I drug my friend Jill down to the HV Danbury Triathlon. Okay.. drug is not the right word. We met less than a year ago and when we found out we shared an interest in athletics we got to talking and it turns out she aspired to be a triathlete... so then started the pestering and nagging on my part to get her to commit (she is a VERY busy lady) to a race this year. I prodded and prodded until we settled on this race as her first. I almost feel like I should apologize. This was a tough course! The weather was PERFECT! A bit cool just standing around in the a.m., but nice when you were out there.
OA place swim T1 Bike T2 Run overall
45 Laura Mount 7:10 2:00 41:19 1:04 25:02 1:16:33
Swim: 7:10
The swim was short... my favorite... just 1/4 mile. The distance suited me just fine, but the waves were sent up SO fast that 300+ people were dumped into this short swim almost all at once. We clobbered each other the whole way. If I went 10 seconds without being kicked, hit, pushed or pummeled I assumed I went off course and would have to pop my head up to confirm that I was still in the midst of the crowd. After we turned the first buoy the sun was right in our eyes and you couldn't see a thing. I guess at this point it was a good thing we were so crowded bc you didn't really need to look up to know you were still on course. If I'm going to get better at swimming I'm really going to have to swim more. Side note: People were talking about the weeds in the lake and I almost laughed after my LAKE WINGRA swimming in Wisconsin it's hard for me to be bothered by too much in the way of lake swimming.
T1: 2:00
I put arm warmers on bc I thought it was going to be really cold biking soaking wet. BIG WASTE OF TIME. Getting arm warmers on wet arms is a pain
Bike: 41:19
This course was hilly. 9 mph uphills w/ 34mph descents. It was fun, but frustrating. You would get in a groove then, bam, be slapped in the face by little gear hill. Then power down, get in a groove, bam, uphill. There were a lot of newbies out there riding the center line b/c the roads were banked and pretty chewed up. Frustrating, but pretty normal. There were lots of bends and curves along the course that kept it interesting. Downhill at 30+mph into a 90 degree curve. Good times.
When I dismounted my legs were wobbly... uh oh.
T2: 1:04
nothing exciting here. I ran up to the wrong wrack initially and forgot to take my pump (bc I will NEVER race w/o a pump again.. whether or not I have intentions of actually changing a flat) out of my back pocket and threw it back toward my stuff.
Run: 25:02
Holy hell! I felt like I was going to puke right away on the run. Tried to suck down a gel and couldn't choke it down. My legs felt okay, but I felt asthmatic through most of the run. I didn't need to let anyone know I was coming b/c they could hear me panting. There is a pretty killer hill right at the beginning. I focused on cruising to the top as best I could. I ran the whole thing and by the time I got to the top I felt like I had my legs under me again.. now for the breathing/heart rate. Was trying really hard to get in a good cadence while getting my breathing and heart rate under control. Threw the whole run my mind kept trying to tell me to slow down and enjoy the ride... but really I was there to race. After my last sprint I had told myself that I might be able to win my age group in this race bc I knew it would be small. The more I thought about it the more I realized I hadn't been passed by any women since I got out of the water... and the swim was so short that I couldn't have gotten that far behind my wave in 7 whole minutes... right? I started looking for women to pass. Again this was a small race so we didn't have our wave numbers or age on our calves so I had no idea if the women I passed were in my age group or not. I pushed through it all and had to concentrate really hard to not puke when I got done... I left it all out there. (though when I saw the results I wondered if I could have run faster if I had turned my brain off and just run.... I know I HAVE run faster)
At the end of the day I ended up 1st in my age group (yea), 3rd in my wave (I'm not sure what that means as I'm not sure how the waves were broken up... ), 5th woman and 45th overall. I'm psyched to have gotten back out there this year.. even if it was only two races (well, two tris) and now I'm back in planning and scheming mode for next year as I lace up the running shoes and hit the road in anticipation of some half marathons coming up this fall and winter! :)
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