So...This is the third year I've done this event. It's the only all-women tri in New Mexico and it's a lot of fun! If you read my last post, you know that I haven't done much training and was pretty much hoping to finish within 5 minutes of my previous times (which were 1 sec apart from each other). Mission accomplished!
Pre Race: I found out that my race number was 118 and that I was starting in wave 3 a few days before the race. Packet pickup went smoothly. The race shirts in the past have been short sleeve technical shirts. This year it's a long sleeve light weight cotton shirt. I like the shirt, but I wish now that I had gotten a large instead of a medium.
Got my stuff all packed up and into the car the night before except for two things: the clothes I would be wearing over there and my bottle of Accelerade, which was in the fridge.
When my alarm went off in the morning, I had coffee and breakfast. Then I fed the dogs and cats. Got dressed and headed off to the race site leaving my bottle of Accelerade behind. Oops.
They were racking by number, so I got all my stuff set up. This is when I realized that I was without hydration (the bottle in the photo belongs to the lady racked next to me). Drat!
A friend of mine had an extra water bottle that she let me borrow, but I was only able to fill it up with water. No electrolytes and no extra calories. Oh well. Not much I could do about it at that point.
Got body marked and found my other friends that were doing the race. All of us are well over 40, but were were out there doing it! It's a reverse tri with a pool swim. Here we are ready to run!
The Run: 32:50, 142 overall (previous: 32:39-2012, 31:13-2011)
It's a hilly run, which my cranky knee doesn't like at all. It is also partly off road and it had rained the night before, so we were running uphill in deep wet sand during part of it. And I had to jump over an area that was washed out. Very "over the river and through the woods" kind of stuff. I'm surprised that my time was only 11 sec slower than last year. I would have guessed it to be off by a minute or more due to lack of hill training because of my knee issues. All things considered, I'm actually okay with this time.
T1: 1:07 (previous: 1:08-2012, 1:28-2011)
It's a really weird T1 due to the reverse nature of the tri. Off with running shoes, cap. On with helmet and bike shoes. I actually practiced transitions on Friday and am happy with how smoothly this went.
The Bike: 46:15, 138 overall (previous: 42:15-2012, 44:00-2011)
I expected my bike time to be somewhere in the middle of the previous two years. However, right after the mid point, I experienced a really bad calf cramp. Similar to a charlie horse in the middle of the night. It was so bad, I couldn't pedal and thought I might not be able to finish the race. I coasted for awhile and tried to get my calf to calm down. Eventually I was able to start pedaling again. However, I lost a lot of time. Not at all happy with how my bike split turned out. But I *am* happy that I was able to finish the race
T2: 1:01 (previous: 1:40-2012, 1:15-2011)
Again, a weird T2 because of it being a reverse. Rack the bike, off with bike shoes, socks, helmet and race number. Grabbed goggles and cap and put them on while heading to the pool. I decided to swim in my shirt so that saved a little time too. Very happy with my T2.
Swim: 10:33, 105 overall (previous: 10:05-2012, 9:51-2011)
Traditionally, the swim is my strongest of the three disciplines. I didn't expect a great swim due to the problems I've been having with my shoulder, but I figured I'd do okay. I'm surprised at how close this was actually given the circumstances; however, I feel like my swim actually would have been on par with previous years if the pool wasn't such a congested mess when I got there (sorry for the language, but a cluster f@ck is truly the best phrase that comes to mind to describe it). It's up and back in each lane and you can only pass at the wall. I felt like there was nowhere to swim for the first half until I finally got past a group of slower women and was able to swim my own pace.
Total: 1:31:44, 130 overall of 251 (previous 1:27:47-2012, 1:27:48-2011)
Well, definitely within 5 minutes of previous and I finished despite a killer calf cramp. So I shouldn't complain. And by finishing, I got the snazzy finisher's bracelet which is very cute!
After thoughts:
This year they offered an aqua-bike which I didn't find out about until after I had already registered. I think I might try that next year so I can avoid running on hills and protect my knee. Plus I'm guessing the swim would be a much less frustrating experience because the aqua-bikers get to the pool faster than the triathletes so it should be much less crowded.
I think the calf cramp may be related to not having my Accelerade - no electrolytes, just water. Not sure though. I've never had that happen before on a bike ride and hope it never happens again! That was not fun.
This is still one of my all time favorite events in New Mexico. Hope to participate again next year!