| Racer: | Julie Clark |
| Race: | Little Pepper |
| Date: | Sunday, May 18, 2008 |
| Location: | Culpepper, VA |
| Race Type: | Triathlon - Sprint |
| Group: | Athena |
| Time: | 1:53:42 |
| Overall Place: | 88 / 157 |
| Age Group Place: | 7 / 14 |
| Comment: | my first triathlon, AND a PR :) |
Race Report:
Pre-race:----------
The night before the race, we stayed with a friend just a few miles from the lake, which was great. We also had steak, and while it was very yummy, it's not exactly what I had in mind for my pre-race dinner! Oh well, at least I drank more water than wine, and was in bed early. Up early too, but felt like I should be sociable, making me at least 15 minutes later to the race site than planned. This made for quite a rush, since there was a decent packet pick up line at this point, and it was my firs time doing any of this tri race business. But, it all got done...
Swim 22:03(138/157)
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Boy do I hate swimming, and this was no exception. The start was fine, my friend Moe and I stuck off to the rear of the group and waited for the speedsters (Katie D) to get going first. Getting through the first few buoys was manageable, but then the next waves starting passing me. First I saw the first wave behind, then even some from two waves behind! Oh well, just get through this. Then, SMACK, into my left eyesocket. It was almost in slow motion, which somehow allowed me to grab my goggles before they were sent off into oblivion, which was good, since they are prescription and would have made for a blind swim! I was pissed and treaded for a bit, thinking, I could stop. I hate this. Then, of course you're not stopping, you haven't even gotten to the parts you enjoy. Onward, and inward, SLOWLY.
T1 2:50 (76/157)
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I remembered my number easily (369!) and found my spot quickly. I got the wetsuit off with very few problems, and into the bike shoes and helmet. My glasses were easy to find, which worked well! Only complaint was who put that lovely hill right before the mount?? That was no fun.
Bike: 58:09 (59/157)
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Onto the bike, yay!! There was a bit of a hill getting started on the course, oh wait, there were hills everywhere. But, some great downhills to use my athena-ness to fly past quite a few riders. I did notice that I passed mostly mountain bike riders, with a few road bikes, while expensive tri bikes were passing me like crazy! I was fine with that, and pushed myself the whole ride. Only issue was the gel I taped to my bike fell off in the first third of the ride. Oh well, I just made an effort to drink more Accelerade!
T2: 1:43 (74/157)
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Found my stuff easily after running down that same hill between the dismount and my transition spot. Yay for yanks, shoes went on very easily.
Run: 28:59 (91/157)
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I got to do most of the run with my friend Moe, which was fun. We had to convince each other at a couple points that we CHOSE to do this and boy would it be nice to be done! The first few uphills killed me, I walked at least twice :(. But, I finally got into a rhythm half way through and picked it up a bit to the (downhill, yay!) finish.
Lessons learned
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1- be much more early to the race site, esp with race-day packet pick up
2- swim more, even if I hate it
3- don't use scotch tape to tape gel to bike.
4- more bricks! more hills!
Overall:
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I'm finally a triathlete! Or a newbie one, at least. Thank goodness the first one is done. Now on to the next 5...including races with LUNA chix!
1 comment:
Congratulations on doing your first race!
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