Our pre-race schedule was much better than our first race. Our dinner consisted of a huge pasta salad that we ate in the car and we arrived at our destination at 9pm (instead of 1:30am) and we were in bed by 10pm. It took me awhile to get to sleep and I tossed and turned throughout the night. Before I knew it, it was 4:45am and time to get up.
I was much more relaxed before this race than Pine Barrens. At Pine Barrens I was so nervous I had a hard time keeping any food down. Not the case for this race. I happily devoured my favorite pre-workout English Muffin with PB&J. Yummo!
We arrived at the race site just after 6am. The fog was burning off nicely and it looked like we were going to have a good morning. They weren't quite ready for registration yet so we explored the site and found the pond where the swim would take place.
Hmm... Water Quality Pending?
We checked in and picked up our race numbers and timing chip. We also got awesome t-shirts and a reusable tote bag!
The transition area was set up on a baseball field and it was quite nice! There was tons of space between the racks and each place was numbered so you knew exactly where to put your bike.
I lucked out and got a spot on the end! Great to have a little extra space. Here's my transition area all set up. It was much more compact than last time.
We debated whether or not to wear our wet suits. The swim was super short (only 300 yards) and not dealing with a wet suit would speed up our transition times. Before we got to the race I decided I was probably going to wear mine because I wanted the practice of swimming in it and speeding up transition. Once we got to the race they informed us the water temp was 58.5 degrees - which is really fucking cold. In fact, they said if the water was under 58 then they would have had to cancel the swim portion of the race.
At about 7:45 we put on our wetsuits and got ready to head down to the water.
A kiss for good luck...
Swim: 300 yards / ~5:30 (16th out of 92)
The swim portion of the race was broken into 3 heats. Each heat had about 30 people. The swim entrance and exit were in the same spot so the second heat left after a 3 minute delay, and the third heat left after a 10 minute delay. Sam was in the first heat and I was in the third heat. I was kind of pissed about this at first because the swim is my strongest and 2/3 of the racers were going to have a head start on me and I was afraid I would be in last position for the good part of the race.
I got into the water a little before the start but didn't do much because it was so fucking cold. Since I'm a strong swimmer I decided to get out in the front of my heat and just go for it. I was in the water for about 30 seconds and my feet cramped up super bad from the cold. It hurt like hell... and then they went numb. I decided to just keep kicking with my legs and try not to move my feet to much. I quickly fell into the fourth position and despite the cold I felt pretty strong. Because the water was so cold (and dark) I swam the entire way with my head above water but it didn't slow me down to much.
When the swim was finished I limped out of the water because it hurt to walk on my cramped up feet. I walked/hopped/limped up the hill into transition. When I got to my spot I looked at my watch and it said 5:45. Once we got the results my swim was recorded as 7 minutes. Three other people in my wave had this time so obviously something was messed up because I didn't cross the mat with 3 other people.
Transition 1 (T1): 2:37
T1 went pretty fast. I stripped off my wetsuit and jumped on the bike. My feet were still hurting but I didn't notice them too much after I put on my shoes. My recorded T1 time was 1:07. I took the 1:30 I cut off my swim and added it to my T1 time... From now on the splits seem correct so it should get simpler ;)
Bike: 12.2 miles / 45:54 (43rd of 92)
A kiss for good luck...
Swim: 300 yards / ~5:30 (16th out of 92)
The swim portion of the race was broken into 3 heats. Each heat had about 30 people. The swim entrance and exit were in the same spot so the second heat left after a 3 minute delay, and the third heat left after a 10 minute delay. Sam was in the first heat and I was in the third heat. I was kind of pissed about this at first because the swim is my strongest and 2/3 of the racers were going to have a head start on me and I was afraid I would be in last position for the good part of the race.
I got into the water a little before the start but didn't do much because it was so fucking cold. Since I'm a strong swimmer I decided to get out in the front of my heat and just go for it. I was in the water for about 30 seconds and my feet cramped up super bad from the cold. It hurt like hell... and then they went numb. I decided to just keep kicking with my legs and try not to move my feet to much. I quickly fell into the fourth position and despite the cold I felt pretty strong. Because the water was so cold (and dark) I swam the entire way with my head above water but it didn't slow me down to much.
When the swim was finished I limped out of the water because it hurt to walk on my cramped up feet. I walked/hopped/limped up the hill into transition. When I got to my spot I looked at my watch and it said 5:45. Once we got the results my swim was recorded as 7 minutes. Three other people in my wave had this time so obviously something was messed up because I didn't cross the mat with 3 other people.
Transition 1 (T1): 2:37
T1 went pretty fast. I stripped off my wetsuit and jumped on the bike. My feet were still hurting but I didn't notice them too much after I put on my shoes. My recorded T1 time was 1:07. I took the 1:30 I cut off my swim and added it to my T1 time... From now on the splits seem correct so it should get simpler ;)
Bike: 12.2 miles / 45:54 (43rd of 92)
The course was full of rolling hills that made for a challenging and fun ride. I felt strong on the bike and I actually passed quite a few people (a change from the last race). Now, a lot of these people were on hybrid or mountain bikes, but I even passed a few on road bikes. I pushed hard on the bike and with about a mile left to go it dawned on me that I still had to run 3.1 miles. Shit.
Transition 2 (T2): 1:43
T2 felt fast but in hindsight it was not. I was 86th out of 92 for speed. I have a lot of work to do on transitions still...
Run: 3.1 miles / 31:07 (73rd of 92)
The beginning of the run really sucked. Like really,really sucked. About 100 yards in I was thinking to myself "This must be what it means to bonk on the run." I was afraid that I was going to have to start walking, but I pushed through and about a half mile in I started to get into a groove. The run course was 2 loops and after the first loop I saw Sam waiting for me with my camera. Here I am at 1.5 miles:
He had finished his portion of race but, being the awesome husband that he is, he jumped in and ran the second loop with me. He took a bunch of pictures along the way. He also reminded me that my blog would be picture-less without his efforts. He went the extra mile and a half for me and the blog :)
I'm looking pretty strong in this shot:
Starting to hurt...
While running we started day dreaming about Dunkin Donuts Collatta's with whip cream... Mmmm... Yum... I think that motivated me to run faster...
My "sprint" was short lived... In this picture I look like I'm power walking instead of running (pick up those feet!!):
Coming in for the home stretch...
Done! Sam ran ahead to get a picture of me crossing the line but since my camera is a POS it had gone to sleep so I kept "running" until he was able to snap a pic:
Final Time: 1:26:51
Overall Place: 56 of 92
Age Group (F20-29): 8 of 14
The post-race festivities were great! They had bananas, oranges, apples, granola bars, water and Gatorade. But, best of all they had Subway sandwiches!! We went and got some snacks and posed for an after picture:
We packed up our stuff and headed back to the picnic area to see if they had posted results. Low and behold, Sam finished second in his age group! Go sweetie!!!
After the race we headed straight to the nearest Dunkin and fulfilled our Collatta dreams...
Overall it was a fabulous race and great for newbies like us. We can't wait to go back next year!
Transition 2 (T2): 1:43
T2 felt fast but in hindsight it was not. I was 86th out of 92 for speed. I have a lot of work to do on transitions still...
Run: 3.1 miles / 31:07 (73rd of 92)
The beginning of the run really sucked. Like really,really sucked. About 100 yards in I was thinking to myself "This must be what it means to bonk on the run." I was afraid that I was going to have to start walking, but I pushed through and about a half mile in I started to get into a groove. The run course was 2 loops and after the first loop I saw Sam waiting for me with my camera. Here I am at 1.5 miles:
He had finished his portion of race but, being the awesome husband that he is, he jumped in and ran the second loop with me. He took a bunch of pictures along the way. He also reminded me that my blog would be picture-less without his efforts. He went the extra mile and a half for me and the blog :)
I'm looking pretty strong in this shot:
Starting to hurt...
While running we started day dreaming about Dunkin Donuts Collatta's with whip cream... Mmmm... Yum... I think that motivated me to run faster...
My "sprint" was short lived... In this picture I look like I'm power walking instead of running (pick up those feet!!):
Coming in for the home stretch...
Done! Sam ran ahead to get a picture of me crossing the line but since my camera is a POS it had gone to sleep so I kept "running" until he was able to snap a pic:
Final Time: 1:26:51
Overall Place: 56 of 92
Age Group (F20-29): 8 of 14
The post-race festivities were great! They had bananas, oranges, apples, granola bars, water and Gatorade. But, best of all they had Subway sandwiches!! We went and got some snacks and posed for an after picture:
We packed up our stuff and headed back to the picnic area to see if they had posted results. Low and behold, Sam finished second in his age group! Go sweetie!!!
After the race we headed straight to the nearest Dunkin and fulfilled our Collatta dreams...
Overall it was a fabulous race and great for newbies like us. We can't wait to go back next year!
2 comments:
I loved the race report with all the pics. You look like you are having fun! I love the post race reward :)
Yay! Nice job. Great pics. You were brave to swim in a lake with that water quality sign posted! So...when is your next one?
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