Saturday, March 15, 2008

St. Patricks Sprint

Today was an experience :)
Keller had some much lower temps than Dallas in the morning...it was low 50s and very windy.
Yesterday my flight got in at 4pm and I headed out to packet pick up immediately which was out near the race site (about 45min away). But there was no way in hell I was going to make it in Friday Spring Break rush hour.
So I got my packet this morning before the race start- things went smoothly... I managed my 10min bike, run, and swim warm ups, took my powergel and was ready to go.
Lesson #1- I suck at pool swims! I think I hit my head on the lane lines switching over after the flip turns on every 50 ;)
Stacy and Mina were the two I was hoping to be close enough out of the water with to "draft" off of on the bike. However, their numbers were a good ways ahead of mine for the swim start and given that they can swim well I never saw them until the run.
I put on a jacket in transition as with a pure swim suit I would have frozen to death. I felt fine on the bike- the legs were only slightly numb. The whole ride was windy and I had no one- 3 guys passed me in the two loops but they were instantly gone so no hanging 3 bike lengths behind them. I was riding strong and pushing as hard as I could- maybe by some miracle I could catch Stacy at least. But I didn't, coming into T2 a couple of seconds behind her.
Lesson #2 NEVER EVER EVER EVER ride without shorts again!!!!!!! I chafed so bad on my inner thighs that I started to bleed pretty bad. I didn't notice until I crossed the line and leaned on my knees. Haha, it didn't look right- let's just leave it at that. The race pictures will be dreadful to look at. The good thing is while racing I only felt a slight sting, nothing to impact my riding or running.
Anyway, on to the run the legs felt very fresh and despite going pretty hard on the bike I felt good overall. The air was chilly which doesn't do my breathing a favor, but no biggie. It was a cool little winding course- "trail" which in texas means sidewalk along a path of trees and bushes-.
I saw Mina about 1/2 mile before the turnaround so no catching her, and Stacy right before the turnaround, but ran out of real estate on her too.
All in all, a good race, fun and interesting.
I have no idea how I placed since the results were screwed up (ie they had the female overall winner as beating the male OA even though she was one of the last people into the swim start and swam a 7-8min 300). Pretty sure Mina took the win...and I was somewhere in 3rd or 4th.
Well, lots to do the rest of the day- homework I didn't touch while in San Antonio. On top of that, they had a running race/parade on Greenville, which is right near my apartment and every street is blocked so I just made it home like 30min ago!
Hope everyone that raced had a cool time too :) It was good seeing a lot of familiar faces out there. Tri season has begun!!