On May 17th, I participated in the Rambling Rose Super Sprint Triathlon. A super sprint consists of a 225 yard pool swim, 8 mile bike ride, and 2 mile run. The race is a super fun race geared towards women and especially first timers. You see all ages from girls 11 years old to older adults. People who have never done a triathlon to seasoned veterans.
I did this race last year and had a major fail. I got to the dismount line of the bike and could not get unclipped from my pedals and fell over pulling a muscle in my thigh and busting up my knee. It slowed me down a bit for the run but I still came in 4th in my age group. So close to a podium finish yet so far away. Ughhhh!
This year my swim has gotten faster and my bike has gotten even faster yet I wasn't running so the run would be what it would be. Coach Brooks gave me my marching orders earlier in the week and gave me my splits (53:30 overall time). Also, he said I would be on the podium. No pressure! My husband was also in agreement that I would make it on there there this year. Damn pressure on the home front too!
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| Swim Bike Mom. Sophie and me before the start. |
Normally, I am very relaxed and not nervous the morning of a race but not so this year. I got to the race super early and set up my transition area. I walked around and chatted up friends and helped my old college suite-mate with her set up-it was her first triathlon and she did amazing! (Whit, I saw your times and you did incredible and I am so proud of you!)
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| Heather, myself, Flat Ron Burgandy, Hot Rod Red pre-race. |
They called for the swim start and I really thought I was going to vomit. I seeded myself in the fast group but put myself to the back which might not have been the best because I got stuck behind someone slower for about 2 lengths of the pool and I could not get past her for a bit. My goal was just to get out of the pool in 4 minutes and not throw up. I was out of the pool in 4:03 which might have been even better had I not been behind a slower swimmer and now I had to run in my bare feet about a 10th of a mile on concrete to the transition area. The run counts as part of the swim which sucks since my foot and concrete are not friends at the moment so it was a slow run dare I say jog or shuffle. Time with run was 5:25.
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| Running out of the swim. My poor foot-ouch! |
I fumbled in transition a bit even though I set everything to perfection by my bike. We will just say it was first race of the season jitters. The bike course is pretty hard for a race that is supposed to be beginner friendly. It makes its way through a neighborhood with lots of potholes and hills and then a left turn onto a busy road and then another left and then back into the neighborhood where the dreaded Carrington Hill is located. Carrington is like a bowl and at the bottom of that bowl is a bunch of potholes so going super fast isn't a safe option and the climb back out of the bowl is super steep and kinda long. The rest of the way back is mainly uphill so negative splitting isn't going to happen. The first 5 miles I was hitting 20 mph but once back in the neighborhood it dropped to 18.8 mph. Still fast considering but I would prefer to start slower and get faster. Anyway, I rolled into transition and got unclipped-yes! I got my bike racked after my handle bars got stuck on the end of the rack, more fumbling! Obviously I need to practise this more! Anyhow, I yanked my shoes on, grabbed my hat and race belt and off I went. Bike time 25:05.
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| I LOVE my bike! |
The run is not too bad but there is one hill coming out of the Y parking lot. I ended up walking this hill a bit both times because my heart was pounding and I felt I needed to get it under control before I had a heart attack or vomited. The run was uneventful and considering I haven't run in a few months I think I did ok. As soon as I turned the corner on my last loop and saw the finish shoot my stomach settled and I sprinted across the finish line. I looked at my watch and it said 50:46. That's 3 minutes faster than coach wanted-hell yeah!!! Run time 18:07 and official race time 50:57
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| Finished! Look at that heel strike-so bad! |
Now the wait for reuslts began. At one point it said I was in 2nd out of 85 in my age group and 10th overall so we stuck around for awards. As they were calling my age group they called out third place, not me, then they called out second place, not me. This is when my heart broke for a moment. Then they called out frist and it was ME! What? How awesome! I was just gunning for third place coming into this event so to place first was a shock. While I am happy I still doubt my race skills and picked apart what could and needs to get better. Why can't I just be happy? One day the Negative Nellie will get out of my head and I will be good enough.
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| Guess no one else wanted to get there award but me. |
Anyway, what happens next? Well, I keep training for Beach to Battleship 70.3 and try and get some other distance triathlons on my schedule to make sure I go into B2B prepared. I think I will plan to do a few bike tours and maybe a century (100 mile bike ride) with my SBM teammate/sole mate Colleen in Maryland. I also qualified for Nationals with this finish so maybe I will do that too. I guess in a few weeks I have to start running again which scares the shit out of me because my foot was pretty sore after the 2 miles I ran on Sunday. All I do know for sure is that I am glad that the first race is over with and that I may hate super sprint distances as I hate that rushed feeling the whole race.
I need to give a shout out to my home girls Heather for shaving 12 minutes off her time from last year and Hot Rod Red for moving up in her age group and overall standings from last year. You ladies rock and I am so glad to get to train with you all on a weekly basis!
Until next time, CHEERS!
