Dash-Splash-Push Race Report

Hubby and I stopped over at the JCC on Saturday for packet pickup. Packet consisted of a technical t (nice!), race number, 2 week pass to the JCC, and some info on personal training.

While picking up the packet, I learned a few things about the event:
1) That it was a smaller field than expected, so they would have everyone start at one time, vs two waves. No problem.
2) Due to the recent inclement weather, the pushups would be inside in the gym instead of outside by the pool. I guess I always expected them to be inside, but I was glad to find out that we weren't going to be doing them outside in the cold after getting out of the water.

Spent a little time planning what to bring/wear and packed up my new Turtle Club bag. Isn't it the cutest thing? One of the ladies in my run club made these for the returning members from last year. How could that not put a smile on my face? I just love it!

Fast forward to this morning. Arrived at the JCC at about 7:20, got body marked, and made my way to transition area. I had been wondering what transition would look like for such an event. As it turns out, there were rows of chairs eached marked with a race number. Here's mine all set to go.

There was a quick athlete's meeting to explain the run course, etc. We congregated in the parking lot and started with a count of "3-2-1 Go!"

The run course was mostly off road on some dirt along side of an arroyo. The out portion was uphill toward the mountains. Aye carumba! I had been expecting a flat course, but instead we had an uphill climb for about one mile. I was able to pass a few fellow back-of-the-packers who stopped to walk the uphill portion. Thank you, hill repeats.

What comes up must come down, so that meant downhill after we turned. Ahhhh. Much nicer. Then we ran through the the parking lot and around a grassy field and were done.

I don't know how well I did with capturing splits with my watch, but my watch says 30:22 for the run. Bleh. I was hoping for something closer to 29:00. Oh well.

Off with the jacket, race number, hat, shoes, socks. On with the swim cap and goggles. And over to the pool. My watch says :38 for transition. Really?!? That surprises me in a good way. It felt slower because I struggled a little with my swim cap and shoes.

Hopped in the pool and started making my way up and back and over as directed. Passed one person in the first lane. Passed another in lane three. Passed one more in lane five. Sweet!

My watch says 6:39 for the 300yd swim. This works out to 2:13 per 100. Not great, but not too shabby either. I'm happy with my swim.

At this point the time was stopped. My watch says 37:47, but the official time should be a little less because I stopped my watch after I got out of the water whereas they stopped it when I touched the ladder. In any event, I put in a good effort and was exhausted and breathing pretty hard when I was done.

But I wasn't quite done yet. Still had to get over to the push-up station. We had to 15 minutes from swim exit to do our pushups, otherwise the pushups wouldn't count. That was enough time to gather my belongings, put on some sweat pants, put on shoes and socks, and use the rest room.

The pushup station was a bit intimidating because we had to stand in line, watching others as they did their pushups. There were two lines. I picked a line that several women in it. And watched as they cranked out pushups. One lady did over 60! Holy smokes! As for me, I only managed 26 before collapsing. Oh well. That's not as many as I hoped for, but respectable enough not to be embarrassing.

Each pushup is worth 2 seconds, so those 26 pushups bought me 52 seconds, bringing my finish time down to 36:55 by my watch.

All in all, I'd have to say that this was a fun little event to mix things up and get re-energized. I'll definately consider doing this one again if they have it next year!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, folks!