First tri of the season. 38 degrees in the a.m. Luckily, I didn't start until 9:30. Watched TH and his friend swim and start the bike. Watched TH start his run before I had to head inside to swim. This was a sprint tri with an indoor swim. It's actually the largest in the USA according to the website. When we registered we had to put in our 500yd swim time. I put in the time I had last year. There are 4 people per lane. I was seeded 4th, meaning there were 3 girls ahead of me. we were sent off 5 seconds apart. All the ladies in my lane were conservative and started out at pace as opposed to a sprint which is good because sprinting at the start is a common mistake at tris All was great the first lap. Lap 2, I was right on the leg of #3. So, I tapped her feet. At the wall, she didn't let me pass. Um.. okay. SO I tapped on the way back down. I did this for the next 400 meters. Tap...breaststroke...tap...breaststroke...etc WTF. I ended up swimming breaststroke with my head up about 90% of the swim. Whatever, we got out and started to T1. It was freaking cold out so I opted to wear my compression calf sleeves for support and warmth. Compression + wet skin = SLOW SLOW SLOW. T1 took forever.
The Bike went really well. I started out slow, but once I got going at the first turn around about 4 miles in, I picked up the pace. Unlike last year where everyone and their grandma passed me, I only got passed once. This is kind of meaningless since there are 10 different waves, so you can't really tell whose the same pace as you.
T2 went okay. The bike dismount to my rack spot was a pretty long distance, but not unheard of compared to other races. I was happy to sear the sun come out and the skies clear.
As usual the first mile of the run sucked and really the whole run was really hard for me. My shin hurt a ton and I was really warm.
Overall, I finished and actually cut just under 8 and a half minutes off my time from last year with a lot of overall improvements considering the issue with the swim and my slow T1 this year. As great race and it got me excited for the rest of the season.... so long as my stupid shin figures its life out and stops being such a bitch.
Last year's splits (Langton Pool: Longer run to T1 and crappy bike):
S:9:02 T1:4:17 B:48:36 T2:1:56 R:26:23 Total 1:30:15 Overall 266/399 place 92/176 in women 15/26 age group
This year's splits (Dixon Pool: Shorter run to T2 and crappy "slow" swim...though faster then last year. HA):
S:8:41 T1:3:31 B:42:26 T2:2:17 R:24:46 Total 1:21:43 Overall 172/414place 57/186 in women 13 ( tied with 12th) /30 age group
So after the race I was back in transition putting my stuff together. The lady in front of me in the swim asked me if I was in her lane. I told her I was and she went off talking about how she kept trying to get passed and how it was silly because there were people ahead of her. She said something along the lines of "oh it doesn't even matter since it's only going to save them (meaning ME) like 15 seconds at the most." Sorry lady, 1) if it was only 15 seconds, why didn't you pull your ass over and let me pass you. 2) 15 seconds in a sprint tri makes a HUGE difference. 3) I guarantee you I would have gained more then 15 seconds off my swim. I was freaking doing the breast stroke. COME ON! grrr. I didn't say that to her and I instead acted disinterested. I'm sure she thinks I'm one of those competitive asshole triathletes that care too much about speed. But to prove my point, just 15 seconds makes a difference of 10 places.... and that's the 15 seconds that she thought was the difference, not what I could have swam. That matters to me and last time I checked, this was a RACE. My bad.. I didn't realize it was typical lap swim at the pool I don't know what the EEF I am doing because I don't know any lap swim etiquette even though the race director gave me a refresher.
No comments:
Post a Comment