Monday, June 8, 2009

First race of the year!

The Race for Recovery triathlon was a 1,000 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 4 mile run. We drove the 20 miles to the race in rain and lightning. Uh-oh. Once we got there the weather let up a little and Carol and I set up our transition areas while Bill started unloading kayaks and carrying them down to the water with Erika, Toby and Jack. We had our transition areas set up in time for the rain to really pour down. Fortunately for me, the young woman next to me covered my stuff and hers with a plastic sheet...


Thunderstorms started coming in again just before the scheduled close of the transition area at 7:30. They announced that we all should return to our cars until the thunderstorm cell passed. We did that twice before the all clear was given, and they announced the race would be delayed 30 minutes. We did finally get to start the race, with the Half Iron athletes in the water first. The waves were pretty intense. Bill said they were 2-footers in series of 7, but they looked taller than that from my vantage point in the water.




Two of the 3 kayaks were swamped from the waves at one point or another... Only Bill (with Toby in the tandem) was able to stay upright. The waves were rolling in steadily, too tall to sight the buoys while doing freestyle swimming, so I had to breast stroke frequently to see where I was going. Bill told me later that about 15 people chose to leave the water before the swim was complete, including my friend Carol.


The bike ride was fast and flat, but included some pretty bad roads. I saw about 12 people with flat tires; most of those people changed their tires and continued on the race, but a few gave it up and walked their bikes back to the park. During the run, a lot of people passed me! I knew the run would be my sore point, literally! My feet were crying after the first 2 miles. That's what I get for not running this year! Anyway, I did not count the people who passed me, but they were all younger than me. I kept telling myself that if they were passing me that I did better than them on the swim and bike or they would not have been behind me! (since there was only one women's start for our distance).




I finished the race in 1:58.08. Not so bad. Two years ago I did this race in 2 hours and 4 minutes, 6 minutes slower than yesterday. But that race had a 14 mile bike course. My swim this race was 5 minutes faster than the identical course 2 years ago--and it was flat water in 2007! My run, however, was 5 minutes slower. Overall, I am satisfied with my results for an early season tri. I was first, last, and only in my age group, 24th out of 34 women, and I would bet that half of those who finished ahead of me passed me on the run!

1 comment:

Marie said...

Congratulations! I can't even imagine swimming in those kind of waves. You did great for the first race of the season!