So I just completed my second race of the season. 2 down, 2 to go!
There are two courses at the Wildflower Triathlon, The Long Course, and The Olympic Course. I chose the latter. The long course is a Half-Ironman. Not only that, but one of the toughest in the country. Many of my brave friends did that course. I felt it was too early in my training to attempt. My end goal is Wisconsin this year, but maybe one year I will return and do the long course. Sounded pretty brutal from all accounts.
Anyhoo..I did the Olympic course, it in its own right is a pretty difficult course. Much more difficult that any other Olympic I've done. I'm happy how it went, glad its over, and pumped to continue my training.
Here's how it all went down.
Swim: 00:28:14 ( about 1 mile)
The swim started out in one of the craziest starts I've ever been apart of. It was just a really small area for a hundred swimmers to all jump in. It took a good 500 yards for us to really find our groove. After that, it was pretty smooth sailing. I decided to try something I read in an article about improving your swim times and saving energy. It was to draft. Not legal in biking, but perfectly OK in swimming. Basically get right behind the feet of another swimming. So I picked my prey...good swimmer, about my speed. Perfect I thought. It was perfect, I could feel how much easier it was to swim. "Brilliant" I thought in my head! Not thinking too much about it, I just followed and followed..and followed. Followed the little shit way off course! Yup, I chose the guy with the bad direction skills! Crap, truly my own fault. But any energy I saved by drafting, cost me in trying to get back on course. Oh well, live and learn. After that, it was pretty smooth back to the finish. I felt really good with this swim. Probably one of my better swims energy wise. Felt great getting out and ready to roll on the bike!
Bike 01:27:39 (25 miles)
This is where the course is just evil. Right out of transition you have to bike straight up hill for a mile. Doing this on warmed up legs is hard enough, but to come right of swimming into this is just plain crazy. It was. By the time you got to the top and realized you've only gone a mile you just want to bike right over to your car, pack it up, and go home. Conveniently enough, the top of this hill is where infact your car is parked. Fortunately, I had my wonderful teammates who did the Long Course the day before cheering me on. If they can make it through that horrible course, I can make it through this. So you get over the hill and get your ass going. From there it actually wasn't too bad. It was was a lot off rolling hills. I ride hills similar to these all the time in Malibu, so I felt pretty strong riding them. It's an out and back course. I saw a few friends along the way, cheered them on and kept on biking. Sadly, I knew I had a tough run ahead of me, so I wasn't looking forward to getting off of the bike.
Run 00:56:09 (6.2 miles)
This is where you really find out if you trained hard enough. The whole run is up hill, except for the last mile, where its all down hill. It was pretty brutal. I knew I really didn't do enough hill training for this run, and my calves were on fire for most of it. I did ok though. I've never been a really strong runner, so I was just happy I was continuing to move forward. The hill just would not stop. At each aid station, I would grab 3 cups of water. One to drink, one to splash on my head, and one to splash on my calves! It worked pretty well actually. Mile 5 could not come soon enough. I could see that last hill and was so excited knowing that is was all down hill from there. So I got to the top, and there were my teammates! They were cheering me on and handed me what I thought was water...nope...it was a beer! I took one sip to celebrate, and tossed the rest....I had a tough run to the finish, couldn't be getting all drunk...and yes, it only takes one beer cause I'm a pathetic light weight! I appreciate my teammates gesture though. So as I made the turn down the hill, I looked at my watch. I saw that I might actually break 3 hours if I really hustle. So I grabbed whatever energy I had left and ran as fast as I could. I was cruising down the hill. I was just praying that my legs didn't give out cause that would have been a spectacular crash and burn. Fortunately they held up and I crossed the finish line with 2 mins to spare! However,as soon as I stopped my legs got really mad at me and my right leg cramped up pretty bad. I tried to walk it off, but ended up falling to the ground trying to let it loosen up. After a few minutes I was able to stumble over to the medical tent and they iced me right up. After that, went to the free massage table and had them work on that leg. All was good after that. A dramatic finish to my little race!
Final Time 02:58:16!! Woohoo, broke 3 hours! Happy and ready to move on in my training.
Wildflower was fun! Up next, Muncie Ironman 70.3....bring it on!
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