Race Report

I made it - what a day! First some videos and pics, then my report. :) :)

Here's a slideshow of the day's highlights.





Quick Clips

Bike Lap Two - (I'm in black, behind girl in purple)


Bike to Run Transition



Stats

219 sprint athletes
103 men (7:15 am wave)
113 women (7:25 am wave)

1 was 55/113 overall
I was 4/11 in my age group. 2.5 minutes behind 3rd place.


Goal times:
Overall time: 1:30
Swim: 18:00
T1/T2: 4:00
Bike: 40:00
Run - 28:00

Actual Times (and placement)
Overall Time: 1:30:04 (4/11 AG, 55/113)
Swim: 17:30 (5/11 AG, 73/113)
T1: 3:01 (6/11 AG, 77/113) (after T1 - 71/113)
Bike: 38:18 (3/11 AG, 16/113) (after bike - 42/113 (I passed 29 women and about 15 men)
T2: 1:49 (6/11 AG, 88/113) (after T2 - 47/113 - I got lost...)
Run: 29:45 (7/11 AG, 77/113) (after run - 55/113 8 women passed me)

Overall Stats (men and women)

Overall: 134/219
Swim: 144/219
T1: 154/219
After T1: 141/219
Bike: 67/219
After bike: 97/219
T2: 178/219
After T2: 109/219
Run: 161/219

Thoughts and Feelings
I felt pretty good this morning. I had on ok sleep, went to bed at 9pm, listened to ipod for awhile and finally fell asleep after 10pm. Had a bit of a restless night but got enough sleep. I woke up at 4:30am and felt pretty good. Had a shower, ate a little breakfast and got ready, then left the house at about 5:40 and was at the site before 6am. Did the body marking, then set up transition and chatted with other triathletes until swim warmup time around 6:50 am. I went to the bathroom a bajillion times (3?) then got wet (brrr) and swam about 200m to warm up. Waited with Erik for a few more minutes then one more bathroom trip before it was marshalling time.

It was a very quick time on the beach. I couldn't hear what they were saying because the music was too loud then suddenly the air horn sounded and everyone was rushing into the water. I was positioned to the left, closer to the buoys, so I ran too and just started swimming with the rest of them. It took a bit to find my way through everyone, and I swam fairly confidently the whole time. I wasn't fast but I was steady. I found it a bit of a pain that so many of them swam the breast stroke because it was hard to pass them for fear of being kicked. Once I was past the 2nd buoy, I started to breathe on one side only and felt like I was getting lots of air so I could swim faster. I kept at it steady until I reached the beach in just a bit over 17 minutes. I was very happy with my swim time.

Erik and Carmelle were along the chute, cheering me on as I ran to transition, which made me feel great! It was a looong run to my bike, but I got there as fast as possible, dried off a bit, and put on my bike shorts, then out to the bike course. I forgot to turn on my garmin at first so my data wasn't accurate. No worries, I just went as hard as I could.

I started to pass people almost right away. I was a little cautious at first, then got used to it and just started to hammer. Had a great climb up Knox, passing everyone as I went, men included! I followed my race plan pretty closely, and did really well on the climbs. All the way, I was passing people, which really boosted my confidence. There were a couple of people who were going my speed and we passed each other a number of times along the way. One of them was #727, who was later to beat me in the run and come in 3rd in our age group. Near the end of the bike, I really went hard and passed her, and a whole bunch of other people and had a great time overall of 38:18 with an avg speed of 31.3kmh. Much better than my goal 40 minutes, 30 kmh.

My bike-to-run transition sucked. I missed my row at first and had to back track but only lost a few seconds in that. Then I ran right past my spot and had to go back again. I figure I lost about 30-40 seconds in all. What an idiot! Meanwhile #727 was right behind and she was out on the run just seconds ahead of me. However, she was a stronger runner and ultimately beat me by 2.5 minutes so I couldn't have caught her anyway.

My first kilometer of the run was pretty good, about 5:48 km, but I couldn't hold it. I started to slow although my HR was high, 168/172. I tried to stay steady until the 3rd km then go harder but just didn't have it in me. My last km was my fastest but it wasn't enough to make a big difference and my overall run time was only 29:45.

Still, I had met my goal of 1:30 and was very happy with my bike time. Later, I looked a the men's bike times and saw that I had beaten over half of the men's bike times too. Yeah baby!

Here's a link to my beginner triathlete race report.

Race Report

Erik, Angie, and Jesse were there cheering me on every time I went past the main area and they were there at the end of the race. What a great feeling! I had an awesome time and loved every minute of it, despite my crappy run time. For now, I will focus on the high points (my relatively good swim and my awesome bike time), and I will work on my running over the winter.

Yee haw! What a great day!!!!

We hung around until about noon, watching for Carmelle to come in and hoping to win a door prize (nope), then starving, we headed for Subway and home to nap. Later Erik took me out to the Wild Apple at Manteo for a lovely celebration meal. I feel tired, and elated. What an awesome day!!!

I want to thank everyone who has faithfully been reading my blog over the past few months, and also those who have sent encouraging emails and phone calls. And thanks also to all my Twitter and TE friends. I truly could not have done this without your encouragement and support. Thank you so much for helping me to realize my dreams!