and croutons. Yummy!! Kim and I then went and took a shower at the campground showers, it was so nice to cool off a little bit. We came back and had dessert (grasshopper cookies). I turned in for the night around 8:45 to read before bed to try and settle my nerves. I did have to go to the bathroom before I went to sleep....I took the flashlight and walked down to the campsite toilets, I was followed by a toady frog who kinda freaked me out until I figured out what was making all the following noises. The night cooled off a little and we had a fan in the tent that if nothing else had some white noise to drown out all the rest of the night noises.
Race morning- I woke up maybe 3 times before it was time to get up (that's normal for me). I had had some kind of strange dream where in the end I was running through a crowd of steroid using pee wee football players (who knows what that means?). I got up and went to the bathroom, got all my stuff together, changed into my tri clothes (tri shorts, tri top, sports bra), and got my bike together. I got too antsy around 7am and started walking over to the race site, and set up my transition area, got body marked (I was number 20 which was marked on all 4 of my extremities, and an Athena -which is a big A on the back of my left calf), and got my timing chip. I was happy to have a neoprene chip holder for this race. I'm not sure I would been able to handle the disposable one today. My friend Ruth showed up in transition with frozen water bottles! YEA! That was an awesome thing to have. Everyone else (that I know) started showing up...and I was excited that D and Jenn D were racing along with Kim and I. I also got to see my coach from last years Team In Training Tri I did, Bruce, a former teammate Tom, and the TNT crew. They ended up having 2 participants doing this race.
Swim- We were the 5th and final heat of swimmers. The swim was not wetsuit legal, but if you wanted to wear a wetsuit you could but you would be DQ'd (ie: you couldn't win any prizes). I had brought my wetsuit with me, but decided not to wear it. When the air horn went off, I started my swim and ended up in the middle of the pack (I think). It was not my best swim, but it wasn't horrible either. I had a girl in a wetsuit that kept trying to swim over me, pass me, and then stop (literally stop) and do it all over again. It was kinda annoying but I worked on trying to not be around her. I was happy to get to the end of the swim and climb out of the water and "run" up the hill to transition. My time for the swim to transition 1 was 33:24.
T1- Transition 1 is the transition between the swim and the bike. Where we take off our swim gear and put on our bike gear. I sat down and put on my bike shoes and got all my stuff together before going out of T1 on the bike. My time was 2:12. I was telling my cheerleaders as I was transitioning that this was going to be the longest transition EVER...I felt like I was going slow...but I was making sure I could make it through the bike. I needed to make sure I got my honey stingers in my pocket along with my enduralytes. Once I got it all together off I went to run out to the mount/dismount line to get on my bike.
Bike - My legs were already spent. Crazy huh? I guess the swim took more out of me than I thought. We had to climb out of the park, it wasn't a steep hill out but it was long and steady. Then came a fun down hill, and then came all the hills....climbing up and cruising down. It was a hilly course. 40K bike ride that I finished in 1:22:56, 17.7 mph. Apparently I got a penalty on the bike, but I don't know when, where, or why. The penalty is 2:00 added to my final time. I was very much over this ride at mile 17, the headwind had really picked up, the heat was brutal, and the hills were killer. I just kept telling myself...you can do it, you can do it. I usually really like my bike, so I was feeling pretty bad to be having the "pep" talk on the bike.
T2- The transition from the bike to run. I have to rack my bike, take off my helmet, take off my bike shoes, put on my running shoes, my running hat, my race belt, and grab a water bottle. Go run out of transition and onto the run course. I again sat down to change my shoes, but I wanted to calm my nerves a little. My time was 1:47.
"Run" - EPIC FAIL. My main goal for this race was to do my run/walk intervals all the way through. Well the heat (it was about 95 degrees out) and the humidity (it felt like soup), caused my fail on the run. I started out with my shuffle run out of transition. I felt terrible, so I started walking almost right away just to get my feet under me. I figured I'd start running once I got myself calmed down. Well I did run some of the 10K course, however I truly walked most of it. It was tough walking 6.2 miles and I thought about not finishing a million times. However I did meet a lot of cool people out on the run. It was hot enough that at times I would look around and EVERYONE was walking. Yeah...it was BRUTAL. I kept trying to run, but in the end I walked and walked. My time ended up being 1:35:39. I was soooo TIRED!
Results - So having finished was a good enough thing for me. I was not going to let this race beat me down. 14 people who started this race ended up not finishing it. In the end that turned out to be a good thing. I ended up getting 3rd place in the Athena category (the race division I'm in) with a time of 3:37:55 (that's with my 2:00 penalty). My friend Kim totally rocked this race even though she said her bike was terrible (and she is usually faster than me on the bike) with a time of 3:21:57 and got 1st place in Athena. Even though it was a hard race, that took a lot out of us, it was good.
Would I do this race again? Sure would. Especially now that I know I can make it through it in brutal heat and wind, just think how nice it would of been with ideal race conditions. Of course there is no guarantee of good weather, but if I made it through this heat, I can make it through almost anything. Racing is supposed to be FUN, and even though I didn't have fun every minute of this race, it was still a happy thing that I can do this race, finish it, and go on to race again.
One more cool thing about this race. All the proceeds from this race went to the American Cancer Society, Relay for Life in Vance County, NC. I love that we could go race and raise money for Cancer Research!
(I'll put some pictures up with this post as soon as I find the cord to upload the pictures from the camera)
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