Pre Race
Paying the extra money to sign up for day of race packet pick up was huge. I got to hang out the beach Saturday and shoot across the state to Mercer County Sunday morning. For my Saturday pre race workout I actually did a 5k (don't tell Liz) - I took it slow though. Sunday morning I woke up early to torrential rain. Seriously. But hoped it would clear and headed to the race site. I was running way late but while transition closed at 7 am (or something) my wave didn't go off till 9 so I wasn't too stressed out. I eventually got my transition set up, found Sara (& Scott) and sat around. And sat around some more. And when the sprinters had all gone off and the oly was gearing up to start I got in a solid swim warmup. This is SOOO important for me and I was glad to have done it (plus, once I was wet I was FREEZING and since the water was warmer than the air, the water was a good place to be - I'd soon be wishing for some cool air though).
Swim
('09 =34:07; '07 = 36:11)
I love the swim at this race. Its super well marked in a lake where they row crew so you can follow the little crew buoys the whole way. And its basically not wetsuit legal and I'm kind of a big fan of non wetsuit swims so ... I got in and swam. It wasn't a bad swim, but I felt I could have done better. Again and again I come back to needing to not be so set on finding clear water and to be willing to just get in there and draft, draft, draft. But, it was a 2 minute pr so I'll it.
T1 ('09=2:42; '07=?)
Not much to do without a wetsuit to take off.
Bike
('09=1:22:39; '07=1:37:20)
Woah, what a difference 2 years and a coach make. Liz told me to keep my cadence up and I did and it worked. Once I got on my bike after the world's longest run from transition, I seriously felt like I was flying. Its an at times technical but flatish course and after Philly and certainly Rev well ... you know why I felt like I was flying. I also noticed that the day was heating up (which was expected due to the late start) and while I was thrilled to have such a solid bike, I was more than ready to just get off the bike and see what I had left for the run!
T2 ('09=2:30; '07=?)
No socks. Read to run.
Run ('09=1:01:16; '07=1:08:37)
WHY DO NOT STAND ALONE 10Ks FIT INTO MY SCHEDULE? I soooo want to do one. Anyway, I was trying to chase down a sub 3 finish and that motivated me right up until I knew it wasn't going to happen. I was trying to run a race that I could finish and that took precedence over trying for an arbitrary time goal. And it was hot and well, hot. And while its mostly flat there is some grass and path type running and again its technical so a sub 1 hour run was not meant to be. But I did my best and again, was pleased.
TOTAL: 3:03:12
If you're wondering if I'm haunted by those 3 minutes and 12 seconds, the answer is YES. I played all the "if I had just" games and for awhile I really, really wanted another oly in the season to chase down those minutes (thank God, I didn't find one, I was DONE after T-man, but I'm getting ahead of myself) but there were none to be found so I decided to just focus on what I did do and not what I could have done. And once I did that I was super pleased with my performance. It was totally a day in which everything just came together and while I'll totally be chasing those minutes next year its seriously an arbitrary goal that doesn't take away from an otherwise great race (and I'm really bad at beating PRs so I'm trying not to make it more than it is).
Up next ... Timberman!
