Not only did I finish, but I raced. Most of the time. The bike is my downfall, so it looks like more training on the bike is in order for the winter.
With so many family obligations, I decided to just get up and drive to the race Sunday morning. Well, I hadn't really planned how far and how long, so I ended up leaving my house at 3:30am. Ouch. It was a nice relaxing drive both ways, and Quiet.
One thing I had thought recently, was "hey, I should try to race the Athena group." The weight is 165 lbs for that, and I have consistantly been two pounds lighter. I had thought a few weeks ago that I should just gain up a bit so I could get that in before I lost any more weight. Kinda thought it might be a bad idea, so I didn't and just went with age group, where I was sure to not win anything. I ended up 7th in my age group. I could not help it when I signed in to step on the scale they had for the Athena/Clydesdale groups. 160. BAM! I have been working and working to try to get there and just decided to train and eat right and not weigh, but then the scale was right there. Pretty sure I also had some extra water weight that morning, too. So, if nothing else was great, my weight was!
This was my first Atlantic swim and I had been a bit nervous about, well, you know, SHARKS. I was so excited and pumped up about seeing my Tri Buddies and getting ready for the race, I didn't even think about that before the race. This was my first swim where I did not panic at the start of the race. So happy about that. It could be that I was a bit bummed about seeing how short my swim was going to be as that is my easy leg. It was a bit bumpy getting out to the first marker, but then it was awesome. I did drag my hand along some type of living thing under the water, let out a muffled scream underwater, and promptly swam quickly away. Ick. Don't know, don't tell me. Official swim time: 10:13 Pretty excited about that because my goal time was in the 10 min range for this race.
A super cool chick let me borrow her Scott bike for the race. It is a really nice bike and rides really smooth. The first third of the race, I was loving it. That was probably because the wind was with me and I was going pretty fast, had lots of energy. The usual suspects passed me right away, those slow swimmers with super bike powers. Fine, fine, I passed a few this race, too. The middle was not fun at all. The wind was soooo against me. I was working hard and going nowhere. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I pressed on, thinking the run will be so much better. My lower back hurt the entire ride, personal problem, I know. I should have been more prepared and popped Advil before the race. Live and learn. Every race, I learn something great either by trial and error, or from other racers. Official bike time: 1:06:41
Starting the run, I felt slow and sluggish. After the bike, where those two ladies in my age group passed me the last leg, I was tired. I was just thinking about getting this thing done so I could relax and get a snack. I ran on, at what I felt was a slow pace. This is the first time I decided to not take any Runkeeper or clock on my run. I passed a few friends, you know, they were way ahead of me and on their way back, was starting to feel happy. On the way back, I started thinking about those I was passing and tried to give them all encouragement, things like - your almost there, doing great, keep it up, good job. Then, I saw I was almost done and tried to pick up the pace a little bit. Official run time: 30:45 So excited, my goal time was 30 something. I had no idea I was even close.
T1 was 3:20 whoa, what was I doing? T2 was 1:24. Total time 1:52:23. When I saw my finish time, I was pretty sad. I had been thinking I wanted to go about 1:45 just based on my first race and training times. Also, a friend that is a steady racer finished way in front of me. I knew I had to be pretty slow. I was told not to compare courses by an expert. I'm going to listen to that advice. My swim was faster and my run was faster, so I'm good.
On Monday, I took Triathlete Jr. to school and then came home and slept till noon. Pretty much, I stayed on the couch all day, did some eating. And, some more eating. Then, went to bed early.
I am going to do my best to take a rest week. For me, that is going to take some serious concentration. I have made it two days. Napping, housework, eating and more napping seems to do a body good.
I am making a race plan for next year and putting some goals in place. I'll share those with you next time.
