Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Rumpass in Bumpass Race Report

On my schedule for my training is an international distance triathlon as my first race. That's 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K race. The last time I ran an int'l distance was the Austin Triathlon in 2007. Back then, it was the end of the season and I was about 15 pounds lighter. But now, I am more comfortable in the water and I have a race plan to stay in zone 2 the whole time as a training run for Ironman.

We got to the race site early enough to have breakfast with the team, which was great. Then I went to body marking and got marked up all over. I went to rack my bike, and somebody told me my bike was on the wrong rack. "No, I'm number 54." "Your bike says 57." Whoops!! I accidentally told them the wrong number, so I had to spray sunscreen all over the numbers and they wiped right off. Numbers on, transition set up, wetsuit on (this should be an event in itself), and I looked at the swim course. I could barely see the first buoy! But I was trying not to psych myself out.

The race starts. First of all, it was so windy. The waves were hitting me every time I tried to breathe. I was kicked a bunch of times and went off course a bunch of times. I had to lay on my back a few times to catch my breath.

These were my thoughts during the swim: I cannot finish this. What if I just stop right now? I can't stop now; what will I do for Ironman? I can't do an Ironman. Relax, I'm in the water and I'm lying down. I love Lake Anna. I've swam here as a kid. We are the only ones lucky enough to be in the water today. There is no way I can finish this. This sucks. I can't even see the buoys. I'm not even on course. I'm almost done. I'm zen swimming. I'm going to finish. Yippee!! That was tough.

T1, no probs. Last bike on my rack, no prob. Joined the race while most others cyclists are on the second leg of their bike. shoom, shoom, shoom, other racers pass me one by one, or in some cases, three by three. On my second loop, I'm pretty much alone and I don't pass a single person.

Come into T2 and see my family cheering section. Get on run course, it's great! Out and back so I get to see all the other runners coming and going. Keeping my heart rate in Z2 was awesome. I was never very fast, but I did pass a few people at the end. Kept running until I'm done!

Not a PR by a long shot, but a great start to tri season. However, instead of making me more comfortable about my races, it made me more scared. Only 3 weeks to prepare for a Half Ironman...

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