Race Report

GULF COAST TRIATHLON

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

Tada! I am happy! It wasn't fast -- in fact much slower than I anticipated but the goal was to complete not to compete and I must say, I enjoyed myself and I will do it again (except next time I'm picking somewhere cooler!)

This event organization is definitely top notch from the pancake breakfast the day before to the post race pasta party. I was quite impressed and felt the entire event was well worth the money.

We arrived Thursday night and I was getting quite excited! We met up with our friend Jack and took a ride on the bike course before dinner. This helped quell my anxieties some regarding the biking portion. Biking is not my favorite sport. Friday morning, Jack and I went for the prerequisite swim. I LOVED that water! You could see all the way to the bottom. It was beautiful!

After another swim with Richard, my husband we laid around a good portion of Friday until we met up with some friends on Friday evening for the pasta dinner. We had two first timers and two experienced Ironmen. The experienced guys were joking around and making light of everything which helped me relax immensely. I have to say I wasn't even nervous. Weirdest thing.

Race morning is here!! I woke up around 4 am and made some coffee. Had an english muffin with peanut butter and started drinking water and gatorade. We grabbed our other first timer and headed out to the start around 5 am.

Now, my friends were making fun of me because I had so much gel taped to my bike (6) and the other first timer thought it was really funny that I had everything all typed out as to what to take and what to do when. So, we got to the transition area for setup and who comes trotting over to borrow stuff but the one who was laughing at me. Hah!

The race:

I wasn't nervous at the start at all which surprised me.

SWIM: The swim took me 43 minutes. I think I could've gone faster but I started way over to the side to avoid getting hit. I wanted to enjoy this race since I figured this might be the only one I ever do. The swim was fun! I thought the turn around was way before it was so that was a bit disappointing but all in all I liked it. I got hit in the face once by a blue cap (that was the young guys they sent out right after us old ladies - I learned to hate them during the swim :) )

Transition 1: When I got to the transition area all the bikes on my rack were gone already which was a bit disappointing (later I remembered that they sent the younger women out before us so that was probably why the bikes were gone already). By this time I really needed to go to the bathroom but kind of forgot about it. Transition took me forever. I don't know what I was doing. It's like I go into dumb when I get there (or maybe I was procrastinating getting on Sa-tan (my bike) -- wondering what he had cooked up for me today). Finally, Sa-tan and I depart the bike area. Richard was there taking pictures and off we went.

BIKE: Well, I have to say I took it QUITE easy on the bike. My average speed was only 15.2. I didn't want to risk not being able to finish. I kept my heart rate low and never let my legs burn. Frankly, the biking portion scared me (It wasn't just me - but me and Sa-tan that had to get through this thing) and I wanted to get it done with no mishaps. I was certainly well hydrated and stayed that way. I had to stop at two porta-potties on the bike route. Sa-tan behaved pretty well for the most part but he didn't care for the uphill on the bridges and kept slipping his chain. Once I had to get off and try to get him into a gear where I could get up the hill. But we made it and I'm proud of him. He did give it his best. We're pretty much suited for each other. :) The bike took me 3:41. Very slow but I didn't care. I think next time though I might push myself a bit on the bike. I used 5 of my 6 gels on the bike portion so I planned the nutrition quite well and took 3 salt tabs that I had taped to my aerobars. It was cool riding by the aid stations and grabbing the bottles of water and gatorade from the volunteers. An irritating factor during the bike were the peletons of guys flying by blatantly drafting until the officials would get near them (drafting is illegal). They seem to take some sort of weird pleasure in passing as close to other bikes as possible. One of our friends (an experienced triathlete) said that one of them actually grabbed the back of his bicycle seat and tried to move him over and almost pushed him into the grass. I wish they would disqualify them on the spot for drafting instead of giving them penalties.

Transition 2: Another SLOW one. This time because I had to use the bathroom -- AGAIN! I had to wait to get into the porta potty in transition and it was DISGUSTING so I just didn't think about it and went anyway but I actually kept thinking about it during the run and wanted to stop and shower somewhere.

RUN: Another photo-op with Richard on the way out and he asked how I was feeling. I felt quite good and knew I had a very hot run ahead of me so put on that mindset. The volunteers were wonderful! There were aid stations every mile (and sometimes even more often). I decided to run between aid stations and then stop and get plenty of water and ice and cool down. I used 4 gels and two salt tabs on the run and drank gatorade at every other stop and water at the others. Dumped a LOT of water over my head and kept my bra and hat stuffed with ice. I looked at my watch at mile 5 and realized I wasn't even doing 12 minute miles with the stops! Tried to speed it up a bit but my HR said nuh uh so I accepted fate and turned in 13 minute miles - ugh! The cool thing was I passed a lot of young studly guys on the run who were walking and trying to stay in the shade. I'm sure there total times were faster than mine but I was happy because I was running the half and not walking it. Ah, life's little moments. :) The run took me 2:49 and I had to stop TWICE to use the bathroom on the run (yep, definitely well hydrated). A Personal Worst for a 1/2 marathon even for this turtle. I had a couple of twinges that threatened during the run but everything stayed at bay. I knew I would finish barring injury and even though I was hot and sometimes miserable I was still having fun. The last turn was quite exciting and I got a bit veklemped. Everybody was telling us just a little bit more! Well, that little bit more was danged hot! The building were blocking the wind and I thought it was going to go on forever.

BUT I made it! Yahooey! I wasn't emotional at that point and threw my arms out at the last minute for the final photo op. Not sure if I did it in time though. Hugged Richard and congratulated my other first timer friend (who came in an hour before me - she's a fast runner and biked faster than me too). Of the two IM guys, one DNF'd with a foot problem and the other came in just ahead of me (of course he started about 35 minutes AFTER me). Our friend Jack, came in just under 7 hours (which is when I was planning on arriving but was 25 minutes late) to place 7th in his 60-65 AG.

So, out of 42 women in my age group my placements were:

32nd overall (oh well)
19th swim (yay!)
34th bike
31st run
Total time: 7:24:54 (1/2 minute faster than the woman who always comes in ahead of me at the local sprint tris :)
) My goal was under 7 hours. Next time!

I told myself that the most important thing for this 1st 1/2 IM was to enjoy it and that is what I did. I felt that I paced myself well and was well hydrated and had plenty of nutrition. I am happy with my swim time and think I could bring it down some more. I know the swim doesn't make THAT much difference in the scheme of things but at least I can do that fairly well.

So, next time I am going to pick a cooler race and push a bit harder on the bike.