What a fun weekend! Friday night I packed my tri bag and had some pizza then headed to bed. At 4:30am the alarm went off and it was time to pack the car, pick up a friend and head down to Long Branch. It was a beautiful morning and it looked like it was going to shape up to be a decent day in terms of heat. Well that is, if we had started on time. But for some reason this event never starts on time. And as everyone knows, when you start late, a ton of things get thrown off. But thankfully I had a little extra food in my car, so I was able to get a few more calories in to try to even out the 1 hour delay. (I know, right?)
So after setting everything up, it was down to the water. Since it was a first tri for a few of my friends I think I spent more time worrying about them than thinking about the race, which turned out to be pretty good method for calming me down. So in went the guys for the longer course and 3 minutes later we followed. The water was about 67 degrees, which isn't too bad, but it still felt cold. And get this, there were 2 whale sightings that morning! And that is what they decided to tell us during the 20 second countdown. Comforting? Well whale's don't tend to eat people, so I just tucked that tidbit into the back of my mind and started to charge the waves, knowing that if I saw one I would freak out, but also hoping that the water would be cloudy enough I wouldn't know if I did see one.
About 2 minutes into the swim, I started to notice the current was a bit weird and a lot of people from the men's heat were floating on their back and having trouble getting past some of the waves. I wasn't feeling the best I have ever felt, but I just kept pushing. Before I knew it was around the last buoy and headed towards shore. Once out of the water I could hear my friends screaming my name while they waited for their start on the short course, and while trying to not pass out I couldn't help but smile. The worst part of the swim was the run up the beach and into transition. I would say my swim was probably about 1:30 less than the time they have for us, considering the run at the end. End result 600 yards in 9:04, 12th female out of the water and a possible throw up situation when I entered T1.
Once in T1 I honestly thought I was taking forever. I felt really out of it and was having some trouble catching my breath. But now that I see my time I wasn't that bad. In and out of T1 in 1:26.
The bike was nice and flat and except for a few portions the wind agreed with us. I managed to average 18.7 mph for for what they said was 18 miles and what my cateye said was a bit over 19. It was great. Knowing that I was in 12th I knew that I wouldn't see many women on the road. That is at least in front of me and the goal was to not have any pass me either. On the first loop I rode with a few guys and we played leap frog for a while. Then at the beginning of the second loop I decided to get ahead of them and end this game we were playing. At that point I passed one woman, flew through the last few miles and entered T2. So what was somewhere between an 18 and 19.5 mile ride came to 1:04:48.
Into T2 and I threw my stuff down and switched out of my cleats. Now here is the weird part, I thought T2 was way better than T1. It turns out I was wrong. T2 1:32. Huh? Whatever! Let's start running!
And here is where the starting an hour late comes and kicks you right in the ass. We did a five mile with 2 out and backs but in opposite directions, so we met in the middle to finish. Each out and back had one leg where the wind was in your face and one where it wasn't strong enough to push, you but the sun was strong enough to make you feel like you were melting. I started out around 8:00 min/miles and decided I would do what I could, and then if I felt bad, let myself taper for mile 3 then force myself to go "strong" for 4 and 5. I ended up making a friend around mile 3 and that made it a bit easier to deal with the heat. And when I crossed the finish line I was quite happy. 5 Miles in 42:24. I will take it!
Now the best part is this is a series of races, so there is no podium or anything along those lines. And it would figure that this would be that kind of race. My end all was:
83 out of 189
11th female
3rd in my AG
In the end, all of my friends but one finished and we all felt great. We spent the rest of the afternoon, sleeping on the beach, eating and enjoying some cocktails. I got up early again on Sunday, more so out of habit than necessity and I felt great. We spent that day with my pops and headed to bed early again on Sunday night.
This week should be fun. I turn the big 31 on Thursday and the bf is throwing me a Mexican Fiesta on Saturday with our close group of friends. I am exciting and looking forward to what 31 may bring!
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