Sunday, August 5, 2007

The Breakdown

Okay, now that the race results are officially in, I can share my breakdown (and, i'll also share amber's and gen's since they SUCK and never update this).

So, me:
1430th overall
95th in my age group (20-24)
21:06 swim (1781st overall)
7:07 first transition
43:19 bike (1357th overall; 15.7 mph)
3:41 second transition
32:07 run (1069th overall; 10:21 splits)
1:47:22 overall.

Amber:
2178th overall
127th in the age group (same)
17:34 swim (876th overall ... i hate her ... just kidding!)
8:16 first transition
54:22 bike (2391st overall; 12.5 mph)
5:46 second transition
39:14 run (1968th overall; 12:39 splits)
2:05:15 overall

Gen:
2398th overall
137th in the age group (same)
33:23 swim (2586th overall)
8:33 first transition
48:13 bike (2017th overall; 14.1 mph)
4:35 second transition
42:11 run (2207th overall; 13:36 splits)
2:16:56 overall

We. Are. Awesome! :)

WOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh. My. God. That was totally freaking awesome! Finishing that race was the biggest endorphin rush EVER.

*takes a deep breath*

Okay. So we'll start out from last night. My brother just moved into a new house so he had a little party (obviously the night before i have a race. figures ...). I went, being the good sister that I am, though I avoided the beer that was calling out to me. My original intention was to only stay about a half-hour.

Riiiight. Three hours later, I'm heading home. I figure that going to bed by 11:30 wasn't all that bad because that's what I usually do. Therefore, keeping with routine, right? That's what I thought.

Anyway, finally rolled out of bed this morning at 4:30ish, ate breakfast, got my stuff all together ... and learned that Gen and I were not carpooling together. This was an issue because my bike really doesn't fit in my car. I somehow got the wheels off and the bike jammed in my car, but when I got to the parking lot, I couldn't get my back wheel back on or my brakes to go back together (both small little issues). Some kind souls in the car next to me got my back wheel back on (getting hands full of chain grease for their trouble; i felt bad), I somehow got my back brake connected again ... but my stupid front brake wasn't going back together. By this point, I'd been at the parking lot for about 45 minutes and really should have been setting up my spot in the transition zone.

When Gen and her boyfriend John finally arrived, I met up with them and John thankfully was able to put my front brake back together. I quickly hopped on the bike, it seemed to work - good enough for me. Met up with Amber in the transition zone, squashed my stuff next to hers, warmed up ... I felt ready to go after that stupid bike fiasco.

At 8:20am, Amber and I went in our heat (gen was 4 minutes earlier). First up: swimming. For next time, I know that THIS is something I need to work on. It's fun being kicked every now and then, but you can't really get away from the person kicking you without getting too far off course or stopping yourself. I also ended up doing the breaststroke pretty much the entire way, keeping my head above water (so totally not how i had practiced). Had to stop and use the swim angels once to clear out my goggles (seeing is good), though I almost stopped one other time because I was having a mini asthma/anxiety attack. Still, survived the swim (in supposedly, i found out later, 21 minutes ... though i kinda don't believe it (championchip be damned)).

After a long (7 minute!) transition, I hopped on the bike for the shortened (stupid construction - cut the bike course by a mile) bike course. I ended up making up a lot of ground on the bike course, feeling good enough to scream and yell support at pretty much everyone I passed (yeah, i'm that crazy kid). I was a little concerned 'cuz my bike was squeaking something fierce, but I got through it totally fine. My legs burned at a few points, but overall, it was an easier 11.4 miles than I had been doing on the C/E-470 trail. Still, my poor bike gets a tune-up this week just to be safe.

Next up: 3.1 mile run ... which by itself wouldn't be so bad for me right now, but after all that other crap? Yeeeah, I ended up walking probably half of it. I did have an advantage by not having bike shoes though - much quicker transition. Though I put my watch on after the swim, I never really looked at it until I was on the running course. At that point, I realized that I was still on pace for my goal of finishing under two hours. As I just mentioned like two sentences ago, I ended up walking probably about half (made sure i alternated), although it probably would have been less had it not been for my feet (stupid blisters). Still, I had enough in the tank for a nice sprint finish and apparently a time of 1:47:22! WOOOO!

My entire body was covered in sweat and I was totally nasty and disgusting, but damn that was awesome.

I don't know if I'm now hooked on triathlons, but doing this race (or a similar one) is definitely something I'll consider again.