Ramblin' Rose Chapel Hill Race Report

So, my morning started this morning at 5:45am when the alarm went off. I have a penchant for hitting it and rolling over. Not this morning. I had a triathlon to race. My last of the season, unless I do an indoor one at the gym or something. I'll be keeping my eye out.

I arrived at the race site at around 6:45 this morning ate my breakfast of oatmeal and coke in the van. I don't do coffee for the fact that it sets my intestines in high gear and that is the last thing I need during a race. I got my transition area set around 7:40 and then roamed around until my start time. I had about an hour to kill from the start, my start time was 9:09:10 and I was amazingly relaxed this time. My first tri I was so nervous I was watching everything, taking it all in and getting so overloaded that I had an asthma attack in the pool. It didn't help that the water temp was like 64 degrees. (Freakin' cold as hell.)

Anyway, so I started out at 9:09:10 and without gassing myself, I actually passed someone in the pool. WOOHOO!! I was loving the all women's environment. No men running me over in the pool, grabbing my ankles because they seeded themselves to slowly, or myself too fast. I was actually seeded perfectly. I will have to remember that. The woman in front of me was breaststroking the pool and I caught her on the second 25 and she looked at me and kept going, so on the third 25, I started tapping her foot for the pass and she let me pass at the end of the lane. From that point on, I was good until the end and then passed another woman in transition.

So, heading out on the road, I always have to remember to keep my breathing under control. Chapel Hill is called Chapel HILL for a reason. It is very hilly, mostly rolling, but some long slow hills also. In the first 1/4 mile, is the first hill, that sucked, but you have to go somewhere. As many of my cycling friends know, I am great on downhills, I hit my big gears and just rock. It can be a very slight downhill, but I know how to make time on them and make up for my uphill times. I HATE HILLS, I am getting better at climbing, but had I been training for more than 3 weeks, I would have been in better position. If I can do that with little to no training and just maintaining my base fitness, holy crap, look out for me with a full off-season of training. I will be faster next year. So I made it to dismount and almost fell over because I hammered the bike. I was actually cramping up my calves on the bike...not good. As I am headed into transition I hear "Go Oddball!!!" Some friends I know from when I volunteered for a pro soccer team in the area. That was my mascot assistant nickname. Then I hear Bryan, my sister's brother-in-law, yelling at me to go and way to go. My bike split was AWESOME!!!! 9 miles in 44:11...YEAH!!! Into transition and then off on the run. I had to put my socks on because I had cycled without them.

Jacket off, socks and running shoes on and race number on, (I almost forgot my race number and had to turn around and get it.) I headed out on the run/walk and had to start slowly because of my legs. I was jogging when I could and walking when I had to. On my way back from the turnaround to the finish there was a crosswalk that was on a speedtable (speedhump) and as I crossed it, I tripped, fell flat on my face rolled over, got up and kept right on going. I was not stopping at that point. I get up just across from the finish line and one of the people I talked into racing with me, jumped out on the path with me and started jogging, so of course I had to jog too. Thanks LP. I ended up beating her time by 25 seconds. Had she let me walk, she would have placed ahead of me. Total time for my tri was 1:27:06

With everything I have been through this summer with my neck and 3 months of no training, I am quite happy with how I finished. 11/17 in the Athena class.

I will post pictures once I receive them from Uncle B. Enjoy the post. I enjoyed reliving it again.