My fingers nails are too long, thus I guess was the delay in getting the Celebration Triathlon Story up.. the great news is Joe is officially a triathlete!!!!...Here is our little story:
Joe and I arrived in Columbia, MD on Saturday, June 26th and proceeded to pick up our race packets, check into our hotel, and rack our bikes. The weatherman was predicting hot and humid weather and we were just really thankfully that this was a sprint triathlon, only a .6 mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, and a 3.4 mile run.
Of course race morning arrived way too early. Seems like no matter what we do, race weekends fly by. So 4am wake, oatmeal, coffee, stretch, check weather (yup still going to be HOT), me
ntally review list of things in truck for transition, head towards race. By 5:15am we were parked and on our way to get body marked and to set up our transition area, and of course to find a port-a-pot.I want a muffin... I do NOT get a muffin.. and then I proceed to recheck my stuff in transition… like what do I think? My helmet will just walk way???!….so now to find Joe and wait 3 hours until our swim waves.. UGH!! Joe’s wave would be going off 40 minutes before mine, and mine was near the end… I guess that’s good.. I get to compete when its even that much hotter… sweet!!
I got to watch Joe’s wave go off and concentrated on his swim cap… he had a bit of a rough start and I had a slight moment of panic.. debating as to if I should jump in and “save him”… not sure two poor swimmers equal one good swimmer… but Joe gets himself into a rhythm and off he goes.. … whew… now to line up for my swim.
I know.. I know.. I am not a fast swimmer.. so I just line up in the back.. and we are off.. instantly I get my foot entangled in swamp grass… EWE>>>>>>I passed the first buoy no problem.. sun glare couldn’t locate next buoy.. so I just followed the gals ahead of me.. the blind leading the blind… after the turn around… the swim went fairly smooth. Everyone was really great about not swimming over each other..this was a first… even the waves behind us. Only one man in the relay division tried to drown me, that’s good!
Had to stop and catch my breath a few times and sight, but all in all swim was doing well until I hit MORE swamp grass towards the end. Literarily got stuck in it.. to the point where when I lifted my hand out of the water for a stroke, gobs of grass were hanging off it… I probably lost about 2 minutes untangling myself and giggling.. dude are you kidding me... this is fun??? Finally made it to the shore and I jumped out flipping grass off me..EW.. EW>>> EWWWWWWWW
Ran up to my bike in transition, Joe had stated that when he got out of swim .. he WALKED to transition… (trust me this will make a difference at the end – the running up… just you wait)… transition time not bad, ran up small hill to start the bike, official had to remove MORE SWAMP GRASS that was attached to my back. um.. EW?!
Took me about 2 miles to actually get into my “bike gear”.. meaning that after about 2 miles I actually stopped PLAYING around and started to “drop the hammer”..lucky for me I have a HEAVY bike and the down hills.. well I maxed out going 40+ mph.. yes sir… LOVE SPEED.. but you know if the hill is long and steep enough to go 40 mph down.. and it's an out and back course.. WELLLL.. what goes down must come up…
The course is rolling hills, with two large climbs and I SOO need more hill practice…but I was passing hordes of people who beat me out of the swim.. and that boosted the confidence…
Joe will end up doing a GREAT bike split but will come to find out later (after race) that he did it with his back brake partially locked on.. DUDE!!!
The run is usually my strength but JEEZ US IT WAS HOT!!!!... I mean like just really REALLY HOT..
I sooo wanted to walk.. especially when I saw others doing soo.. but I knew I couldn’t allow that .. pace was way off my normal pace, but I was passing people.. It was the longest 3.4 miles ever!
The heat was definitely a factor. D-mn shoelace came untied at mile 3 and I was not stopping to tie it. I finished strong with a sprint and was NEVER so happy to be finished a race.
I need to work on my swim, as does Joe. The slow swim puts us too far back in the age group standings and is frustrating. But here are the specs:
Wendy Specs:
Swim: 58th out of 75 in age group.. THIS IS A VAST improvement from when I used to be like last or next to last in age group!
Bike: 14th out of 75 in age group
Run: 10th out of 75 age group.
Overall: 16th out of 75 age group
Joe Specs:
Swim: 94th out of 102 in age group
Bike: 39th out of 102 in age group
Run: 39th out of 102 age group.
Overall: 67th out of 102 age group
Celebration Sprint Tri in Columbia MD was great even with the seaweed, tough hills and 90 degree heat!
Wendy’s 2:13:28 to Joe's 2:15:55.. WHO’S YOUR BABY!!….the transitions will kill u...told him so :)
We did fairly good in the couple's listing too… 9th out of 20 couples.. next year we will be in the top three!!!..
http://www.tricolumbia.org/Sprint/
