Got up and it was raining -- surprise surprise. We get to the park around 5:45. This is usually enough time to pick up my packet, get body marked, set up transition and chill until the start. The body marking line was so freakin' long, which is highly unusual. It was probably close to 1/4 mile long. Rain is still coming down. We've been hearing thunder and seeing lightning here and there for over an hour. One of the race workers came down the line and announced that the swim had been cancelled due to the storms; it was being turned into a biathlon.
The transition area is a big grassy mud hole. Lucky for me, my little spot was more grass than mud. One thing I like about this race is that everyone has an assigned transition spot based on race number. You are also told which way to point your bike, this is based on your race number as well.
I noticed LOTS of people leaving. The start was moved to 7:15AM. As that time came closer, even MORE people packed up and left. I heard someone say it was because they had never ridden in the rain before and were scared to "give it a go" that day. I'll get more into this topic on a later post.
I originally wanted to finish the tri in 3 hours, if possible; so I had to change my goal. My new goal was 2:30:00. I was really bummed about the swim being cancelled; it felt like that was my "rite of passage" within the triathlon world. I was trying to break out from sprint races into the olympic/international world. That swim is astronomically so much longer than a sprint race. The bike and run are nearly doubled, but not the swim. I felt that was my barrier in doing long course races in the future, but alas -- I had to settle for a biathlon instead. I figured I could still learn some valuable information from the experience.
They did a time trial start (like they would have done for the swim): 2 riders every 5 seconds. Otherwise releasing 600+ racers would have been chaos -- it was supposed to be 1000 people, but some never showed up and a few hundred left because they didn't want to ride in the rain. I was number 405, so it was a while before I got to go.Because I didn't swim, my body wasn't warmed up for the bike. Same with everyone else. We all started cold. So the beginning was a little stiff for me. I used the first 10 minutes to warm-up and laughed at people who tried to blow right by me within the first 3 miles. I saw most of them again at about mile 10; they were toast. Ha ha ha.
I had to modify my hydration/nutrition plan because of the voided swim. Looking back, I would have done a couple things slightly different. The hills around my house were definitely WAY harder than anything on that course.
The rain was relentless. I had a Cannondale rain jacket on, but it got soaked through. However, it did help a lot for my mental state. While the air temp wasn't cold (66*), then rain itself was. My legs didn't care, but my arms and torso get cold so easily, so I would have defeated myself if I didn't have that jacket. The rain did make it difficult to see things to avoid in the road and I couldn't take turns as fast/hard as I usually do. I saw a few people cross that threshold and fell/slid across the road in turns.
Two huge bowling balls starting growing in the back of my shoulders on the back half of the ride. I tried to charge up hills, but towards the end, my legs would collapse and I'd fall back in my seat. Then 5 seconds later, I'd try again. Cycling is my weakest sport at the moment and it showed.
On the way back to the transition area, we had a no-pass zone behind the courthouse where there were some nasty speed bumps. Most of us went between them. One guy wasn't paying attention and endoed down into a gully where there was a deep creek; poor guy.
It was wet and nasty, but I did it without spilling my guts all over the pavement. Lol.
No jelly legs again! YES! The last 2 years I've struggled with really bad jelly legs and I have not had this problem at all this year in training or races. Score!
BTW, I have not run more than 5 miles since early 2009 (used to run 8 miles on trails regularly in 2007-early 2009); so I have no idea what my normal 10K time would be. Needless to say, I am pleased with my time on this.
On Thursday, I told Doc about my plan to run 9 min and walk 1 min for the 10K. He asked where the aide stations were (beginning, 1.5, 3, 3.5, 5ish) and said, "Just walk through the water stations. You'll be fine." So I went with his plan. Worked rather well. Although, it was more of a running-walk than anything. As usual, mile 2 and mile 4 were my hardest to push through. Always happens for every run! Very annoying.
The run course was on Peachtree City's famous golf cart paths. For those of you who don't realize it, they aren't like little roads. The terrain and style is more like trails in the woods, but they're paved instead of dirt. Constant ups and downs, twists, dodge a tree, etc. Very scenic. The path we used went alongside the back end of the lake; the water was about a foot away from the edge of the lake -- much closer than years past due to the excessive amount of rain this year.
I checked my watch whenever I saw a mile marker sign, but there were only 4 of them. Here were my times that I saw: 1 - 8:16, 2 - 16:40, 3 - 24:08, 4 - 35:55 (WTF?), and finish 52:39.
When we got back to the main road, there was .25 miles left. I had been behind a chick for a while who was obviously fighting quad cramps, but always managed to stay just ahead of me. I didn't really feel like I had anything left in me, but I somehow sped up and passed her (she said, "You make me look like I'm walking!") and I heard her slow to a walk behind me. Didn't mean to demoralize her -- just wanted to pass her. I gave it all I had for the final 50 yards.
My whole body started breaking down the last 1.5 miles or so. Lower back. Psoas. Chest pains. The whole bit. My lower back was fried all day yesterday as a result; even after a hot salt bath, heat packs, Aleve, and a nap, I couldn't walk at all Saturday.
So I finished in 2:27:00. Now I want to see if I can get my 10K under 50 minutes. My bike is what sucks the most. I haven't really made any progress on this sport in the last couple of years. I need to raise my average mph from 16.2 to 17. To reach my goal of finishing a race of this distance in 3 hours, I figure I need to shave at least 7 minutes off my bike/run time. I have 5 weeks to do this. We'll see what happens.
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