So, brief notes on the course:
Great swim conditions – flat, no waves. Too warm (85.4) for wetsuits, and no one in recent memory could remember ever being able to use one there. Buoys well placed to measure progress.
Bike was challenging, but not overwhelming – this wasn’t Columbia. Still hilly, but not bad.
Run was hot, hot, hot. Rolling hills, blazing sun with no shade, but plenty of aid stations. A shame they can’t move us across the road to run on the shady side of the street.
Personal notes:
Getting there early was sooooo worth it. Got parked, got set up early, got time to go to the port-a-johns a couple of times. So worth the earlier wake up for the lack of race stress. And in general, I wasn’t as stressed about this race this time. As I started to get some pre-race jitters Saturday, I looked in and said to myself, “You know, you’ve been doing this for 5 years now, you know what you’re doing, you’re going to be fine.”
Best swim ever. Well, aside from major, major chafing. And overdoing it, heart-rate wise. That said, I got my groove relatively early, with very little in the way of stopping to do side or breast stroke, and just powered through. Seeing those buoys slip by at a regular clip was nice. About halfway through I realized I had forgotten to put body glide on my arm and armpit, as I normally do for a pool swim, because the right arm area just got chafed to hell. I did a practice swim beforehand (a first for me), which helped with the comfort level. On the practice I was able to do bilateral breathing. On the real swim I ended up breathing just on my right side to keep my face out of the sun – the reason the right arm is chafed more than the left. I also pushed a bit too hard, because I was feeling pretty good, until I got out of the swim and realized I’d pushed my heart rate too high. Walked rather than ran the distance from the water to transition.
Started the bike with a seized up calf. When I went to mount up my left calf just screamed at me. Came back down (off to the side so I wasn’t in the way) and let it settle down before trying again. Did get back up on, and did ride pretty well, though I used some of the downhills to stretch out both calves, and spent a lot of time worrying if I was going to be able to run at all. Need to work on uphills – I crawl uphill, then fly downhill. Muscular endurance? Will have to check that out. Got tired of flying past people on downhills and flat only to get passed like I was standing still on the uphills. Also, they seemed to like Busch Lite out there because there were a lot of cans of it all over the less populated parts of the bike course (these are the things you notice while trying not to pay attention to how slow you’re going uphill).
Did manage to run – some bouncing up and down in transition after I switched shoes showed that it was going to be okay, so I zipped out on it. The course, as I noted above, was very, very hot. All in the sun (except the immediate start and finish). The aid stations were good (though I’m still glad I carry my own water bottle so I can sip at my own pace), and volunteers were fantastic. I got a cold washcloth early and put that on my neck, recharging it in the ice pools where drinking water was stored as I was able. I think that’s the only reason my neck isn’t as red as my shoulders (which aren’t bad, just a little red – and I did start with sunscreen on, but didn’t reapply in transition). Felt fantastic to have it on there, and to get more cool water on it. Walked most of the course because of the heat, came in running the last bit.
Total time: 3:40:17. Not my fastest (Columbia 2008), nor my slowest (Mooseman 2006). Did learn from the experience, and had a fun time challenging myself, which is why I do these things after all.
