Sampson County Super Sprint Race Report

Like I mentioned in my last post, Marty and I raced in the Sampson County Super Sprint this past Saturday. There was much deliberation on what to wear, but Marty convinced me to wear my BlueSeventy point zero in the pool and just not take it off for the rest of the race. The weather would be in the 40's and the thin, rubbery speedsuit would give some extra warmth.  Marty was also going to wear his, although he almost wasn't able to since his zipper was completely stuck. We unstuck it with a combination of WD40, vegetable oil, and old fashioned strength. Not mine, his.

Rita, the most awesome babysitter, was at our doorstep at 6:15am while Logan continued to cut z's. Marty and I hopped in the car and drove to Clinton, NC where the race was held. Once there, it was quickly discovered that Marty had forgotten the front skewer to his race wheel. Oopsie. Luckily, the nice guy parked next to us had an extra and saved Marty from a DNS.

I did a short warm-up run and felt really pretty great. Then we headed to the indoor pool to get a swim warmup in. I really hate pool swims. I never feel completely warmed up or comfortable, and snaking under the lane lines is annoying. NC State tri club member, Colleen, who I know is fast and keeps getting faster, started just 2 spots (supposed to be :20) ahead of me, but they took a break to get the music going so she ended up starting a solid 1:30 ahead of me. I was a tiny bit disappointed because I was looking forward to having someone around my speed to focus on throughout the race.

250 yard swim done, and very cold run out the door to transition. I decided to put on smart wool socks which were very hard to get on wet feet since they don't have as much give as normal socks. And I put on gloves and it frankly felt like I was in there for a day and a half. The first 1min on the bike was the coldest I have ever been, I think! It was one of those knock the wind out of your lungs and gasping type of cold. But once I got going I was fine.

The bike was out and back, and a very short 7 miles. I totally screwed up the tight turn around which was on a tiny downhill and had to unclip and basically started back up again at a dead stop. 

Back in T2, and my toasty socks also made it difficult to get on my racing flats. But I was out on the run fairly quickly and hammered as hard as I could. I was really red lining it, completely by myself, but that's why all the tempo runs and intervals on the road really help out. The run was mostly flat with just a few tiny sneaky hills thrown in there.  I started my watch just a few seconds late and got my split of 12:40. The official split for some reason, was much slower (12:57) and I was very happy to hear that the run was a tad long. My pace was more like 6 flat or under, which is honestly exactly how it felt.

In the end, I didn't catch Colleen, but made up for more then enough time for the stagger so I finished 1st overall for females (5th overall including guys).  What I didn't realize until I was leaving was that I also nipped Marty and beat him by :02! It's all in good fun, but I definitely talked some smack after since he was so high on himself from the Cary Duathlon :)

We made an extremely quick exit so I could catch the train with my friends to Charlotte.  I have never taken a train here in the US (only in Europe) and I've heard that south of DC it's scary and dirty but that could not be farther from the truth! Traveling by train was awesome - lots of room, very relaxing, and we made it to Charlotte in about the same time it takes to drive there.