I have only done now 6 total triathlons ever. I skipped right over the Olympic distance in my quest to be an Ironman. So since May 2012, I have now done 3 sprints, 1 Olympic, 1 half iron and 1 iron. Today was my first Olympic distance, and second in my age group isn't that bad...
This race was put on by On Ur Mark Productions. They do a very good on their events. Lots of giveaways, nice awards, and overall very supportive, smoothly ran events. I would definitely suggest this race to anyone that is interested. What would have made the event even better was if, like Ironman races, they would have a few volunteers doing sunscreen (at the really long T1). Another improvement would be doing the awards ceremony under the tent. Could've moved the results post or food out from under the tent and put the podium there. Can you tell I got burned? :)
Here's the details from my race today. Finishing time of 2:31:40. Swim 36:07, T1 4:10, bike 1:04:30, T2 1:49, run 45:05
Oh, the swim. Its what has kept me from doing this distance as this race length favors the swimmers. And a good swimmer I am not. I have been putting more time in the pool and getting faster. In the pool. Not yet translating to open water. Sighting drills in my near future :) I opted to wear my speed suit. Not sure if it helped....more on that in a minute. Swim was an L shape more or less. What sucked was when you rounded the last buoy to swim to shore, the sun was blinding. I couldn't see the buoy where the shore was until I was like 100m away.
Up a rather steep, sandy hill, a .10 of a mile on sand, a quick splash of the feet in a kiddy pool, a run to find my shoes I left to run to transition, whoops, ran past them, circled back and even though I had hot pink ribbons on them, ran past them again! Double whoops! Found them, slid them on and darn near sprinted to transition. I quickly slide on my helmet and sunglasses and off I go. And off to catch as many girls as I can. One problem though, I had unzipped my speed suit, but in transition, totally forgot that I had it on. Ha ha! I realized this a mile in. Whoops! Sorry coach. Anyways, put the hurt on, passed a lot of guys. That's always fun. Two loops, no problem. Second in AG on this.
Roll up to transition, rack the bike, remove the helmet, quickly slide my feet in my shoes, grab the visor and race belt and off I go. I didn't see that many girls on the bike and knew I still had some work to do. Mind you, I have only ever raced two 10ks. It was HOT out there on this part. Very nice volunteers hosed me down at every mile. Awesome. Ran out and around a loop twice and then to the finish line. And got a new PR in the process. :). Progress!
I was 4.5 minutes behind the girl who won the age group. But to get second, I made up a huge amount of time on the bike and run. Obviously my better sports.
So now I am sitting here, rehydrating and sporting compression socks. Happy Labor Day!
