July 26th Crystal River - Twilight Tri August 4, 2008
Posted by boardgrl Uncategorized
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Fun without the sun was the theme for this event — and it definitely was! Got to the absolutely beautiful pristine beach location early and secured a good parking spot for my hubby and kids to cheer me on from as it was right on the bike and run route. It was a very casual event, I didn’t know any of the other racers, but met some really terrific people and the whole event had a very positive/upbeat feel to it.
This was my first evening Tri and so I was a bit at odds with how to fuel for this event. I ate some sliced chicken for lunch and about 2.5 hrs before the event I ate a bagel with organic peanut butter. Although I was well hydrated, I drank probably too much water prior to the race - sloshing stomach syndrome really stinks.
Swim starts began at 7:30pm and were basically men (all) age groups first, followed by women (all) age groups at 7:34pm, then I believe the relay teams followed. I definitely did not train as hard for this, my second event (some of it due to illness, some of it due to laziness) but I hadn’t been slacking either - my goal was to focus on my run, which I had been doing for about 5 weeks - probably at the expense of my swim which I’ll write about in a minute.
Swim .25mi time – 9:18 (phooey!)
I felt good right before going in on this swim, a little nervous, but positioned myself in front and to the right of the pack - but well in line with the first boueys. The horn sounded and we were off. There was a decent current, a few waves and the water was over my head at the first bouey turn. The super swimmers pulled out ahead and somehow at the first bouey a bunch of us bottlenecked and I got stuck behind a line of slower swimmers and could not find a way past them - I had definitely slipped to the “middle of the pack” and the struggle to find a clear lane was frustrating and tiring. I knew I was losing time, but I just plugged along and figured I should just pace myself and make up for it on the bike. As I rounded the third bouey and started to head in to shore, someone grabbed my right ankle and pulled me under and back so they could use the momentum to pull themselves ahead of me. I’m no expert, but that seems a bit like dirty pool to me. Maybe I’m just naive, but does this happen often? I know we’re in a race, but heck, I was shocked that a “fellow athlete” would do this sort of thing, but that was the only negative moment I had during the race, and I got over it before my heels hit the sand. Lesson learned: when someone grabs your ankle quickly close mouth to avoid inflow of salt water.
Transition 1 – 2:10 - decided this Tri around to take a little more time in T1 to catch my breath after the swim and stretch legs for a minute
Bike 10mi – 34:06
I was okay with my bike time, even though I could swear it felt like my back brake was rubbing - it may have been the rough and grooved pavement, not sure. It was a straight 5mi out and back. This was NOT a closed street event, so there was a small amount of car dodging, but for the most part, the motorists were very respectful and kept their speed low. My last Tri I did 12 miles in 44 mins so if I average my time/mile, I did a little better on my time here (though there weren’t any bridges to deal with). Note to self: before the race check and set bike gears and adjust brakes if they get messed up on way to race.
Transition2 – 2:01 - again, took my time, stretched my legs so I could actually run.
Run 3.1mi – 33:29
When I left for the run segment, my legs felt much better than they had during my first Tri - stopping to stretch in transition was key for me. I cannot express how nice it was, in July in Florida, to not have the sun beating down on me during the run. The sunset was phenonmenal as I ran along the road past the marshes. The only negatives on the run were that the road was pitched very noticeably on the right sides, the “open” roads with car and truck exhausts going by slooowwwlyyy forcing the run to the pitched side of the road, and the green flies were biting like mad - definitely need to add bug spray to the list of items to bring to the next twilight tri. I put my chirunning into motion and focused on form and pace and was actually passing people! I was pleased that my run felt as good as it did since I had focused for weeks on form and pace. I was feeling good until just before mile 2 water stop when I realized the bagel I ate a few hours back and the accompanying water were saying they were not in any way digested and wanted out. So, I have had my first official in-race puke session (it was actually embarrassing and felt really lame that this happened to me on a sprint) but what the hey, it happened and I felt sooo much better for it. I lost maybe 90 seconds between the excavation and stopping at the water table. I really need to figure out my fuel situation for late day/evening races because I plan to do more of these. Running back into the beach area I passed my family, cheering me on, I high fived my eight and five year old girls and heard my hubby shouting “sprint it in, sprint it in!!!” So, I left it all on the road and sprinted the last half mile in. I improved my run over last sprint race by about 30 seconds, even with the stop at mile 2.
Overall time - 1:21:04
Awesome post race party - some athletes even had enough left in them to engage in a push up contest!
Overall, I figured I improved my race time by about 3 mins between my first and second sprint races. I lost time on the swim, but made up for it on the bike and run times. Another group Tri training session has started up and I’m back in it - I love the routine, motivation and comraderie. Next race is Longleaf sprint in October and I DO plan to kick butt on my times.
Apologies to those of you who I lead on about this race then made wait for this write up! - but thanks for pushing me to finish this post (being on vacation makes a person lazy!)
