RACE DAY! I couldn't sleep last night at all. I kept waking up and worrying about the race today, mostly about whether or not it was going to rain in the middle of it. I got up at 4am, and got dressed and ready to go. Brigid showed up and we headed down to the University. It was COLD. I know I have turned into a weather weenie, but it was very cold (40 degrees and a 15mph wind). I got body marked and set up my transition, and got an end spot for my bike, which is my favorite space to be.



The race started late, and I was in wave 3, so we didn't get into the water until 7:31am. I actually remembered to start my watch too! I felt like I just couldn't get going during the swim, but I did do 8 flip turns -- and that was my goal for this race: to do at least one flip turn. I stopped doing them when I flipped too soon and almost missed the wall entirely. Finally it was time to get out -- one of the TriGirls helped me out here, since I was having difficulty with heaving myself up onto the deck. Not pretty. As I was throwing my right leg up on the deck, I got a whopper of a charley horse in my right hamstring. It was horrible -- the pain!! And I was right there in lane 10, where everyone was hanging out watching the race. There is nothing like a public display to make the day go better, right?



I shuffled out to transition and made it to my bucket and sat down. The charley horse finally started to fade as I put my helmet on. I headed out of transition and got on the bike without mishap, remembered to turn on my bike computer, and pedaled off. It was cold. And very windy. And did I mention cold? I got going and made it through the first and second loops and then finally to the third one. I passed a couple of people on each loop, and some of them passed me back -- mostly on Euclid since it is the worst road in the universe. My max speed for the bike course was 24.8mph, and my average speed was 16.6mph. (In the video below -- filmed by Brigid -- I was doing about 23mph.) I had been hoping to do better, but I guess it isn't bad considering that I was frozen to the seat, that every time my legs went around I had to break the ice that had accumulated, and there was a 15mph headwind. I made it back into transition and made it safely back to my rack.








As a side note, I couldn't believe how many people were wiping out on the bike out and the bike in section of transition. It was horrible to see -- it was as if there was a curse. If you paid more than $4000 for your bike, you were going down!! I had finished my race and was in transition watching the people going out and coming in and it was uncanny. The more expensive the bike, the more likely it was that the person riding it was going to screw up either mounting or dismounting and go down like a ton of bricks. I saw some spectacular falls. It wasn't raining yet either -- the ground was totally dry. No one seemed to be injured and I was very glad that I hadn't fallen.



I whipped off my bike shoes, pulled on my running shoes, grabbed my hat and race belt and RAN (yes I did - not jogged) out of transition. I made it about 200yards, and then walked. I did run from time to time, but there was no set pattern to it. I also ran to the finish line. My total time today, since I actually wore my HR monitor, was 1:52:17. I had been hoping for a 1:46, but this is ok. I burned 1434 calories, and my average HR for the race was 153 (85%) and my high HR was 176 (98%). My bike computer says that my bike split was 41:11 -- a little bit slower than the last time I did this race as a relay (when I did a 39 minute bike split). I would have liked to be a little faster this time, but I guess I will have to wait until October!