It was a humid and windy day. We had our rockstar parking courtesy of my dad and the 3 of us got set up in transition and then made the 1 mile walk to the swim start with our friend Kathy. Got suited up in the wetsuit and headed out for a warmup swim. The bay was choppy and the kayaker gave me an enthusiastic "Oh Yeah!" when I asked if it was rougher out passed the pier. The pro's went off, then the elite amateur men and then my wave (elite amateur women). I have to say - I am AWESOME at beach starts. I totally won the first 10 yards. I can high step and dolphin dive really well for some reason, then I start swimming and all the real swimmer zoom by me :) Unfortunately, NC hardly has any beach starts, so this is usually my one go at it. I saw Alysia swim on by and I tried to stay on her feet but it was rocking and rolling and it was tough enough to just try and sight the buoys. Our first left turn had the waves pushing us and then the final left turn in was really, really tough. Big waves and the current was pushing you the wrong way - but I managed to swim right next to Alysia and we came out of the water right together! I tapped her on the shoulder and said good job and then got through T1 relatively quickly.
The bike was tough - very windy and the way the course is designed it ended up being a crosswind or headwind except for the final 5 miles which was finally a tailwind. I caught several girls and some went flying by me. I felt pretty good but knew that it was not going to be a fast day - and that the wind was going to be quite a drain. But all in all I felt pretty good about my ride.
Off onto the run and I'm not feeling all that great. My run isn't feeling that strong right now, although it is definitely coming around. I just missed quite a lot with the pseudo hip injury and early year sickness. I was telling someone that I feel like I'm in about March shape, not late April shape, but the good thing is there are lots of races to go! The run was just plain hard for me; I really think I am not quite fit enough to handle that rough swim and all that wind on the bike and be able to get off and run fast right now. I had some major low points out there and really wanted to just stop and walk too many times to count. A few girls passed me and there was nothing I could do. So I just kept trudging forward. I finally (finally!) was near the finish line and thought I was in tenth when I saw my mom and sister and very pathetically asked them, "is anyone close?" they said no and I breathed a sigh of relief as getting into the top ten is always my goal here. I barely made it this year, but still, I'll take it!
Funny thing, Marty also imploded on the run . When I saw him after the race I said, "Marty! My run was HORRIBLE!" he said, "Oh yeah? I ran 48 minutes." I responded with a very gracious, "I didn't run THAT bad!" Sorry, honey, where is my filter?!
So yeah, I had a great weekend and have lots of room for improvement on the triathlon front. Now it's back to real life for a bit and then the White Lake sprint this weekend. Here are some pictures (thanks, mom!)
Very beginning of the run:
Marty starting the run.
Post race with Scott and Alysia.
Getting my award.
0 comments:
Post a Comment