My Olympic distance debut after surviving intern year of residency
STUMPY CREEK INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON
1500m swim 27mi bike 6.2mi run
Mooresville, NC
The highlights:
SWIM: 28:29 (1:53/100m)
T1: 1:05
BIKE: 1:25:05 (19.1mph)
T2: 1:00
RUN: 48:14 (7:46/mi)
FINISH TIME: 2:43:52
PLACEMENT: 2nd age-group, 15th/114 women
PRE-RACE: Last night, as I was laying out my typical pre-race breakfast of peanut butter toast with sliced banana, I came to the tragic realization that there were no bananas in the house. The horror! Given that it was 9PM, I was entirely too lazy to drive to the grocery store for a single banana. Fortunately, I survived the banana-less peanut butter toast and smothered on a layer of strawberry jam for good measure. The race was a 40 minute drive, which gave me plenty of time to eat and drink some hot tea. Unlike my last race, I arrived at the site with more than an hour before race start. After a quick ride to transition, laying out all of my gear, hitting the porta-johns (can someone please explain why race directors think that 8 porta-johns are sufficient for 500 people?), and a short run to warm up, it was nearing the 7am race start.
SWIM: The course was rectangular and featured a deep water start. Water temp was a balmy 86 degrees. I positioned myself at the front of the starting line, but still couldn't escape the flying fists and flailing legs for the first 250 meters. I finally broke into open water and had a rather uneventful swim. With 100 meters to go I took a mighty kick to the goggles from a nice man doing the breast stroke and suddenly had goggles full of water. Nonetheless, I was fairly happy to see 28 minutes on my watch as I climbed out of the water. I had the 13th fastest swim of the field, and that's exciting for someone without a swim background.
BIKE: The course was advertised
as "fast" with rolling hills.
That description is a bit too generous.
I struggled to find my biking legs and never could quite get into a consistent
effort. Of course wiping out in the
first corner thanks to the man who swerved for no particular reason didn't
exactly provide an encouraging start. If
nothing else, a bloodied knee and leg provided some excitement for the
volunteers during the remainder of the race. The last 7 miles seemed to be a steady uphill climb, and all I could think about was wanting to be off the bike. The majority of my training rides are indoors since they occur at 4AM, and I think I've lost some of my hill climbing strength as a result.
RUN: This was a two loop
course, with a mile-long steady hill at miles 2 and 5 and several other shorter hills. I felt decent through mile three, but then began to get a side stitch and fought with that for the remainder of the run. I held it together pretty well until the hill from hell at mile 5, and gave in and walked for a hundred feet or so to regain my focus. I passed several women over the course of the
run and was passed by none, so I was happy with my effort despite a time that
was slower than I anticipated.
POST-RACE: Hello finish line - how I love thee! And those hills - I hate them! After cooling down, rehydrating, stretching, packing up my gear, and schlepping it all to the car, I was more than ready for some calories. Sadly, options were pathetic. Chips, hotdogs, and orange slices. Yum, yum - sounds like perfect food to refuel endurance athletes, right?! I downed several orange slices and a few sunchips while waiting for the awards but held-out for a huge nutrition-packed smoothie back at home. This race was the North Carolina Best of the US qualifier, so it attracted an uber-competitive field. It's certainly a frustrating process to find my way back into competitive shape after some time away from racing, but I'm thankful to back at it and hungry for success.
And because I knew how much I would LOVE those hills today, I enthusiastically signed up to relive the pain and torture at the Red Top Mountain Triathlon in three weeks. Obviously I don't make the best decisions when I'm sleep deprived.
No comments:
Post a Comment