The day started off pretty crappy it was raining and hard to get up so early in the morning. We ended up getting on the road about 15 minutes after we had planned because of some issues fitting both bikes on the car rack. Once we got on the road DH was pretty crabby, but I tried to keep a positive outlook. We got to the JCC and checked in, got marked, and then went back to the car to get the bikes and set up the transition area. Thankfully by that time the rain had almost stopped.
Lessons learned from the transition area, one, make sure your bike number is on tight, my flipped over and was scratching my leg as soon as I got on the bike, two, take extra plastic bags to put on the ground under your towel so you have a dry area to place your stuff, my shirt sleeve was soaked.
After I got everything set up I put my change of clothes in the locker, hit the bathroom, and then they started counting down 10, 9, 8, … and the race started. I only had to wait about 20 minutes in line before it was my turn to jump in the pool. The women I was standing next to in line were super nice and we were all encouraging each other. I jumped in and started off breathing every 4 strokes, but quickly switched to breathing every other stroke. The whole swim was over in 5 minutes, but I could tell I was getting a little tired, I ended up catching the person in front of me and we both got out at the same time.
T1 I ran over to my bike which was at the absolute end of the row and gave DH his race chip (I did the swim for him) got my wedding rings from him and proceeded to get on my shoes, helmet, Camelbak and jersey. I am happy about the length of time I spent in transition, it wasn’t too long.
As I started on the bike it took me a couple minutes to mentally get into the ride and I think this is where the greatest improvement can be made. I could have pushed myself harder on the ride and today when I look back at the race I regret holding back. The ride consisted of driving out about a mile or so and doing three loops around a residential area. One portion was up a couple hills and the other half of the ride involved going down some hills. I managed to get a couple sips of water with the Camelbak.
T2 It was hard to run the bike up the hill and into my transition area my legs weren’t working as I would hope. I quickly took off the helmet and gloves, had a few sips of Gatorade and started to run. DH and I came into transition together, but I quickly ran ahead once we got on the road.
The run was slow to begin my legs felt like I had shin splits and it took almost 2 miles for them to loosen up. Given the fact that this was a 3.5 mile run that was way too long. I managed a good pace of 8:39 miles, but it felt like I was running baby steps and really slow.
I finished in 1:19:15, I ended up getting a metal for first place in my age division which I was happy about. For perspective the first place woman did it in just shy of one hour so of course I want to improve. If I improved my speed on the bike by 2 mph that would mean about 7 minutes shaved off my time and with a slightly faster time on the run (I am capable of an 8 min pace for that distance) it would mean about 1:10 for the sprint and I think that would be very respectable. The youngest person to complete the race yesterday was an 11 year old girl who completed it in 1:21. All in all it was a great race the weather ended up fine for the event and the post race goodies were sweet, I got a new shirt for the gym and learned my lesson about making sure when I go out I give it my all.
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