Phew, that race was a killer! So after my last post, I did replace my tire. Then I rode it to the bike shop to buy more tubes, and on the way there my spoke protector broke.
In any case they fixed it for me and I got it back just in time on Saturday.
Saturday night I had to go to a wedding. Not the best activity the night before a race since the food was not very controlled at all. I did not eat very well. However, we did manage to escape the wedding at 8:30 so I was in bed by 10:00. Woke up at 5:00, had a bit of a mess trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast (yeah, I failed at planning -- I ended up with oatmeal, milk, and some fruit), and had to deal with my stomach being kind of upset about the previous night's food.
Anyway we made it downtown just in time to catch the tail end of the pre-race meeting (nothing new, just the usual rules). I forgot to bring my camera, sadly, but we took some pics with my cell phone. After getting set up in the transition area I waited in an extremely long line for the bathroom, then headed out to find the starting line. It was a point-to-point swim so the starting line was a couple blocks away. We got there around 7:25 so we had plenty of time to spare. The Olympic distance started at 7:30 and the sprint couldn't start until all the Olympic swimmers had passed our starting line, plus then I was in one of the last waves so I had even longer to wait. DH and I killed time by looking for another bathroom (which we found, eventually, in a hotel, though the receptionist probably thought I was nuts coming in there in a swimsuit). It was 88 degrees out and sunny so I slathered on the sunblock, and the 78-degree water was pleasantly cool.
In any case my time finally came up for the swim. The canal wasn't really any dirtier than a lake or river (there are fish in it) so it wasn't bad, plus it was only 4 feet deep. I felt like I did pretty well on the swim. I didn't have to stop to rest at all, I swam the whole way. DH walked along the sidewalk next to me so every time I turned my head to breathe I could see him there, which was nice. I got kicked in the face at one point and got some water into my goggles, but nothing bad. According to my watch I did about 20 minutes for the swim (500m) which is about what I had expected, maybe a little longer. DH said that I was one of the few people in my wave who actually swam the whole way -- others kind of pretended to swim while walking along the bottom.
Against the rules!
In any case I got out of the swim and over to my bike relatively quickly, considering my bike was all the way on the other side of the transition area. No problems with T1, and I got out on the bike course. The course was nice enough, although there were a couple railroad tracks. I got passed by a few people and passed a few people (mostly people on their second lap for the Olympic distance). I have to say, the previous sprint I did had a 10-mile bike and this one was 12.5, and those last 2.5 miles were really tough! I trained for it, but still. There was a hill right at the end that was exhausting. I estimate my time for the bike ride at about an hour but I didn't check my watch when I was leaving from T1 so I'm not totally sure. I'll know when they post the official times online.
During the bike I intended to do the same for nutrition that I did last time -- half a clif bar and some gatorade, but I was hungry and ended up eating the whole bar. Probably a mistake. When I started the run my stomach started cramping up, and after about a mile I had to start walking. I was running so slowly at that point that I was walking faster than I was running anyway, but I was still annoyed about it. I ended up walking a bit more than the middle mile of the run, then running the last 3/4 mile or so. Crossed the finish line at 2:20 on my watch.
Things I learned from this time around:
1) It's harder to do a triathlon when it's 88 degrees and sunny than it is when it's 60 degrees and cloudy.
2) Don't eat so much.
3) Don't go to a wedding the night before.
4) I need to work on swimming faster (my endurance is fine, I'm just super-slow).
5) I need to work on my running endurance.
It was a good experience overall, and I'm glad I did it. Swimming in the canal was fun, and the bike ride was scenic (the halfway point was at the velodrome and there were people doing all sorts of bike tricks in there). I got a good workout. Now I'm just waiting for the official results (I was too tired to stick around at the event until they posted mine).
Of course now my workout schedule is thrown off -- I was going to do weight lifting tomorrow but I'm pretty darn sore today!
Race Report!
