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| Swim Start |
I was not feeling too great on Saturday morning at bike check-in. However, come race day, I was feeling relatively coherent with just a slight cough. I figured I was close to normal and tried to pump myself up for my shortened end-of-season race. They closed transition pretty early to send off the Half-Iron athletes. However, I still had about 2hrs of waiting before my start wave would go off. So, I walked around the park a bit, and held onto my long sleeve shirt and shoes in an attempt to keep warm.
About 45 minutes from the start of my race I went for a warm-up swim in the lake. People kept asking me how cold I was, since this was a wetsuit-legal race and I was just about the only person not wearing one (I opted not to wear a wetsuit since the swim was so short and any advantage by wearing one would be counteracted by the amount of time it would take getting it off post-swim). The water was a little cold when I first got into it (colder than I remember for this race). But, I figured it wouldn’t be a problem since I have been swimming regularly at 6am outside in a competition pool over the past few weeks. I swam a few hundred yards and then went back to shore to wait for my race.
RACE BREAKDOWN:
The Swim (.6mi):
Swim Split: 16:12The swim wave did not go out very fast even with everyone wearing a wet suit. I noticed two girls ahead of me at the first buoy but did not pay much attention to them since most people tend to take out the swim too fast for them to maintain. In fact, I never pay much attention to others on the swim since I am pretty aware of how fast I am capable of swimming. I try not to let others distract me from my own pacing. My goal, in this race, was to take the swim out just about as hard as I could. I knew that being sick, I might have more difficulty as the race progressed. So, I wanted to get out in front as far as possibly. Or, that was the goal anyways.
About half-way between the first and second buoys, I passed one of the girls in my wave. However, I never saw the second girl and did not know if she was behind me or in front of me. It was especially hard to tell where she was since we were THE VERY LAST wave. This did not help much with keeping up a strong swim since I had to swim over literally every other person in the race to maintain a strong speed. Nevertheless, I had a pretty good swim and wound up having the fastest swim in my Age Group by over 3 minutes.
T-1:
Transitions were an interesting situation for me this year. This race always racks each age group together, which is nice because you can figure out who is in front of you whenever you reach transition. However, since I had downgraded at the very last minute, I was racked over with all the 25-29 Half-Ironman athletes instead of the International athletes. I was not quite sure how this would play out. On one hand, I had absolutely no idea whether or not I was the first one on my age group to come out of the water. But, on the other hand, all the other people I was competing against would have no idea that I was even out there. I figured, since I knew I would be one of the first out of the water, that this would work to my advantage. I knew that I would start the race ahead (as usual). But, they wouldn’t know that I was out there to catch…Nevertheless, I assumed that there might have been one girl still ahead of me….just to be safe.
The Bike (22mi):
Bike Split: 1:06.00My body felt okay until I clipped into my bike pedals. I immediately felt exhausted. I can honestly say that I tried my best notwithstanding the fact that my legs felt very heavy. The bike course was EXTREMELY windy which used to be a big problem for me both mentally and physically. But, ever since I got my new bike, I feel far more compact and streamlined making the wind much easier to slice through.
So, although my body was tired and crampy, I really tried to push through the wind on a high gear knowing that my run was probably not going to be all that fantastic. With the wind I was going upwards of 26mph. Against the wind, I was flying by people at an amazing speed of 16.5mph. The bike was tough, but I suffered through and somehow still managed to have the fastest bike split in my age group.
T-2:
My transitions weren’t all too fantastic. To be honest, I felt a little ‘out-of-it’ due to my cold and had a tough time rushing transition as needed. I lost a little bit of time in transition. But, I wanted to make sure that being a bid dazed, I wouldn’t forget anything.
The Run (6.6mi):
Run Split: 1:00.14
This was where my race completely fell apart. I felt TERRIBLE. I knew that the run would be a bit of a struggle so I hoped that my swim and bike would have been good enough to keep me in award position. The first 2 miles, although slow, did not feel too terrible. But, as the sun started to come out, I started to have some difficulties breathing and staying focused. So, I zoned out knowing that I was in no shape to ‘race’ the run. My only goal was to make it to the finish line. I hoped that I wouldn’t get passed by too many people. But, it was a bit out of my control at this point..JPG)
I felt worse and worse as the run progressed. And, I HATED the fact that this run was 6.6 miles instead of the typical 6.2miles. That extra half a mile felt like it took forever. I still figured that I might have had once girl come out of the water ahead of me. Not a single girl passed me on the bike course though. So, I knew, worst case scenario, I was in 2nd going into the run unless somebody had snuck by me somehow in transition. Around mile 4 of the run, I got passed by a girl in my age group. I did not want anybody else to pass me so I tried to pick up my pace. However, I was coughing a whole lot and just couldn’t get my body moving any faster (I also couldn’t seem to run straight either). Then, without about half a mile left to go, I looked behind me and saw a few girls. I picked up the pace, not a lot, but just enough to be able to build into a sprint for the last few hundred yards before the finish line. The girls behind me (who, as it turned out were in my age group) never caught me and I wound up getting second.
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| My awesome stuffed tiger award |
As it turned out, I had lost that other girl somewhere during the swim and had led the entire race with the fastest swim and bike splits. I slid into second place when that girl had passed me on the run course. But, I’m not very upset about it. After all, had I been healthy, I wouldn’t have even been competing in this race distance.
So, I closed out my 2012 Triathlon season with a second place finish while sick. Not a bad way to go out…
Overall Time: 2:26.24
Place: 2nd in AG
As usual, great job!! There will be more chances for long-course races next year! I already know that you have another big year coming up! I definitely think it was smart to ease back in this race.
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