Swim 0.90 Mile 0:17:29 /T1 0:01:36 /Bike 40.3 Mile 2:12:09 /T2 0:02:17/ Run 8.8 Mile 1:11:04
4th Female overall
1st in Age Group
The Night before the race:
pre-race dinner: sushi at Lotus in Valley Forge. Drove to the Jersey shore, Avalon, with Chris and Vinny. Stayed at my friends' beach house for the New Jersey Devilman race weekend. Chris worked on the bikes while switching out my stem ... yes, this is not the best practice for a race, but it was a mandatory fix. Life gets really busy this time of year.. and anyone in the mid-atlantic or northeast region knows when spring arrives, the workouts and the workdays get longer and longer! The stem arrived just in time (fri)... the (girly cushion tri) bike seat I ordered, did not.
5am wake up, 6am on the road, need to get there by 6:45am for a 8:30am start. We were lost on the backroads to Cedarville, NJ, those sleepy open flat roads of Jersey, that even our navigation systems could not pick up the roads we were traveling. Race check- in was that morning, and was pleasantly pleased how fast the line moved and the ease of getting the packet as well as the chip. Bikes were racked by number and so is the competition.
Swim: the sprint race went off first, they did one lap. 8:30am we went off for 2 laps = 0.9 mile swim. I took in way too much water going out to the 1st buoy, so I stopped and coughed it all out: not a smooth start. But as I turned for the 2nd lap, my pace picked up. Although I had a PR for this distance of a swim, I really think it was a little more than a .5, and one more lap around would have taken us to the .9 mile swim. but who's complaining... I suck at swimming (fast)!
T1: I came out of the water before Chris (he was right behind me to my surprise), but I let him go over the timing mat before me ;) I peeled off the wetsuit, slipped on glasses, helmet, shoes and took the gloves with me. I fiddled with the speedometer... I put my wheel on backwards that morning "DUH!"...I dont know which was worse, that I did not notice the wheel was on backwards, or that it took me about a mile to figure it out (and get my gloves on at the same time).
Bike: 2 loops of 41 miles. After figuring out I am a stude-nodd with the speedometer, I just pedaled not knowing how fast or slow I was going. Every other 10miles had a head wind, although as the day went on the wind picked up. Let me pre-face with this: it is the 3rd time I raced this bike. I trained with it on the trainer in the winter, but noticed a big difference when I returned from the Miami Intl Tri... Chris noticed that the bike is really not set up correctly, (hence, he purchased the stem for me), the drive train is not well aligned and so therefore I pedal in high gear and low cadence "to get where I need to go". And from mile 14 to the end of the ride, my very narrow -almost no padding seat hurts and is extremely uncomfortable. (was hoping that seat would've arrived... I am still waiting for it.). Not feeling fast, people were passing me, and soon, I wanted to ditch the bike and was ready to run!
T2: over 2mins? wth? what was I doing? maybe tying of the shoes? maybe trying to get the nutrition and water down? was I really moving that slow? I see over 2mins and think I am pathetic. need to practice that trans..
Run: 9 miles (was clocked on the garmin) I gotta move to make up for lost time between the trans and the bike. I took it easy until I could feel my bike legs disappear and my toes grow back. Mile 2 legs reported for duty. The run was HOT, I don't remember shade. It was flat, and the way out I ran into the wind, and on the back it became hotter. I passed alot of people who passed me on the bike, but still feel that I need to be a faster runner and a faster biker.
This was my 3rd race in one week. Its all good training, but the following week: I feel it (lite week, thank you).
