First race of the season was a success!
Is it possible to be rusty and ready at the same time?
READY: Going into it, I felt strong on the swim and strong on the bike……..
RUSTY: ……but my run training hasn’t been as consistent as I want it to be.
READY: My bike fitness indoors is stronger than it was this time last year….
RUSTY: But, my bike handling was ZERO. The only time I’d been outdoors was the day before the race. Plus, my chain was literally rusty and I did nothing to prepare my bike. I haven’t oiled my chain, cleaned my bike or taken off the stickers from Arizona. At least I pumped my tires!
RUSTY: I was SO NERVOUS!!! I have done 82 races and I have probably done this race 15 times and I still can’t believe the amount of butterflies that fluttered! Plus, from the moment I saw the forecast (two days before) to the moment I jumped in the pool for a warm-up - I was NOT into racing. I wanted a reason to back out.
READY: Mentally, I had a very good day. From the moment I jumped in the pool until the moment I finished, I had a very positive, happy, inner excellence day.
The Azalea Sprint Triathlon is a 300-yard pool swim, a 12-mile, two loop bike and a 5K run. The swim is a “snake swim” - you start on one side of the pool and snake your way through the lanes to get to the other side. It is always a madhouse. No one knows how to enter their estimated swim time and so there are times when the person ahead of you is too slow and the person behind you is too fast. There is a semblance of organization: There are several different groups of swimmers and you are seeded fastest to slowest. There is usually a five minute gap between groups. In the past, they let the athletes that breast stroke and walk and side stroke and elementary back stroke clear the pool before they start the next group. But this time, the organizers were behind schedule by the time they got to group three (which included me). And so they started our group without much of a gap. I passed six swimmers, two at about 100 yards in at the wall, two at about 225 in the lane and two at the wall at the 275 mark. I almost passed the woman who had started ahead of me, but she started pushing me into the wall so I passed on her right.
There is a stairwell down to the ground floor after you exit the pool. I zipped down my swim skin as I carefully navigated the two flights of steps. We were able to stage clothes just outside the swim exit so I threw on my bike jacket and a pair of my ON CLOUDS (no laces!) to run to transition. It isn’t far - maybe 100 yards, but running on concrete in the cold is miserable and I didn’t want dead grass on my feet from transition. Once I got to my bike, I yanked off my swim skin and threw it in my BOGG and dressed from top to toe. I was shivering as I put on my socks.
The wind and cold on the bike was uncomfortable, but it could have been worse. The longest section up Wrightsville Avenue was a tailwind so that helped - twice. The two-loop course is pretty technical: there are about a dozen turns and a probably dozen speed humps. There was a long patch of rough road at miles two and eight and even light traffic on course. Honestly, I was happy to be off the bike.
Transition 2 was hilarious. I couldn’t get my helmet unclipped and so I called on a volunteer - who happened to be my friend, Kathy - to help. She had frozen fingers and was wearing gloves. Somehow I yanked hard enough to get it unhooked and threw it in my boxy bag - thrilled that I didn’t have to wear it on the run. Once I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my race belt, I had to look around for a minute to figure out how to get out of transition. One of the rusty details that I usually practice, but forgot to do that day!
I headed out on the course with two goals - to try to run with my metronome and to run the whole way. I’ve been practicing speeding up my cadence on some of my longer runs for about two months. I have set my Garmin to beep and buzz at 178 bpm. Lately, this has helped me keep a 9:30 pace. I was close. My watch showed that I had a 172 average - but I didn’t have on the strap that records that info. Staying with the metronome got easier as I ran. Plus, I didn’t stop! Sometimes, I’ll do a quick walk through the aid stations to get a sip of water, but on this day, I was able to slow, sip and slam (the water into the trash can). My paces were 9:32/9:29/9:16!
I was exactly a minute slower this year (1:17:43) than last year (1:16:43). But, I was thrilled that my run was faster and that I placed SECOND in my age group! I also racked up some sweet swag from my fourth place finish in the 2024 NC TRI SERIES awards. I had written previously that I had wanted a podium spot. I didn’t get on the podium - but I did get points and prizes for completing five races! Score! I won a pair of pajama pants and a plaque.
