While I've mostly been dealing with a break from racing due to various reasons, we both decided to race a local sprint triathlon that literally took place a half mile from our house - TriUtah's Brineman.
Brineman has a kids' splash 'n' dash race, a sprint, an Olympic, and a half-distance race. When I was first tossing around the idea, obviously I was thinking the half, sort of mulled over the Oly (even though I'm not the biggest fan of the distance), but ultimately we both settled on the sprint.
We drove down Wednesday night for packet pickup instead of dealing with it race morning as why would we want to go about a mile to packet pickup and then that mile to the race venue and then back to our house (and back again) when we could just avoid going to the stupid nature center until we finished there with the race later that day?
Because the fun, weird thing about this race, is that it takes place on a Friday morning.
Transition/bike drop off opened up earlier than I thought I had read, so we literally just rolled out of bed and went to drop our bikes and gear off before doing anything (except maybe brushing my teeth). Bikes got dropped and we walked home to make breakfast and do all the things (happily poop in our own toilet, get changed into our tri kits, sunscreen (and bug spray) up ...). With about an hour to go before the start of the sprint, we headed back over to transition.
Been a while since I've set up a transition zone like this ...
Chilling out.
Around about the time the Olympic race went off, we got into our wetsuits and went for a quick little practice dip into the lakes. Oh yeah, the swim takes place in one of the two private waterski lakes that are in our neighborhood. Probably the only time (unless I race again) that I'll be allowed in these lakes. Even though I want to make friends with the kid who was skating on them when they froze over last winter ...
The Swim:
The swim course of the lake was either a half loop (if you were doing the sprint), a full loop (the Olympic), or one of each (the half). We lined up due to estimated 100yd swim pace (I went in around the 2:00-2:20 group iirc? maybe the 1:50-2:00?) ... B actually decided to line up with me.
The timing mat was a few feet from the actual water so you crossed the mat, gingerly took a few steps on the boat dock, and then popped in the water. I took about two steps off the dock and said "fuck it" and started swimming, though many others around me waded in a bit more.
I think it happened at CdA, but pretty much ever since then (with a few notable exceptions), the swim leg of triathlon has been a non-issue for me. Like, it just is. I don't question my life on it - I just put my head down and swim.
I did, however, feel like I got beat up the most on this swim than ANY OTHER. Early on, I got smacked in the face and my goggles slid just enough to be annoying, but not annoying enough for me to want to stop to tread water to fix them. If it had been a longer swim, maybe, but this short? Eh. I got a forearm to the back, constant smacking of feet and legs and arms, another smack in the face ... it was brutal. I'd do my best to swim away from someone and through a hole and that person would just swim back into me. Like, really? Figure it out.
Other than the physical contact, an uneventful swim except for me almost swimming into a boat dock and having a bit of trouble sighting to the finish due to the sun.
Popped out, saw 15:something on my watch (decently happy with for 750m) ... and proceeded to still have to run a decent stretch back to transition to where the timing mat was. And I did flop off the path on the grass to take my wetsuit off as I knew space in transition was limited.
Time: 17:46
T1:
While I saw B's bike was gone (figures), there were a good chunk of us in our tiny little corner all at the same time. I do think I beat most of the other guys out, though. Did take a second to toss a bit of Aquaphor on my neck even though I didn't really feel like I chafed. It was also nice being on a fence as that's where I tossed up my wetsuit. It was nice and dry by the end of the day.
Time: 2:12
The Bike:
So. We had pre-rode the course (using the very terrible directions on the site) about a week prior. Figured out that the turns that gave us issues would be well-marked on race day and didn't worry about it from there.
The course started off normal - in fact, it started off on my usual ride from the house - but then a little bit after where I thought we should have turned ... we didn't. And kept riding off my usual path. And then we turned toward the Antelope Island causeway ... which I knew that the other two distances did, but not us. We rode over the bumpy dirt section (which, in the final pre-race e-mail, was mentioned as a concern for the half and Olympic distance racers, but not the for the sprint ...), went past the guard gate for a little bit and then flipped it.
So, what was in theory a 12.5ish mile bike turned into a 10.6ish mile bike. Which means the race results have me as a lot faster of a speed than I actually had.
That being said, I did ride it a lot faster than I usually do in training, so that's a plus. I was kind of going all out all day, and my Garmin definitely showed it.
Time: 35:49
T2:
Just as there were a few of us in T1, most of us also all rolled into T2 at the same time, too, including a guy that I had been going back and forth with a little. Which was hilarious.
Mostly uneventful again except trying to figure out where one of my socks went and choosing to not deal with BodyGliding my feet.
I should also say that I saw B very early on in the run as I rolled in, so I knew I wasn't far behind. I also wasn't sure if I could catch him (spoiler: I didn't).
Time: 2:26
The Run:
The elevated heart rate I had all day really came into play on the run as it was a little rough trying to run. I did try to run as much as I could and did my 20 breath walk breaks (as per usual). Mile one was sub-11, which I was very grateful for.
The run goes right behind our house at one point and we put the dinosaurs up in a window so we could see them which made me very happy. Our neighbors also put a sign up which made me crack up:
In-joke. Apparently one of their family members hates encouraging signs, so they do signs more like this when cheering for EVERYONE in the family now. I heard about this and thought it was hilarious and was totally fine with them doing it for us, too.
Mile two was in the 11s, but I was still actually passing some people. I had no idea where I was place-wise or anything, but I did know that I was doing more passing than being passed - even with my walk breaks.
The run was in theory a 5K ... but both B and I definitely had around 3.4 miles instead. While mile 3 was still in the 11s, it was actually faster than mile 2. Race results have me averaging a 12:08/mi, but the race also thinks that my time was for a 5K. Which it totally was NOT.
Perk to B finishing before me - finish shot! He put his phone in his jersey for the run for Peloton app tracking because he is a nerd.
Time: 38:01
Overall Stats:
Time: 1:36:13.78
3/11 division (F40-44)
32/82 gender
107/209 overall
Wait, what's that? Third in my AG? Yep.
Didn't wait for an official medal ceremony, but they accepted my print-out results for my award thingy and then we staged this photo.
Technically schmecnically I was fourth in my age group, but the overall women's winner was also in the 40-44 AG so she got pulled into the overall top three letting me sneak up onto the podium. My first official AG award in a triathlon - I've done it in a 5K and in a few duathlons, but this is a triathlon first for me. Woo!
B was official champion of the house, finishing just under four minutes ahead of me, but he didn't place in his age group, so we both kind of win.
Fun day, and it makes me excited to jump into the local tri scene more next year.
