Friday afternoon I come home early from work and started putting my tri stuff together. It was the first race of the season and I was totally discombobulated or a CF. My oldest son was doing it too. So I was making sure he did not forget anything. We finally got loaded up, out the door, on the road, and arrived there at 5:20.
Bulky and Rainbow were there. We walked around and checked out the venue. It was nice. We found out that the run was a trail run. This was going to be challenging. The CL laid out a plan for me for the race. Overall time did not count. I was supposed to swim HARD, bike easy, and run HARD.
So the four of us are looking at the dinner the race was providing and opted out. I just do not trust food prepared in mass like that. There was chicken and pasta, etc. A lot of good stuff but just did not want to take a chance. Then we went to Cracker Barrel. Never again. Food was ok but not what we needed. Then I spent the next hour driving around the area completing my nutrition fill for the race, because I forgot a bunch of stuff in Orlando. Bulky and Rainbow gave some gels and drink mix. Thanks girls.
The morning getting ready was uneventful. We got to the race without incident parked and got ready. Transition was really nice. They had wood boxes that held your bikes and stools. Yes I said stools. Here is a picture of one.
One more thing about this race. On Thursday or Wednesday a young girl drowned in the lake we swam in. Very sad story. I knew this but did not tell any one because it would do no good.
Finally, its race time. #1 son takes off in the sprint and I get to see him come out of the water. Very proud of him! Now its the Olympics start. It is a mass start of about 100 people. The horn sounds and we take off. I am swimming hard and then realize I cannot breathe and I begin to panic. Not good. On one of my gasps I notice there is a guy running in the water. REALLY? its that shallow. So I put my feet down and hit bottom. So I adjust my wetsuit and relax while I am walking along and then start swimming again. Much better. I know what happened I did not warmup properly, so when I started out hard, I screwed my body up. NOTE: you need to warm-up. Need to talk to the CL about this.
The rest of the swim was uneventful. Tried to catch a few people but couldn't. Came out of the water in 31 minutes. Slower than expected but I do not think that the course was measured right. I was 21 out of the 100 so I was exactly where I was supposed to be.????
I get to my bike and start my easy ride. It was not as easy as I wanted because there were some hills to deal with especially right out of transition. There was one long downhill I got up to 31 mph with a HR of 125. That was way cool.
Got back into transition and sat down on my stool to put on my running shoes. That was very nice and started the run. I got to the trail and stayed on the sides to avoid the soft sand. The CL wanted me to run 6.2mile in under one hour. I think she knew this was trail run. I did good from the outset except when I almost stepped on a snake in the middle of the bleeping trail. Walked the water stops and ran the rest. Finished strong.
All in all 2:55 to do the whole thing. HITS gives out 1st place awards for each age other than the awards for the overall. I won my age, but I was the only one in it.
It was a good day.
Train Hard, Train Smart
XXX
Good report.
ReplyDeleteAre you allowed to say "Mass start" when there is only 100 people?
They did.
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