Yesterday I did my second triathlon in May.
This is a funny one because I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until I looked at my splits this morning!
Let's talk it out.
Left the house at 4:50, transition was closing at 6:45 but the race was about an hour away. Did a brilliant thing and stopped at a gas station about 5 miles from the race so I could take care of some business without a line and with a real toilet and more calm, given my wardrobe issues at the CB&I. I should always do this.
Got to the parking lot, and the race packet said it was a .5 mile walk but it must have been at least a mile because it took forEVER to get there.
Got to transition, walked in and almost immediately realized I had forgotten my running shoes in the car. Sent P back for them but it was going to be a near thing for him to get back before transition closed.
While I waited I set up my transition area, which was complicated because the chick next to me had like 10 people gathered around her talking, so I couldn't get through to my spot, then she had her bike racked in the wrong direction, but I wasn't 100% sure whether it was her or the chick on the other side - just knew someone was wrong, so had to find a ref, blah blah. Anyways, got my spot all set up other than shoes, then headed for the bathroom (again). Luckily there was a real one, and I was willing to stand in the line. Did my business and managed to re-suit myself, then went to grab the camp chairs and pick a nice spot for P. He made it back with LITERALLY 3 minutes to spare, and I got my shoes onto my towel and got out of transition.
I haven't yet mentioned the mud. It was soooooo wet and muddy. Houston has had flooding rains over the past week, and this tri was in a hard hit area. I was actually checking the website on the morning of to confirm it was still happening, the rains were so severe in that area.
So once again my wave was second to last, so after transition closed, I ate a granola bar, applied sunscreen, got my swim cap on, and generally hung out a bit. Watched several waves start and begin to finish, then headed over to line up.
The water temperature was nice. I was excited about the swim course because it was a long out, then a right turn. Bouys would be on the right, which is to my advantage. I lined up right beside the bouys, but about 4 ladies back (which was essentially the back row other than the ladies who decided to stand on the shore til the gun went off). It was a freaking madhouse this time. Lots of bodies all in the way. Lots of contact. I felt like it took forEVER for me to get some clear water. I felt pretty good though, like I was holding my own. I began passing ladies in the previous wave, and when I got near the turn it didn't look like I was too far behind the leaders of my wave. That was weird because that was also when I got passed by the fasties of the following wave. But I didn't freak out on that because that was the wave that included relay teams, and the people passing me were men. I realize now that some of this was misleading because my wave included my age group, plus the 35-39 age group, and apparently they were the ones that I was pacing, now that I look at the very disappointing results. I have GOT to figure out what is going so wrong on the swims that I am so much slower in open water than in the pool.
Swim: 16:45 for 2:48/100y
Transition, omg transition. I was actually surprised when I saw this number because I was veeeerry disappointed with this transition. Ran to area, was happy about all the bikes still there, stood on towel. Put on run belt, arm sweatband gets stuck going on because of all the wetness, lost seconds here. Put on sunglasses. Put on helmet, sunglasses fogged. Take off sunglasses, wipe with towel, put back on. Try to dry feet/clean some of the insane amount of grass/mud off them. Put on socks, put on shoes (I switched to Yankz, good move!). Sunglasses have filled with water dripping off face, take off, say out loud, "Slowest transition EVER!", clean with towel, put back on again, grab bike, head out. On the way realize that sunglasses are over helmet straps, take off again, put on correctly.
T1: 1:38 (Seriously, shockingly fast given all that!)
Head to bike mount line, 5 women spread all over road in front, have to wait a bit, but get some clear and get mounted. Had mud all up in shoes so took a while to get feet positioned comfortably on the pedal grips.
Got going and was really pleased, maintaining a nice 17-18mph speed. It was an out and back course and when we hit the first few hills I was excited about coming back because I'd get to go down them. When I hit the turnaround, duuuuuude. So disappointing. I realized that I had had BOTH a tailwind AND a downhill false flat for most of the way out. Speed dropped to a struggling 14mph. Blarg. Eventually I hit one of the turns and was able to pick it back up again. And I must say I LOVE the 12 mile bikes. Somehow that seems soooo much shorter than a 15! By the time I was back in transition I was feeling very good about the bike despite my low point on course.
Bike: 43:13 for 16.7mph
Transition was no big deal. Helmet off, grabbed a quick swig of water. Struggled to place bike on rack because of how the other ladies had racked theirs, but managed it with a little finagling.
T2: 1:06
Ran out, was pleased to find almost immediate Gatorade. There were a lot of people around, so even though my normal strategy is to walk to calm my heart rate and breathing before running, I kind of felt like I needed to run. So I ran past Preston and people, and stopped to walk where it was calmer. I had grabbed my phone, so started RunKeeper, stowed it in race belt, and adjusted hair. Then began running with a 4:1 goal, that ended up being closer to a 3.5:1.5, which I was really pretty pleased with. I'm aware that I need to work on some speed. I also think maybe getting the old garmin out would help because I feel like some of my issues are mental out on the run. It just feels like it kind of goes on forever! With a garmin on I can use the numbers to encourage myself.
Run: 35:59 for 12:00min/mi.
Total: 1:38.42
Post race: I was very very very disappointed with the post race food. They had run out of pizza completely. They had raisen and plain bagels. There were cookies which were quite good. I also got watermelon (nice), grapes (sour), and literally the most disgusting banana that I have ever eaten in my entire life. It was like the starch hadn't turned to sugar. I actually had to spit it out, it was so sick and wrong.
Then there was the looooong walk back to the car, followed by the quest for food (Taco C and Starbucks, yum!).
Ok, so the long view. I had better T1, Bike, and T2. My run was about the same, meh. My swim, blarg, so disappointing. All in all, I was really happy with my time, which is funny. Based on the differences in distances from the CB&I, I was hoping for a sub-1:40, which I totally accomplished! I just didn't get the time back where I expected it, which has me shaking my head.
Take-aways: Still need speed. SPEEEEEED! Garmin for the run, RunKeeper isn't good enough because I can't see it easily.
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