I can't believe that this was my first tri of the season!! I was having mixed feeling about the race, excited, kinda of out of it with how the season was going, nervous that a half was my first tri of 2013. I kept thinking about how strange this year has been when it comes to training and racing, but tried to keep an open mind and have fun with it. I knew I could get through the race, and I'd done training for it, although my running has been sub par this year with ankle surgery and ongoing knee issues.
We drove up Sat to get to Door Country mid day. The drive was LONG, but fun with Kurbs and Osc in the car =) Kurbs was not able to do the race because of her foot injury but I was glad she still came to cheer!!! We got to packet pick up about 4pm and checked out the race site. Lake Michigan was very pretty and big. The weather was beautiful, nice and cool unlike other years, and little wind. I was getting more excited to do this thing.
We stated at the Best Western Maritime, which was pretty cozy, and ended up eating at a restaurant called Neighborhood right across the street. I had a yummy pork chop and a glass of wine of course =)
Race morning was pretty stress free since we were only about 12miles from the race site. We got there pretty early, about 6:30 for an 8am race start. I got warmed up with Kurbs and Osc and was all ready to go. I liked that the transition didn't close until 15min before the race so I had plenty of time to warm up and get all situated.
SWIM:
The swim was an in water swim due to rocks close to the beach. As soon as the gun went off it was like riding a bike...I wasn't all that nervous but the water was super choppy the whole way and I had a very hard time getting into a breathing or stroke rhythm. The buoys were very well marked which was nice. No major issues in the swim besides the choppy waters making it very difficult to get into a grove. I swallowed a lot of water sighting at one point and had to do a little breast stroke action.
BIKE:
Right after getting in from the swim I noticed that it was raining. I thought to myself, damn! Rain on the bike didn't bother me though, it was a lighter mist, with some heavier rain at times, but no extra wind, and the course itself was nice. The roads were fairly smooth about 90% of the way, and there were just a few rolling hillls but nothing major. I ate three gels and a power bar on the bike, which seemed to work out for me. I think I finally figured out the nutrition for the half on the bike in this race. Only took me about 5 Half Ironman to figure it out.
RUN:
Coming into T2 my feet were feeling cold and numb from the rain, so the first few miles were a little painful but my body felt pretty good. I was doing about 7:30 miles the first 7 miles, but then the hills hit at mile 8 and I died!! 20% grade my glute cramped...I'm not sure what happened to me, maybe I went out too fast, but I was feeling pretty good. The run didn't go as great as I wanted, but the course was a very very tough and hilly one. Thank god the weather was overcast and cool in the low 70's.
I was very happy to finish although a bit disappointed because I was thinking I'd be able to make pull off about a 5 hour time, but with the added pain on the run I came in at about 5:11, no PR but hard to compare not doing this race before.
As a side note a little about Door County...A lot of wineries here and very pretty in Egg Harbor, definitely have to come back and maybe stay an extra day.
Results:
Split Time Pace
Swim 00:39:13.9 0:02:01
T-1 00:01:54.1 0:00:00
Bike 02:43:08.2 20.7
T-2 00:01:06.5 0:00:00
Run 01:46:23.3 0:08:07
Total Time 5:11.46.2 (9th overall Female)
Crazy hard run, and swim very choppy, good bike course though with a few hills)
http://itiming.com/searchable/index.php?results=dcthalf2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Cancelled Triathlon and an interesting season....Copper Creek 6/23/2013
I was all excited to do my first sorta late season triathlon in Iowa, the Copper Creek sprint tri, but the race ended up being cancelled and instead of a triathlon there was a 5K which we didn't really know about until after we left. It was all sort of bizarre as the day started off really nice, and then crazy weather rolled in. The race was first shortened and then delayed, and then after waiting for an hour and a half and no break in sight we headed out since we had a flight to Alaska that same night. I was really bummed and so was Kurbs, since we both really wanted to get this season started. We drove all the way there ate a good meal, stayed in a nasty motel, and then the race got cancelled. I've never had that happened before, and it was worse in part because we drove all the way there!!! Ug super annoying but what can ya do...I'm a little worried about my first triathlon being a half, but I know I can get through it at least, just very bizarre and different approach to the season this year.
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